Florida to Start 19-Year-Old Tramell Jones Jr. Against Texas

But about an hour ago, another interesting announcement was made by the University of Florida. And it looks like they have a quarterback change there, Joe. And a player, I believe his name is Trammell Jones or Trammell Jones. And he is going to make his first career start for the Gators as one of the youngest starters in the history of the University of Florida. He is 19 years old, Joe, and he will play against Texas. There is certainly reasoning behind it is that Aaron Philo was hurt. There are some that are saying, Joe, that maybe this is a Wally Pipps situation for those who are unclear. Or, you know, I should use the more modern Bledsoe-Brady situation where if this kid plays well, Joe, maybe they just run with him the rest of the season. Florida has lost their last two games. They haven't played well defensively. They haven't run the ball as well. This is a four-star recruit from Jacksonville. Joe, 19 years old, making his first career collegiate start tomorrow afternoon. It's funny, Greg, because there was a serious, with Sumrall coming in, the new head coach. These two, Philo and him, battled it out right up until the very end. It wasn't like Philo was given the job and this kid because this kid. It was a coin toss on who was actually going to win the job all throughout August, uh all throughout the spring uh meeting so this is a kid that was neck and neck with him and Sumrall ended up going with Philo now yeah it looked great when you've got Jordan Boh that's actually uh Jordan Boh running all over the place but when he's not uh Philo's not the guy or at least he has not been that guy that can lead them and they have world-class wide receivers on the University of Florida uh Vernon I think is back this week they got Wilson they've got guys that are fantastic he's not exactly been that guy to find them so i wouldn't yes he's young at 19 but he was this close to being the starter for the University of Florida uh and now he's going to be put into that position and i think you're right i think it's very much a good shot uh that philo if he has a game especially this game if he's able to go there and out duel uh arch manning who, let's face it, at this point is not going to be that difficult, and snap a two-game losing streak, this kid will win that locker room in big fashion, and that will be the end of philo. I don't know how committed they were to him anyway. He had a couple of good days there, and Summerall just felt, because he was a little bit older, that he was the guy to go with. Okay, great. Well, it hasn't worked out exactly great over the last couple of weeks. Why not give this kid a shot? But I'll tell you this, they still need to figure out how to run the ball. You got to get Jaden Ball back in running the ball against this Texas team. And as sure as I'm sitting, and you talked about wind, 20-mile-an-hour winds, we're going to be talking about a kickoff tomorrow there in Austin. So somebody, and this kid can run too, by the way, John. So I would look for a different type of Gators effort in this game against Texas. And you know this, right? The best thing to do when you lose back-to-back home games is get the hell out of Dodge. Get out of the slump and go where, you know, you don't have to deal with the crowd and everything. Go there. Sometimes it's great to be the enemy. But I can tell you this, a third loss for Florida, boy, that Summerall didn't think he was going to be in that situation. And neither did I, to tell you the truth. I hope we see a different effort tomorrow by the Gators because a win against Texas puts them right back into the conversation here for an SEC champion. Their schedule doesn't get much easier, but they'll play the teams that they have to in order to be able to advance. Fingers crossed. I think going into the season, the expectations were not super high. You know, any quarterback play would have been better, with all due respect to DJ Lagway, who was just so bad for the games. I mean, like, literally as bad as it gets. I can't believe that he's playing. I think he's playing better now. Baylor, maybe? Baylor. I think he's actually been okay, which is shocking to me. And I think Philo was an upgrade by default. It's just like, this guy's not throwing five picks in a game. So, okay. So, this is better. But, Joe, the thing, at least for me watching the Gators, and I think it's going to apply to tomorrow's game, I don't think it matters who's at quarterback for Florida because their defense has been so bad. They're just not stopping anyone. They didn't stop Missouri. They didn't stop South Carolina. and if Arch Manning throws for 300 yards and they score five touchdowns tomorrow, the Gators are going to lose no matter who's at quarterback. So that kind of reared its head a little bit against Mississippi because the Gators won that game. It was maybe their biggest home win in years. But you kind of saw, like, they really didn't stop Mississippi either and it did come down to the end of the game. And if this is the way they're going to play all season long, they're going to get bit. And then they go to Missouri, they get bit. I thought they would win against South Carolina, though. I was like, okay, you lost to Missouri, looking ahead a little. Now you lost to South Carolina. What does this game mean in the end? It means three losses, no SEC championship, no college football playoff. Everything is out. It doesn't mean the Gators can't have a better season than they had last year because their last year's season was just so brutal. But if they want to stay in the mix and stay relevant and maybe jump back in the top 25 eventually, which ain't going to happen this week, But if they beat Texas, then maybe a win against Georgia or a win against Florida State puts you back in that conversation.