Florida Gators head coach Jon Sumrall has opened up on the team's quarterback situation.
When the Florida Gators lost quarterback DJ Lagway to the transfer portal, they knew they needed to act quickly.
But instead of landing one of the top players available at the position, Jon Sumrall went out and acquired former Georgia Tech signal-caller Aaron Philo.
Philo has very limited experienced, but with Yellow Jackets offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner now coming over to Gainesville, the fit made sense.
There has been some debate as to whether or not Philo or Tramell Jones Jr. will start for Florida next season, but while speaking to reports on Saturday, Sumrall made it fairly clear that Philo is the frontrunner.
"Buster had extreme confidence in him. As I did my homework, I think the place he was at, they didn't want him to leave,'' Sumrall said. "There's a lot of people there who felt like he was ready to be the starter there, and I trust our offensive coordinator to make the call."
Philo made eight appearances and just one start during his time at Georgia Tech, totaling 938 yards, a couple of touchdowns and three interceptions while completing 57.8 percent of his passes. He also carried the ball 16 times for 95 yards and a score.
Aaron Philo. Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images.Sumrall, who noted he has been paying attention to Philo since the Bogart, Ga. product was in high school, doesn't seem bothered by Philo's lack of experience.
"And I go back to past experiences," Sumrall explained. "We started Darian Mensah my first year at Tulane, and he had never taken a collegiate snap. I got it, it's the American Conference and not the SEC, right? So, they're a little bit different. But man, if you've got the right guy, sometimes I think experience can be oversold. There's a lot of guys that are experienced who are not very good."
Based on Sumrall's comments, it seems fairly obvious that Philo will be the starter come opening day next fall. Or, at the very least, he has a very significant edge over Jones, who just completed his freshman campaign with the Gators.
Whether or not Philo actually pans out remains to be seen, but the fact that Florida ignored some of the bigger names in the transfer portal indicates that Sumrall feels pretty good about his redshirt sophomore quarterback.
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