After back-to-back losses, coach Jon Sumrall tries to get Gators to tackle adversity

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Trailing 17-10 at halftime against South Carolina, Florida coach Jon Sumrall felt an unsettling vibe in the locker room.

“You would have thought somebody’s dog died,” Sumrall recalled. “It’s like, ‘Man, we lost.’”

It gave Sumrall a glimpse of what’s been happening in Gainesville for years: the Gators simply haven’t handled adversity well. One defensive breakdown tends to devolve into a deluge of mistakes. One offensive miscue typically leads to more issues, eventually becoming too much to overcome. One loss turns into two — or three or four.

It’s a trend that Sumrall inherited and one he hopes to end when Florida (4-2, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) plays at No. 7 Texas (4-1, 1-1) on Saturday. The Longhorns are 10 1/2-point favorites.

“In this league, in the NFL, the higher levels you go in football, one-possession football games, that’s where you live a lot of times,” Sumrall said. “It’s always going to be nip and tuck and tight games, and you have to fight until the finish, and it doesn’t matter if you’re up or down.”

The Gators responded repeatedly in wins against Auburn and Mississippi last month, answering every score the Tigers and Rebels put on the board with points of their own. But Florida never trailed in either game.

The last two outings — losses to Missouri and South Carolina — were different. The Gators trailed at halftime in both games and really struggled at the end of the second quarters and early in the thirds, getting outscored 27-0 over those spans.

“We’ve been through it, and we don’t want to go through that again,” linebacker Myles Graham said. “It’s very hard not to get down on yourself and be like, ‘Oh, here we go again.’ It’s hard, but you have to be countercultural and just respond.

“That really shows who you are more than like we’re winning or when we’re undefeated. … How do you respond when things are going bad?”

Several problems have contributed to Florida's freefall. The Gators are getting handled on both lines of scrimmage, leading to few running lanes for Jadan Baugh and not enough pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Cornerbacks Ben Hanks III and Cormani McClain have mostly struggled in coverage and the offense hasn’t been at full strength at receiver since the season opener, with Vernell Brown III (knee) and Eric Singleton Jr. (ankle) missing two games each.

“We’ve gotten out of whack,” offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said. “We got to find a way to get that back, and that starts with me, our staff, getting our guys going. But I have full confidence that we’re going to be able to get this thing rolling back in the right direction.”

The Gators were the talk of the SEC after beating then-No. 4 Ole Miss three weeks ago. They were scoring at will — averaging 53.5 points a game — and had started to promote Baugh as a Heisman Trophy candidate.

But Florida’s swift rise was followed by an even faster drop. They got outscored 83-36 combined in consecutive losses and looked out of sorts on both sides of the ball, reminiscent of Florida’s previous regime.

Can Sumrall get the Gators off their rollercoaster ride?

“There is something to that,” he said. “There is a belief, a confidence, an intestinal fortitude of like, ‘I’m going to fight 'til the finish. Don’t even care about what the scoreboard says,’” Sumrall said.

“We’ll get there, but it’s been problematic, and it’s been something I’ve recognized. It’s not been a part of my past because the teams I’ve had in my past, it doesn’t matter where we play, when we play, we’re going to play parking lot football. We’re going to scrap to the end, and that’s an area we have to grow.”

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