Florida’s Quarterback Dilemma: How Do First-Time D1 Starters Perform in SEC?
Florida’s quarterback battle between Tramell Jones Jr. and Aaron Philo raises some questions for the 2026 season. Both showed promise throughout spring camp. However, both would be first-time starters, so how often do first-time Division I signal callers prosper in one of college football’s most competitive divisions?
Here’s how some recent inaugural SEC starters performed:
Just last season, Ty Simpson contributed to Alabama’s College Football Playoff run, ending his first season as the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback with 3,567 yards, 28 touchdowns and only five interceptions.
His playoff started hot with a first-round 34-24 win against Oklahoma. However, Heisman trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, alongside the eventual national champion Indiana Hoosiers, thwarted Simpson and the Crimson Tide’s national championship ambitions with a 38-3 blowout in the Rose Bowl.
Another example: The Cinderella playoff run Ole Miss had after coach Lane Kiffin’s departure weighed primarily on the emergence of Trinidad Chambliss, who stepped in for Austin Simmons after an injury in Week 3. Chambliss transferred to Ole Miss after a stint in Division II with the Ferris State Bulldogs, where he threw for 2,925 yards, 26 touchdowns and six interceptions. There’s a drastic difference between DII and the SEC, which raised skepticism about how Ole Miss would perform down the stretch.
That skepticism departed once Chambliss won nine of his next 10 games, leading the SEC in passing yards with 3,937. Chambliss’s season brought the Rebels to the CFP, where they beat current Florida coach Jon Sumrall’s Tulane squad in the first round, upset SEC-champion Georgia in the second round and took national championship runner-up Miami to the limit before falling 31-27.
Kentucky’s Cutter Boley also played his first full season in the SEC last season, finishing 4-7, which included a 38-7 win against Florida. Boley totaled 2,160 yards through the air, 15 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. An improvement compared to UK’s previous quarterback, Brock Vandagriff, who had 1,593 yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions in similar playing time.
Boley has since transferred to Arizona State and is now competing for the starting job under the tutelage of coach Kenny Dillingham, who’s helped the likes of Bo Nix, Jordan Travis and Sam Leavitt blossom into some of the sport’s stars.
And this trend of first-time starters performing in the SEC isn’t limited to last year.
Before Kyle Trask became a Heisman finalist in 2020, he was an unproven backup, making his first SEC start after Feleipe Franks suffered a season-ending injury against Kentucky in 2019. Once landing the job, he never looked back, beating rival Tennessee 34-3 in his first start. Trask ended the year with 2,941 passing yards and 25 touchdowns in only 10 games. Trask and the Gators capped the season with an Orange Bowl victory against Virginia.
In 2024, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers went down with an injury against UTSA, prompting Arch Manning to take the mantle of starting quarterback for the next few games. After Manning’s four-touchdown opening performance, he won the next two games as a starter, one of which was a conference game against Mississippi State, where he completed 83% of his passes in beating the Bulldogs 35-13.
The promise Manning showed in the 2024 season carried over to 2025. Last season, Manning emerged as a prospect to watch with 3,163 yards (sixth in the SEC), 26 touchdowns (third in the SEC) and only seven interceptions, en route to notable wins against Texas A&M and Oklahoma, both of which made CFP appearances.
So while the starting quarterback for Florida remains a mystery, the trends of previous first-time starters may show some promise for whoever Sumrall chooses as Florida’s next quarterback.
Category: College Football, Football, Gators Football
