The Florida Gators walked off the field on Saturday with a disappointing loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks. It was the second straight defeat for a team with College Football Playoff aspirations.
It wasn't that the Gators were thoroughly outplayed by the Gamecocks, but three turnovers, untimely mistakes, and big plays all seemed to go in favor of the visitors in the 38-19 defeat.
Head coach Jon Sumrall admitted on Monday that despite the 4-0 start and big win over the No. 4 Ole Miss Rebels, the Gators were by no means a finished product.
"Obviously not good enough by us on Saturday," Sumrall said. "We're a work in progress. Sometimes that progress is dysfunctional, and we have a long way to go to get to where we need to be as a football team."
That's not to make excuses, because Sumrall has been clear that he wasn't pleased with some of the effort, preparation, and focus needed to win every week in the SEC. He emphasized that message on Monday.
"Full disclosure, I probably hit on a few more things with each side of the ball directly, just to try to make sure that I'm being engaged with each side of the football the right way to help them see the vision that we have for how we want to play football here," Sumrall said.
The good news for the Gators is that they don't have to wait long to try to get the bad taste of Saturday's game against the Gamecocks out of their mouth. Florida has the early game on Saturday and will kick off against the No. 7 Texas Longhorns at Noon EST on ABC.
Sumrall is pleased with how his team received his message, but that doesn't minimize the challenge in Austin.
"The guys were great this morning in meetings with corrections and taking ownership. We're trying to lay a foundation of how we want this to look moving forward. We've got a lot of work to do, but guys have had the right demeanor, the right mindset as we started this new week," Sumrall said.
The Longhorns are heavy favorites in this one, coming off their loss to Oklahoma on Saturday.
"Tremendous challenge in Texas, very talented team," Sumrall said. "It's all over the tape when you watch it. They got great players in every facet, and they're well-coached, and to go on the road is never easy. So we'll have to handle that well, but excited about getting back to work and moving forward."
On Saturday the focus will be on the Texas Longhorns. For now, though, Sumrall is focused internally on getting his team to understand what it takes to play Florida Gators football.
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