Jon Sumrall leaves Austin with a W over the Longhorns. (Via University of Florida Athletics)
Written by Chris McLean / October 30, 2026
It always felt like this was the game.
This was the most important one to the Gators season.
Not beating a top five Ole Miss coming off a huge win of LSU. Nor was it beating a top ten Texas team in Austin.
This game was it.
Jon Sumrall walked into Florida's Heavener Center in December of last year and was undaunted about the task at hand. But he always gave weight to this game. "Florida-Georgia is different. Anybody that says otherwise is insane."
Gator fans had to deal with ineptitude behind the wheel for far too long. Billy Napier, who is showing his ass at James Madison (literally last night), gave Kirby Smart 4 easy wins that tallied 8 of 9 in Georgia's favor in the past decade.
Dark times as a Gator fan.
Most of my life, Florida dominated the Florida-Georgia series. Spurrier and Urban hardly ever lost to the Bulldogs. It wasn't until Muschamp came to Gainesville, did Georgia win in consecutive years. It's not surprising that Georgia fans in their 40s and 50s despise the Gators with a passion. They were beat down so often that they just wrote the game off as a loss.
College football is cyclical. Teams that once ruled the roost are now down in the dirt. As well as the opposite being true. Things are never permanent. Indiana was the losingest program in the history of the sport and now they've lost only 3 games in three seasons.
Sumrall is aware of the expectations. Gator fans won't let him forget it.
But he welcomes it. He doesn't shy away from a fan base as ravenous for a winner as there is in college football.
He wants Florida to get back to the highs of the 90s and 00s, when the Gators were winning SEC titles and where playing for national championships was routine.
And to get back to where they were, it all starts with beating Georgia.
The Bulldogs have been to nearly every SEC championship game since 2017. Atlanta used to be a Gator fans birthright.
Funny thing is this is the last year of conference championship games. Will it go out being the Bulldogs' territory or an homage to the Gator greatness of yore?
That's for a later discussion.
As of this weekend, Florida will look to counter their recent luck in this rivalry. VBIII is slated to play, how effective he will be is still TBD. Eric Singleton seems near 100%. Both Philo and Jones are dinged up, but Philo is getting the nod.
If Sumrall wants to bring back the swagger that Spurrier imbued on the sidelines and throughout Gator Nation, winning in Atlanta against Georgia will go a long way.
It was always this game. And I freakin' love it.
