It had been nearly a month since Florida football tasted the fruits of victory before the Gators marched into Kroger Field on Saturday night and upset the 13th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats, 21-14. In the process, it also gave Jon Sumrall his first win against his alma mater.

After the game, the victorious skipper spoke with the media about a handful of topics, including his team's performance, Aaron Philo's preparation and why he was chosen to start, the defense's improvement throughout the game, the shuffling of offensive personnel, the penalty issues at the start of the game, an injury update for Bryce Thornton and DJ Coleman, and more.

Below is a look at everything Sumrall said about Florida's Week 11 win over Kentucky.

Jon Sumrall's opening statement

Happy for our guys to get the win.

Found a way, kept showing up in maybe some tight situations. Game started about as awful as we could start, you know, three penalties on the offense on their first possession. The Gators were beating the Gators early. But proud of our guys to keep fighting, keep pushing, and thought we responded really well to beat a good football team tonight.

And so — I've said it all along — we're a long way away from a finished product. We're still a long way away from the finished product. The win makes a lot of that feel better, but we have so much to improve upon. But really grateful for our guys' effort all night, and it makes all the work feel a lot more worthwhile when you were able to get a W. Credit to our guys for finding a way tonight.

So with that, we'll open it up.

On Aaron Philos' week preparing, what he did for Florida on the ground

So, you know, I'll start with — everybody's probably wanted to critique both guys, 9 (Tramell Jones Jr.) and 12 (Aaron Philo). I love them both. They both responded in different ways when their number's been called. There's been some good moments for both of them and not-so-good moments for both of them.

But AP tonight, you know, after last week's game, after the Oklahoma game, just felt like we needed to play better there. Wasn't mad at Tramell, but just wasn't quite his best. And so we looked back and just felt like you looked at Aaron's body of work — and he did have some rough moments in the Missouri game and a couple of plays he would like back in the South Carolina game, but felt like off of what we had seen, we had seen him do. We need to go back to give him a shot and see what it looked like.

And part of being in year one is I'm not trying to say this is an experimental year, but we're trying to figure out what does that look like for the long haul of how we build this program, and felt like it was the right thing to go back to him tonight. He didn't hang his head last weekend when he didn't get his number called. He got ready like he was going to get an opportunity in the game.

I'd kind of made up my mind that we were going to ride with Tramell the whole game last week, barring something catastrophic early. Aaron, once we told him on Monday morning – met with both quarterbacks; I meet with both of them every week — and told him what the week looked like.

I said, "Hey, it's probably going to be your game. You got to go practice good. Like, you got to go handle it, but you're going to get more of the one-reps than anybody else, and we want to see you go operate." I thought he ran with confidence, and toughness, physicality. You know, when your quarterback takes some of the shots he takes that he did tonight, I think it kind of bleeds through to the rest of your team.

Like, man, that guy's laying on the line. And the way he laid on the line tonight was the way we need everybody to lay on the line, and I think he did a phenomenal job of competing. He had one throw I would like to have back that was off the tight end on the over route. He worked the back side and probably could have got an interception, but I always think about all the negatives. So my mind gets stuck on the things we could do better. But proud of his effort.

On Florida's defensive improvements as the game went along

You know, they're very unique offensively. Their offense is probably the most like ours out of anybody we have played in regards to shift, motion, unbalanced pictures, too balanced, and then balanced to unbalanced. Like, they give you so many different exotic looks, similar to Buster and our offensive staff.

And so early we got a little bit loose on some things — didn't play with the right leverage on a couple things. They converted some third downs in that first drive. And then once we settled in and played with a lot more confidence with our eyes, you know, the touchdown that they got in the second half, that was all me with calling the surprise onside kick.

I've never seen that good of a look for us to hit that kick, and I had already made up my mind after our first offensive touchdown: we're gonna call it. Gotta get that kick a little bit wider, but I'd already made up my mind, like, if that guy's lined up 20 yards from the kick point, we're gonna call it. We didn't quite make it past the inside guy, but our defense, they rose up.

Proud of those guys. Still not perfect, still a long way to go. We gotta do a better job of maybe getting sticky and attached on coverage on some over routes. They beat us a couple times on some cross-country stuff across the field.

On the offensive line personnel changes throughout the game

"So Harrison (Moore) had a snap infraction last week and another one tonight, and just wasn't quite as clean as you need to be. He's played really good football for us a lot of the year. He's probably in a lot of ways been our most consistent lineman in a lot of things that he's done.

But after that snap infraction, I just went on the headset; we've worked TJ (Dice Jr.) plenty at center and felt like we needed to settle ourselves in by making that switch. There's some things Harrison actually does better at guard than he does at center. We like him pulling as a guard, but he's had his cleats at center.

And then wanted to see Dice go play some. You know, he's earned the right. He's gotten better. It's not like anybody at tackle has played so good. Emeka (Ugorji) did play some, even though Caden (Jones) started. We're still trying to find ourselves on the offensive line in a lot of sorts.

And at times those guys were playing decent. Early in the game, we were doing some things that were self-inflicted. But we went into the game plan knowing third or fourth drive, wanted to maybe get Dice in the game, wanted to maybe try to get Rod Kearney.

You know, Rod's in a lot of good, wanted to try to get him in the game. Some of those guys, we'd like to get more guys reps so we can figure out exactly who they are at times, but nobody's playing so much at a high level independently that we don't need to maybe get some other guys shots at times.

On three offensive penalties on the first drive, burning a timeout to avoid a delay of game later

Well, the timeout delay was completely (a) mess by us. Because we're coming off of a kickoff return. That 25-second shot clock there, and you shouldn't have to use the timeout there. We should never have a delay of game situation coming off the sideline. That was really poorly coached, executed across the board. Like, that's inexcusable. There's no excuse for that ever in life.

But used the timeout because, in a critical situation, (we) didn't want to be in first and 15 to start the drive. Sometimes I won't use the timeout to keep us out of first and 15, because they can be so valuable in the game situations. Some of the penalties that we committed were very accurate; the false starts and the snap infraction were really good calls, not anything major. We got to continue to work on cleaning some stuff up.

I thought there was a couple penalties I would like to have seen called on the other side tonight that weren't. I can't say a whole lot or I'll get fined. But I mean, they did a really good job; the officials did, but I still think there's some things that sometimes I would like them to be looked at a little differently.

On the emotions of winning at Kentucky, Florida's third road win

I'm going to be honest, I haven't thought about the third road win component of that. Auburn was one, right? And Texas was one, so yeah, this is the third. To be honest, Kevin, I haven't thought about it at all. How many – I'm trying to win each week. And then the emotions are big every week.

Like, I don't care who you play in this league, man. This is a brutal league. This game was not about me coming back to my alma mater, it wasn't. I am grateful for this place. University of Kentucky has given me more than I could ever ask for. They, you know, I was able to trick them into giving me a scholarship to come play here. You know, I was able to trick them into letting me start for a few games in 2004, maybe a couple of the years before that.

This place allowed me to get my start in coaching, Rich Brooks, and then Mark Stoops hired me back here. But I have a lot of respect for what this program is about, the University of Kentucky. I have a lot of respect for Will Stein and what he's building, and what he's already built so fast. He's a phenomenal coach, and he's got a great staff.

And I told him before the game, I said, "I'm grateful you're the head coach at my alma mater." I am, and I really am, and he's a good football coach, a good dude, it's a great place. I'm happy for our team that we get the win. The win has got very little to do with me. This team needed a win.

It's been, like I said, it's been a tough October and early November, and a lot of relief. We gotta fight relief syndrome though, and the complacency that comes with a win, because this league, you've seen a lot of people get a win and all of a sudden get relaxed. We've done ourselves some. And so we have to pick ourselves up and understand that, man, we have to finish the month of November the right way with what we have left football-wise.

On updates on Bryce Thornton and DJ Coleman

So Bryce had a little bit of a strain — muscle strain, lower body — in the Oklahoma game late last week. We had several guys tonight get some ankles. Like, more than I've seen in the game in a long time. Like four or five was the most. Yeah, I'm not saying it's field turf, but I would love if we played all football games on grass. Like I think that would make the game a lot safer, I'm not an expert on that.

But I think sometimes the turf does contribute to some of that; you're getting stuck a little. We had several of that tonight. Bailey Stockton, has another something, I don't even just want to talk about it because he's always got something going on, he did something completely different than what he's had going on, and I didn't think he was gonna be able to return.

And we went to the training room at halftime. He's like, "Oh, I'm playing." He's like, "I'm gonna play." But a lot of guys are banged up. DJ was banged up. He tried to go back in, but couldn't quite run on it like he needed to.

On Sumrall's thoughts on winning at Kentucky where he played and coached

First, respect the Kentucky Colonel. I used to read when I was a student here. Look, like I said earlier, this is a place I have a tremendous amount of respect for. It's a place that gave me my start in coaching. I was a GA here the day I got done playing. Rich Brooks and Steve Hellier offered me an opportunity to become a graduate assistant within like two weeks of my career ending.

I got the plug pulled on a little bit with a neck injury, and so it gave me my start as a coach, and then it was my last stop before becoming a head coach. I was an assistant here for Stoops, '19, '20, '21. That '21 season, we went 10-3. Had a lot of fun, and I really felt like working for Mark. You learn from everybody around, and going to work for Mark, my last stop it was like, all right, I'm ready to go become a head coach.

What it did is give me the confidence to know I was ready for that step, which I had thought I was before, but I really wasn't. Also, having said that, man, when I coached the linebackers here those three years, I thought I had the best job in the world, and I didn't know if I ever wanted to be a head coach. I was real close; I turned down some jobs when I was here that may have paid me more or had a bigger title because I was just happy to be at the University of Kentucky and get to work at a place that meant a lot to me.

But I'm grateful to be the head coach of Florida. I'm grateful for everything this place has given me, and I'm also grateful to Will Stein is head coach at the University of Kentucky, because I have a lot of belief in the way he's going to get done here, and I have a lot of respect for the work he's doing. And considered one of the best young coaches in college football.

On the importance of unlocking bowl eligibility at this point

It's important to play in the postseason. I just haven't really even thought about the bowl eligibility component. My goals here are much bigger than just bowl games. It's what the expectation is to play in the postseason to me. I'd like for us in the future to be talking about trying to get into the CFP.

I'll be excited to play any postseason game we get to play anywhere because with where we are as a program trying to grow and improve, we just need more experience and more reps and more practice and more time on task. But I'm happy that we're going to get to play in postseason football, whatever that looks like. And right now, I just want us to get you to finish November the right way.