The most confounding college football team in America is officially Jon Sumrall's Florida Gators. A banged up Gator team went on the road to face Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns. Despite losing to Oklahoma in the Red River last week, Texas was an 11.5-point favorite against a reeling Gator team.
Florida had dropped back-to-back games to Missouri and fell to a three-loss South Carolina team at home. Having to start backup quarterback in Tramell Jones Jr., Florida went into Austin and pulled off a huge upset over Texas, winning 27-24 for its second top-10 win of what was thought to be a slow build in Jon Sumrall's first season in Gainesville. It is the first time since 2018 the Gators have beaten two Top-10 teams.
The win gives Florida its second win over Texas in two seasons, and is evidence of what's been a roller coaster season for the Gators.
BENDER: Has Florida knocked Texas out of the CFP again?
Florida's upset over Texas the latest in roller-coaster season for Gators
Florida entered this game dealing with a slew of injuries. Running back Noah Clark was ruled out, and the Gators were dealing with injuries to starting quarterback Aaron Philo, as well as to receivers Vernell Brown III and Bailey Stockton.
In place of Philo, Florida turned to backup Tramell Jones Jr., who had thrown for two interceptions in back-to-back losses before this game. But Jones took the reins and thrived, throwing for 155 yards and two touchdowns and adding another 41 yards on the ground.
In the first half, it was all Texas, as the Longhorns had two scoring drives to take a 10-0 lead. The Longhorns led 17-3 after a punt return for a touchdown by Ryan Niblett. But Jones managed to lead a nine-play 59-yard touchdown to make it a one-score game at halftime.
Arch Manning tried to make things interesting late, leading a six-play 75-yard touchdown drive to make it s 27-24 game with just over two minutes left. His best throw of the day came on a 4th-and-7 bomb that helped set up the score:
Arch Manning hits Mosley to keep Texas in it pic.twitter.com/H6AQDUkQmf
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) October 17, 2026Texas' defense forced a Gator three-and-out to give Manning the ball back with 2:27 left But Florida's defense put the game away with a strip-sack fumble on Manning that sealed a Gator upset win:
— Reason (@the_real_reason) October 17, 2026Jones became the first backup quarterback to win a road game in his first start at Florida since Jesse Palmer did so in 1997, leading the Gators to an upset win over No. 6 Auburn. The Gators held Manning to 173 yards and sacked him five times.
Florida's roller-coaster of a season has been a thing to watch. The Gators burst on the scene with a dominant 52-38 victory over then-No. 4 Ole Miss at home in Week 4, which vaulted Florida into the top-10. The next week, Florida fell flat against an unranked Missouri on the road, losing 45-17, and was held to just 42 rush yards on the day.
Things didn't get much better the next week for Florida, taking on a South Carolina team that entered 0-3 in SEC play. The Gators were dominated from start to finish in front of a Homecoming crowd, losing 38-19.
After the victory, first-year head coach Sumrall, spoke about the up-and-down season his team has had:
"We played about as awful as we could in the first quarter," Sumrall told ABC. "And we kept fighting. And we didn't do that the last couple weeks, to be quite honest with you. When things got tough, we flinched the last couple weeks. Our team grew today without the win. Just grew because we fought."
Florida now gets a bye before facing No. 1 Georgia, a bitter rival the Gators haven't beaten since 2020.
Given how this season has gone for Florida, who knows how that game will go. But if the Gators play like they did against Texas, this team absolutely has a chance.
