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Florida Gators Quarterbacks Will Be MOST IMPROVED Position Group in 2026

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Florida Gators poised for a breakout year—are improved quarterbacks and revamped defense the secret weapons for 2026? Brandon Olsen spotlights the most improved position groups, starting with the quarterback battle between Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones, and evaluates how even game-manager level play could provide a significant upgrade over DJ Lagway’s challenging 2025 campaign. New offensive strategies might mean a smoother ride under center, but will it be enough to elevate Florida’s SEC fortunes?

 

Defensively, the Gators’ safety group gets a major boost with Bryce Thornton’s consistency, DJ Coleman’s arrival from Baylor, and incoming talent like Cam Dooley. On the defensive line, Kam James steps into a starting role, joined by rising prospects LJ McCray and Emmanuel Oyebadejo, while a more aggressive Brad White scheme promises a disruptive front. Could these upgrades transform Florida into true SEC contenders?

 

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Florida Gators Quarterbacks Will Be MOST IMPROVED Position Group in 2026


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Florida Gators Quarterbacks Will Be MOST IMPROVED Position Group in 2026

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Locked On Gators - Daily Podcast On Florida Gators AthleticsFlorida Gators Quarterbacks Will Be MOST IMPROVED Position Group in 2026. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Introducing the all-new Mazda CX-5, featuring more connection. Hey, Google, where's the nearest Pilates class? Safety that has your back, more discovery on the scene of crowds, more passion in the details. A more controlled and changing weather. The all-new Mazda CX-5, more to move every side of you. See it in five films at MazdaUSA.com slash five sides. Google is a trademark of Google LLC, sequences shortened and simulated. I'm Joey Erickson of Lockdown Stars. In business, there's no room for guesswork. Every shipment matters, every deadline counts. When you're trying to keep operations running smoothly, the last thing you need is uncertainty. That's why reliability is at the core of USPS Ground Advantage. Each package moves through a secure nationwide network, tracked from dock to door, with affordable

up front pricing. In delivery, you can depend on. Because knowing your logistics are handled lets you focus on everything else. Visit usps.com slash Ground Advantage to start shipping with confidence. USPS Ground Advantage, we mean business. The Florida Gators should be much better in 2026 than they were in 2025, here are the most improved position groups. You are Lockdown Gators, your daily podcast on the Florida Gators. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Lockdown Gators. I am Brandon Olson and we are going to be talking about the Florida Gators. Most improved position groups from 2025 to 2026. And first off, this is going to be a opinion based. You can disagree, you can agree, that's fine. You can also share your opinions if you want to. Go ahead, you can do that publicly privately.

Whatever you want to do, go ahead, I am judging it. I will also say to be clear, I am talking about whatever metric you want to call isn't purely production based. And by purely production based, I mean, I'm not saying wide receiver because they're going to have more yards. Because for example, the first position we're going to talk about is quarterback. We're going to talk about other positions later, both are going to be on defense. But I'm not saying wide receiver because they're going to have more yards. When the reason for them having more yards will likely be new scheme, new quarterback. It's not that the receivers all of a sudden got significantly better. The guy who played the most snaps in Verna over on the third is still back. Where second most snaps is still back. Dallas Wilson is still back. Eric Singleton Jr. is in. The room is better at wide receiver. It is deeper at wide receiver. But it was pretty good last year.

Which means that it's tough for me to go, yeah, it's so much better. And then go, by the way, the best guy in there is the guy that started last year. That's tough. However quarterback I can say, because again, we are talking about roster, talent, film. However you want to describe it, that isn't just volume stats. And we can start by talking about DJ Lagway, right? DJ Lagway was your starting quarterback for the Florida Gators in 2035. Played what will, honestly, whether or not he bounces back fully, whether or not he goes pro at some point, or whether he makes it as a pro because he will, I'm assuming, attempt to go pro. Whenever his eligibility is out or whenever he declares. But he played what is probably the worst year he's ever going to play of football in 2025 because there was nothing really good or redeemable about it. Just to be honest, it was, it was an awful year all around.

Yes, there were injuries. Yeah, there was a whole bunch, but man, it's tough. I'll also say this because I know every time we talk about DJ Lagway, people want to talk about, well, Billy Napier was calling the plays. Okay, well, when Billy Napier got fired and Billy Napier wasn't calling the plays anymore, they still struggled a ton. And I get it. A new scheme will help whoever the starting quarterback is. But I can't blame no matter how bad a scheme is. I can't blame scheme for five picks in one game against LSU. I can't blame scheme for three picks in the first half versus Kentucky. I don't care how bad a scheme is. I can't blame the scheme for that. And so I won't. Okay, the Florida Gators also don't know who they're starting quarterback is going to be in 2026.

We can pretty much say that just in terms of, I'm going to say physical traits for Lagway, you know, the size, the arm talent, the, I think he was still more mobile than people get from credit for. I don't think he was very agile to go left, right, outside the tackles, whatever you want to say. But straight line speed, he had canon for an arm, he had. So you, you can, I think, feel pretty safe to say whoever is a starting quarterback in 2026 will not be as physically gifted. And I'm saying gifted because his athleticism is natural athleticism, right? So whoever the starting quarterback will be in 2026 will not be as physically gifted as DJ Lagway, whether it's Aaron Filo or Tremel Jones. However, they should both in theory be better than DJ Lagway was for the Florida Gators in 2025.

And I don't even care right now if this moment to have the discussion of who's going to be the starting quarterback because yeah, they both got their, their pluses. They both got minuses that we probably haven't seen yet because neither of them have played, you know, significant snaps in college football. But the most important part to remember when we're talking about what we've said is the most improved position groups, is that when you're talking about quarterback, even if they give you, like, let's say over the entirety of the season, it's a, a minor positive, right? I let, let's use it like plus minus for basketball, right? Let's say over the entirety of the season, you're like plus five, right? Like that equivalent. Like plus five is over the course of a season, not a good number to have. All right, but it's positive. That alone, let's say you get

game manager quality play from the starting quarterback in 2026, right? Where they're, they're not necessarily ever putting the team on their back. They're not necessarily ever really wowing you with what they bring to the table. They're not making these insane plays where they have to extend with their legs and roll around and run around and find someone deep vertical down through. No, they're just coming in there they're going to hope and playing within the structure, right? That's it. I'm hitting the, underneath pass. I'm throwing the screen. I'm hand in the ball off. I'm doing whatever it is that's in my job description and nothing more than what's in my job description, right? Let's say again, we're going to call it game manager quality. If you get game manager quality quality from your starting quarterback in 2026, that is a significant upgrade

over what the Florida Gators got from DJ Labway in 2025. Because I don't remember the last time that I've seen a quarterback. And I'm not putting all of 2025 on DJ Labway, right? But I don't remember the last time I've seen a quarterback that regress as hard as DJ Labway didn't from 2024 to 2025. Like there were multiple plays and it was pretty consistent where DJ Labway did something and watching the game you kind of mean, what the hell is he doing? Happened a lot, right? So I'm not even saying that you need a quarterback that's going to give you these big bonus plays or these big chunk plays or anything great. I'm saying that in 2026, if what the Florida Gators get out of their quarterback position is someone who isn't going to shoot you in the foot consistently, I'm going to take that as a win. And I'm going to say that's a massive

upgrade over what you got in 2025. And again, I'm not putting it all on my way from 2025. I'm really not. Whether it was Steve, get a horrible coaching. Again, the quarterback's coach is now coaching D2 football going from SEC to D2 is insane, right? I've never seen that even in the dark days of Vandy. We know I don't remember ever seen that. So I mean, I mean, coaching failed DJ Labway every step of the way. That does not mean that he is without blame, though. Again, coaching didn't cause you to throw it into three defenders. That's you at that point. Like that scheme did not tell you throwing into three defenders. That didn't happen. So I think that if you get just again, game manager quality play from your quarterback in 2026, that is an undeniable, massive upgrade for the Florida Gators. So I got to say, like, I personally,

from the Florida Gators, whoever is starting quarterback is, I expect game manager quality play. That's my expectation. I don't expect Aaron Filo or Tremel Jones to be a Heisman candidate in 2036. Honestly, nor do I want them to be, right? Because I think that for Florida, a winning strategy does involve running the football good bit. So if you're putting up Heisman numbers, that's some, right? I'm being suspicious. Obviously, if I can have a Heisman quarterback, yeah, I have a Heisman quarterback. But that's not my expectation. That's not what I'm really hoping for. Like, if you get it, cool, but that's it. So for me, if I'm like, all right, if I'm getting game manager quality play, which again, is what I expect regardless of the starting quarterback is, because I think a game manager, I think game manager in this offense, you can win. That alone,

big plus for the Florida Gators. We're going to flip to the defensive side of the ball for the rest of the show when we get back with lockdown Gators. Welcome to the five hour energy flavor draft with 18 different flavors to choose from, including new options, a confetti craze, fruity rainbow, or cotton candy. There is something for every one. The board is set, the flavors are ready. And I've got the number one pick in the five hour energy flavor draft. And you know, just because I feel like switching things up, just frankly, honestly, because I can, right? I'm the general manager on general manager. I'm going to go now. He's hands off, right? He's hands off. I'm going to go with confetti craze. Why? Because I've never had, right? We're going to think outside the box here. We're going to go to the win there. It's the birthday cake inspired flavor that we've talked about before, right? That's what I'm going to go with. I'm going to sweet

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you contain costs. Go to hipebble.ai to get a free estimate. That's hipbbl.ai for a free estimate. Nice to have for a lot of contributors. You're first listen of the day. Every day we are available daily and free of his podcast and on YouTube. And I'm going to let you guys know this right now. This episode audio comes out at 3 a.m. Eastern time. Okay. YouTube comes out at 8 a.m. Eastern time. That's every day, by the way. So if you ever do want to listen to the show before it comes out on video, you can do that. Join the everydayer club now with code Marching at your first month free of the everydayer club. If you sign up before the NCA tournament tips off this Thursday, 1205 PM Eastern time. That's it. You don't have a lot of time between this dropping and coming out. You can compete against myself where I'm going to win to say, you know, that's that's how it's going to go in our men's and women's bracket pools on discord. The winner in each will get $100 in Lockdown merch. The rest of us can commiserate in the members only jet as our brackets blow up.

As a member of the club, you get an ad free version of this show as well. Again, it's all free for a month with code March. Just go to lockdowngators.com. Lockdowngators.supercast.com. And we're talking about defense for the rest of the show with where the floor gateers have their most improved position groups. I'm going to safety. I didn't want to put position groups as an entire defensive line, entire offensive line. If I was talking about offensive line, it would have been like, oh, guard or whatever it was going to be. But we're not talking about the offensive line. We're talking about safety, which I am including both safety spots here. And I kind of think about what you got in 2025 because I'm most improved. And we talk about most improved. The two safeties that played the most in 2025 were Bryce Thornton and Jordan Castell. And a really similar trend that you're going to hear and see when we talk about comparing the floor gateers in 2025 under Billy Napier

to the floor gateers in 2026 under John Sumeral is coaching is going to be better. And at safety, maybe more so than anywhere else other than quarterback. I cannot express how much I hated having been a sincere coach to safeties. The day he got hired, we even live. And my thought was I'm going to be cautiously optimistic. His resume is terrible. I spoke to people that like kind of like him, but his resume is terrible because he was a running backs coach. I spent one year as a safety coach in Billy Napier when you know what, you're my guy. And now he's at Georgia Tech. I've only got a powerful job again. I don't know. I watched the safeties play. I know how he got it. But the one guy in that room that did work consistently was Bryce Thornton. Bryce Thornton is, I know people want to go, oh, all SEC caliber player, whatever he's going to be,

he's probably going to be none of those. Okay. However, he is so damn good. He really is. He's probably not going to be all SEC caliber because he's not going to be used in a way that is going to get a ton of picks. And he's not going to be used as a past or something. He's not going to be used in some of these more versatile ways. He might be lower end of the all SEC teams maybe. But we're talking about just a guy that goes out there does his job play safety at a high level pretty consistently. That's Bryce Thornton. Like, I don't care about the stats. When I watch the film, I'm looking for what you're doing. You're not getting picks if they're not throwing in your area. Right? That's not on you. That's not on you at all. So I'm like going to Bryce Thornton and I'm saying, you're a dude. You're back. You succeeded despite horrible coaching, horrible underqualified coaching. You succeeded. That's good on you. DJ Coleman and Cam Dulli are at the

other safety spot that are going to replace Jordan Castell. And Jordan Castell was awful for the past two years. Yes, part of that is going to be on the coaching staff. Part of that does come down to coaching. Part of that comes down to having a running backs coach as your safety's coach. But part of that's also just like, there were certain areas where Jordan Castell never really improved on where other people did. Will Harris came in and a bunch of the secondary started tackling better. Jordan Castell, right? And now he's at Kentucky. He's like, I still think he can be pretty quality. I don't know how high ceiling is genuinely. But I still think he can be pretty quality. But Jordan Castell is gone. He was your starter. DJ Coleman, big fan of what he did at Baylor. Cam Dulli, a lot of promise. His film at Kentucky is not super clean. Wasn't bad, but wasn't super clean. I expect him to be the third safety. It's going to be Bryce and DJ

and then Cam in my opinion. That's what I'm expecting. And by the way, that means that your safety three in 2026 would be better than your safety two was in 2025. That's a huge improvement. The top and depth wise. And speaking of depth, you've got Alfonso Allen is back for one more year. And Alfonso Allen, I know a lot of people love him because he was the dude. He was the anti-Castell, right? He just came down and hit. That's all he did. He was like, yeah, by the way, I'm going to come in. I'm going to smack you. And then I'm going to call it that. That's all I got to do. That's my role. My role is to come in, smack you, and then call it a day. Good on you, right? Good on you. That's all you had to do. But in coverage, he wasn't great. And that's not exactly surprising, really. There's probably part of the reason that Jordan Castell was still out there. Frankly, was, hey, from my deep safety, I'm going to prioritize coverage, then I'm going to more than I'm going to prioritize your ability to hit. You could argue, you could disagree,

that's fine. Frankly, I don't care. That's just, that's what we saw. That's what we saw from. I didn't think Alfonso Allen Jr. was great in coverage. But come down, hit, hell yeah. Hell yeah, you'd come down and pop, right? That's what you do. That was his job. That was his role. Come down and pop. And I do think that was a thing that also helped him, not necessarily help him in coverage, but help pays, you know, coverage numbers and the past defense numbers overall. Because he wasn't giving up those yards after catch as often as Jordan Castell was when they ever had. And when I also look at the safety room, I also look at the two guys that were freshmen last year. And this is the time I'm including LaGonza Hayward in this because LaGonza Hayward while he played star last year is listed as a safety this year. And so the way that I kind of view things coming out is your top deep safeties, your top for people that want to call them,

your top free safeties, DJ Coleman and Cambuli. And your top strong safeties, back safeties, whatever you want to say, it's going to be boundary here. I'm going to be probably Bryce Thornton. And I think LaGonza Hayward. And I think LaGonza Hayward has a little bit of a leg up there because of his experience at star. Because when you're looking at what this defense is probably going to look like, when they're in the nickel, you're probably going to see star on one side, star on the strong side. So if there's, you know, which in this case, you're going to be a field side, so star on the field side. And then on the boundary side is going to be your other, your boundary safety, right? Which is going to be if your star is, you know, pressed up on the last scrimmage, your boundary safety is probably also going to be pressed up on the last scrimmage. But he's going to be against whoever is there, right? If it's another receiver, if it's a tie-in, running that whoever it is, he's going to be lined up there. The fact that LaGonza played star last year gives him experience operating near the line of scrimmage is just, you know, now you're

going to be on the boundary side. You got a little bit different responsibilities, but you got still do a lot of the same things, just in a different way. And so I think LaGonza Hayward right there, and you also have Drake Stubbs is back, but I forgot if I mentioned at this point, but Drake Stubbs is back. His film was not good last year in the very, very, very limited reps, but he was also someone coming out of high school where it's a guy like he's going to take a little bit of time. He's in need a little bit of time. High school football, most guys need a little bit of time to be just good in the college level, because in high school football, a lot of it is if I'm a better athlete, then I'm better than everybody out there. In college, that's where you have to start technically refining your craft and the NFL, it's like, well, guess what, we're all great athletes in the zone now. You got to figure some stuff out and find out who you really are as a player. And so Drake Stubbs isn't that like, hey, it's college. You got to refine some of that technical ability stuff and figure that one out. But the Florida Gators right now, safety should be

much improved. We're going to talk about one more defensive spot this time. We're going to be defensive line. Let me get back with Lockdown Gators. It is tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Try a book and appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade into a turbo tax now as in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert and your documents get uploaded straight to your turbo tax app on the spot. And just like that, you're done. Your turbo tax expert works to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real-time notifications as you go about your day. It's the relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out knowing your taxes are being handled, right? Head to TurboTax.com slash local to find a store near you and book your appointment. And the biggest stretch of the college basketball season is here, ladies and gents, buzzer beaters, bracket busters, unforgettable moments that

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that needed a big upgrade. And by the way, there were a couple. There were. I'm not going to see nose tackle. That's silly, right? McIvoy row is it dude? I'm not going to say nose. Not going to say three tech. If Kayla Banks, especially if Kayla Banks played last year, this wouldn't be a spot where you upgraded, right? But three tech right now is going to be mostly the same guys and they could take big jumps, but I'm not going to go, oh yeah, they're significantly improved without seeing them take those jumps, right? I'm not going to say jack, because George Gums gave you decent reps, gave you decent film. And Jayden Woods will see if he's really going to take that step that I think many of us expect him to take. I am going to go with F though. And I will, I'll also be honest here, there were a couple spots I considered, right? There were, there were a couple spots I considered, but F was where everybody started to go. Mostly because I think when you look at the 2024 film for the Florida Gators,

Tyreeksap played really well, right? When he had an interior force next to him, like Kayla Banks, he played really well. When it was Kayla Banks on the interior, when it was Tyreeksap at F and George Gums at Jack, Tyreeksap really benefited from that attention going elsewhere. In 2026, that wasn't so much the case, right? Because in 2026, when you look at who played a lot at F, it was Cam James, and it was Tyreeksap both playing again. Pretty damn good bit. But there was no dominant force on the interior, right? There was no, or at least past Russian was, right? Brendan Beatt was pretty good. I expect him to take big steps that really do. But McIvoy Roe, No Sackle, who by the way missed a few games, wasn't really dominating and taking that way. He was

pretty damn good. But when you had to watch and George Gums miss time as well, when you had to watch Tyreeksap just be Tyreeksap, he wasn't awful. I'm not saying he was awful. I don't know why I mean I think I'm saying that. But he wasn't nearly as good as he was in 2024. He also, and I'm someone that for years has been really critical of Tyreeksap. I think 2025, he also wasn't as good as he was in 2023. When he played less, but honestly, I felt like in 2023, his feeling was probably better than 2025. I don't think 2025 is a good year for Tyreeksap. I think at a few really good games, and NFL teams are going to see those games go, all right, like if we can get that from him on a more consistent basis, he's going to be really good. And the argument, by the way, it's just, okay, I have someone on the interior that can distract or someone on the other edge that can distract or occupy blockers, right? But he's never going to be a guy that does turn his own. Cam James's film from 2025 was better than Tyreeksap's film.

Again, in my opinion, you can disagree. That's fine. But Cam James's film in 2025 was better than Tyreeksap's film in 2025. And Tyreeksap played it barely more than Cam James, right? But now Cam James gets to be the most likely candidate that's going to be your F1, not the racing, your field side, and one starter, right? And one of the biggest things that makes this room much improved is that in 2025, you had Tyreeksap and Cam James basically splitting starter reps, right? Because they were Tyreeksap played 407 snaps, Cam James played 402, right? So they were basically splitting starter snaps there. And when it wasn't one of them, you didn't really have someone that could play consistently at F, right? Brian Taylor Jr. played it a little bit. He's gone. And so I

think that now when you're looking at F, it's like, all right, well, you got Cam James, Tyreeksap is gone. Then you look at who else is in that room. And again, this is what makes this room much improved for me in 2026 is not just, hey, the better guy is now getting clearly more snaps. But the guys behind that better guy are way better depth wise than they were in 2025. Because the guys behind that starter, the guys behind Cam James are going to be Immanuel Eubedensia from Jacksonville State. Going to be L.J. McCray entering year three, which I know there's a lot of people that have really high expectations for him. I am tempering mine because I wasn't super impressed with the film that we had from him in 2034. That in 2025, he only played four snaps. It's tough for me to go, oh, this is the year he's really going to break it. I know I've spoken to people like all the coaching staff that are really excited for what Cam James is going to bring to the table for the Florida Gators in 2020, right? L.J. McCray is going to bring to the

table for the Florida Gators in 2026. I'm personally just taking in, I got to see it approach, right? L.J. McCray last we heard was a little bit banged up, so we'll see what he's going to be like when he's back healthy. But I mean, you're telling me, hey, L.J. McCray is your fourth fifth. I'm going to tell you how I'm good with that. Is he good? I don't know, but he's a true freshman that has an insanely high ceiling. If he's your F-4, I'm good with that, because frankly, I don't expect F-4 to play much. I don't expect F-3 to play much. But if there's an injury or if you do want to have a deeper rotation, then I care about that. And if L.J. McCray is your F-3 and he lives up to the expectations and I think some people have him, then hell yeah, I'm good with I will also say this. And I'm not so much including this into why I think this room is going to be much improved in 2026, but it is something that I do want to mention, because at the start of this

show, I said, I'm not going just based off of who has more production, right? I'm going more so based on the talent in the room with the film says about them more than anything else. This defensive scheme in Brad White is likely going to let the defensive line attack way more than the Ron Roberts defensive scheme let them attack. And these guys should benefit from that, not just production wise, but you should benefit from having the responsibility of, hey, go attack instead of a sometimes you're going to be just standing there holding two blocks and not doing anything, right? Like it's like, hey, go attack, go get him. And I think of being given that green light by your defensive coordinator is a big benefit for line. So yes, I fully expect production to take a pretty significant uptick there because of the scheme, but I also think the scheme saying, hey, you're allowed to be more aggressive is where you get to see guys like Cam James and Emmanuel Epedezio and Elgin McCarran to read them a quick take a step where it's not

it's not as much as like, yeah, I'm too gap in here. I'm just I'm waiting to see what I got to do. It's, hey, I'm going to go get his ass, right? I think that's big for guys that are athletic enough to go attack like the Florida Gators have in the F in 2026. Thanks for being a lockdown Gators. You're first listen of the day every day. You're available daily and free of course the podcast on YouTube. We will do the equilator on today for locked on Gators. I'm Brandon Olsen. Don't get to follow me on Twitter at WNS and for sure Brandon find all my written work about the Florida Gators are swampsing with that subset.com. I'll see you all next time. The winter games are officially here. And if you're anything like us, you're locking in for events. You only get to see on the biggest stage every four years. And that's why following the winter games on Fandall just makes sense from middle counts to individual events to finding your angle on the sports you care about most. Fandall gives you more ways to say connected to the action. The drama of curling matches that start slow and somehow getting tense fast hockey games that

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