For all that’s been made about Jon Sumrall retaining all the talent he did from the 2025 Gators football team, Sumrall knew all along that retaining top talent simply wasn’t going to be good enough.
Sumrall knows the state of this Gators football program. He knows that Florida just fired its worst football coach in 80 years after a fourth consecutive underwhelming season. So he amassed his staff, did some evaluations, and hit the portal– and hard.
The result was a wealth of transfer gets, ranging from respectable to the jackpot. But that, of course, is just the expectation. Expectations can be broken, even shattered, leaving the pre-production low level of hype looking foolish among those who even remember it.
Here are the five who seem likely to make the biggest impact in 2026:
Aaron Philo: The Future Starts at Quarterback
I mean it has to start with the QB, right?
Florida does have a quasi-incumbent here as Tramell Jones played one half of ball against Long Island last year, but this seems to be Philo’s job for now. The Georgia Tech QB is known for his quick decision-making, accuracy, and confidence in the pocket. Just ask North Carolina State about that.
We saw a few years ago with Graham Mertz that you don’t need to have a Heisman Trophy candidate at the controls to win games. For as offensively challenged and… well, dumb as Billy Napier was, Mertz was able to thrive with just enough protection and above-average skill position guys. Philo is a little different than Mertz, but like Mertz, does well with short and intermediate balls.
All Philo has to do to win games at Florida is hit all his short passes, most of his intermediate passes and one or two deep balls per game. Maybe three at absolute most. That’s it. Because Aaron Philo wasn’t brought in here to fling deep balls all over the yard like Tom Brady or even like DJ Lagway.
Poise, consistent good decision making, and good facilitation of Buster Faulkner’s offense will be more than enough for him
Harrison Moore: The Offensive Line’s Anchor
Of course, Philo succeeding or failing will have a lot to do with this guy’s performance.
Perhaps Harrison Moore’s biggest strength is the experience he brings from Georgia Tech. Specifically, he led a GT offensive line that was among the nation’s elite in pass protection. During the 2025 season, the Yellow Jackets surrendered just nine sacks in 13 games, an average of 0.69 sacks allowed per game. That remarkable figure ranked third among all FBS programs and first in the ACC, showcasing a unit that consistently kept its quarterback clean against some of the nation’s top defensive fronts.
It’s not just in pass pro that Moore thrives, either. He had a lot to do with the Yellow Jackets finishing 22nd in the FBS with 197.5 yards per game on the ground last year.
Known for immediately detecting certain defensive disguises, Moore is both the brains and the brawn of Florida’s front. He stands 6’4, 300 and physically held his own with the likes of Georgia and Miami a year ago. Replacing Jake Slaughter won’t be easy, but if you have to try, you could do a lot worse than a multi-year contributor for a Power 4 team and last year’s starting center on a Joe Moore semifinalist line unit.
It’s pretty simple: if Harrison Moore adjusts seamlessly to the SEC, it will be a good year for the Gators football program. If not? Jon Sumrall will struggle in his maiden voyage.
Eric Singleton Jr.: Gators football’s most dangerous weapon
Then there’s the pure, raw explosive power you just can’t teach.
Florida fans were probably sad to see Tre Wilson go this offseason. But for all the exhilarating things he could do in the open field, he never stayed healthy enough to do them with any consistency. So Florida went and upgraded with one of the few guys in college football with even more big-play ability than Wilson.
Known for his blazing speed and explosive playmaking ability, Eric Singleton has the potential to stretch defenses out. Opponents will have to account for him on every play, creating opportunities for the other guys on the offense. With even decently thrown deep balls, Singleton requires a defensive game plan to cover every square inch of the field.
Watching his highlights from Auburn, there’s zero doubt what he’s capable of. The elite speed, the danger he presents after the catch, his ability to take the top off the defense, and his potential to make plays on special teams are all coming with him to Gainesville. So in theory, this is guaranteed to be a huge weapon for the Gators football offense that produces in a big way.
But from having watched Florida for as long as we have, we know there’s no such thing as a guarantee. Health, chemistry with the QB and other stuff I’m not even going to put out into the atmosphere are always more than zero percent likely.
If Eric Singleton does what I expect him to do? This Florida offense will be a problem for opponents. If he doesn’t? The offense will probably struggle.
DJ Coleman: Bringing Playmaking to the Gators football Secondary
Turnovers often separate good defenses from great ones. To force them, you’ll need a mixture of fundamentally sound defenses that can execute complex and sometimes even tricky assignments and players who just have a nose for the football.
In DJ Coleman, Florida has both.
Coleman gives this Gators football team another athletic defensive back capable of making plays on the football at various spots all around the field. His versatility allows Florida to disguise coverages while matching up against modern SEC passing attacks. He should be expected to line up all around the middle and back levels of the Gator defense at different times, and he brings a heat-seeking missile mentality toward the football from any of those starting points.
Asking around (along with, reading publicly available articles that talk about it) I learned something about Coleman. The guy likes to hit people. He likes to send the message that picking up yardage against his team’s defense is something he takes personally, and he believes the punishment for that personal affront should be a vicious, legal-within-the-confines-of-the-rules wallop.
That bodes very well for a guy who’s naturally very quick, has a high football IQ, and uses both those traits to cover a lot of ground. He forced a fumble, picked off a pair of passes and batted away four more passes a year ago at Baylor; if Florida opponents try to avoid him as much as I think they will, he probably replicates those stats this year as a classic example of why defensive stats don’t always tell the whole story.
And of course, if he does his job well, the door opens for his teammates to make things happen as well.
Emmanuel Oyebadejo: Adding Juice to the Gators football defense’s Pass Rush
The SEC is filled with elite quarterbacks, making pass rush one of the most valuable assets any defense can possess.
Emmanuel Oyebadejo brings length, athleticism, and relentless effort to Florida’s defensive front. Whether he’s lining up as a defensive end or edge rusher, his ability to pressure opposing quarterbacks could serve as a single point of failure for any offensive game plan. That’s good news for Florida, which lost Tyrell Sapp and George Gumbs to the NFL and created a need for someone like Oyebadejo and his endless motor to come to town.
The most attention-grabbing thing about him is that, at least by trade, he’s not even a football player. He grew up playing soccer and basketball in England, before the British University of Exeter’s budding football (American version) program recruited him to play for them. He promptly exploded onto the scene and was poached by newly-minted FBS member Jacksonville State, where he generated 4.5 sacks last year, forced a pair of fumbles, and swatted away five passes.
The excitement here stems from the fact that he’s still got so much room to grow. He’s been doing all this with pure natural ability as he learns the finer points of the sport. Place him under the tutelage of Gerald Chatman, and let’s see how he develops in 2026. If he takes that leap forward in the technique department, he could be the SEC’s next breakout star.
