Tramell Jones Jr. shines in spring drills, outperforming transfer Aaron Philo. Will the emerging leader ignite Florida's offense or signal a long season?
Aaron Philo appeared to have the advantage in the quarterback battle at Florida this spring.
Philo transferred to the Gators from Georgia Tech, coming over with offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner.
Philo was battling Tramell Jones Jr. for the starting job after DJ Lagway transferred to Baylor.
It appeared Jones has emerged as the impressive quarterback coming out of spring football.
Brad Crawford of CBS Sports suggested Jones looked like the better quarterback this spring.
"Philo and Jones each had two touchdown passes during Florida's final spring scrimmage, but it was Jones who played turnover-free football," Crawford wrote. "Jones moved the pocket on one of his scoring tosses to Auburn transfer Eric Singleton Jr. on a perfectly executed corner route.
"More of that is needed from both competing quarterbacks for a Gators team looking to make a splash offensively this season with one of the deepest wideout rooms in the SEC."
Florida head coach Jon Sumrall didn't name who he thinks had the better spring, but he does think there is one leader emerging before training camp.
"But both guys have done some good things," Sumrall said. "I think that room’s done good things as a whole. I’ll sit down with all those guys on Monday and have a really transparent conversation about, 'Hey, after 15 practices, this is where we are.'
"I'll talk to them about, 'Hey, if we had to play a game next week, this is probably what it would look like.' I won’t make an announcement because we don’t play here next week... So nothing’s decided yet."
Regardless of whether Philo or Jones earns the job, it's unclear if the QB1 will be a game changer for the Gators this fall. Most college quarterback rankings among analysts have Florida near the bottom of the conference.
The Gators need other positions to step up to make a difference this fall. The strength for the offense is in the backfield and at receiver. The offensive line has yet to figure out a starting combination.
Then there's the defense. Sumrall will need to get the defense to play physical football if he hopes to make a turnaround in 2026.