Despite a surprising betting line favoring the Gators, coach Jon Sumrall rejects the underdog narrative, demanding disciplined play to upset the playoff-tested Rebels in Gainesville this Saturday.
On the heels of a 44-39 victory on the road against Auburn in its season opener, the Florida Gators entered ranked territory before Week 4.
The No. 21 Gators will host No. 4 Ole Miss on Saturday afternoon on a game televised on ABC at 3:30 ET. The Rebels are coming off a huge 32-24 victory over then-No. 7 LSU on Saturday.
After an emotionally charged game in Oxford on Saturday night, Ole Miss could suffer a letdown in Gainesville on Saturday. At least Vegas thinks so. Per ESPN, Florida is a 3.5-point favorite over Ole Miss.
After hearing the Rebels were the underdog, Florida head coach Jon Sumrall quickly shut down the hype for his 3-0 Gators with a joke during his news conference on Monday.
“Who has us favored against these guys?" Sumrall said, via a video posted to X by SEC Mike. “There’s a lot of good drugs out there, huh?”
Sumrall praised the Ole Miss program and said Florida would have to play better than they did against Auburn, when they committed 16 penalties, to beat the Rebels.
"Last week’s performance will not cut it against the outfit we’re getting ready to play," Sumrall said, via hottytoddy.com. "I have a lot of respect for Ole Miss. They’re a really good football team. They went 13-2 last year, went to the College Football Playoff semifinals, and have a lot of the same returning cast in many spots.
"They’re well-coached and talented. It’s a huge challenge. We need a great home-field advantage on Saturday. I think we’ll have an awesome crowd. I can’t wait to see our fan base. But our guys have to get ready to play a lot better football, or we’re going to be really disappointed with the outcome this week because last week’s performance will not win this week."
The Gators have shown improvements during the first three weeks. There is good reason to believe Florida can make Saturday's game a contest against the No. 4 team in the country.
Still, the Gators will have to find ways to defend Trinidad Chambliss, which won't be an easy task as LSU learned in Week 3.
