What Florida LB Myles Graham said at 2026 SEC football media days

Jon Sumrall, along with three of his selected players, took the podium at the 2026 SEC football media days on Wednesday to discuss the state of the Florida Gators as well as their personal goals and other items of interest.

>One of the current players accompanying the new head coach in Tampa is legacy linebacker Myles Graham — the son of former standout and NFL running back Earnest Graham — who led the Orange and Blue with 76 tackles, becoming the first Florida linebacker to lead the team in that stat since 2021. He was also one of four players in the SEC to post 75-plus tackles and seven-plus tackles-for-loss in the 2025 regular season.

>Heading into 2026, Graham now sits on the SEC Fall Football Leadership Council and has been nominated for the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. Here is an abridged look at what he had to offer during his turn at the media days on Wednesday.

Brad White mentioned he wanted to have a violent defense. How does that fit your style?"Yeah, absolutely. Every time we step into a meeting, I'm just happy to play for Coach White. I love contact. I love seeking contact. So it's definitely going to be a great defense for me. It's going to be a good fit for me, and I'm excited to play for him."

What individual goals do you want to meet to reach the team goals?"I would say it's hard to put a direct number on it. Obviously you want to have the most tackles, interceptions, forced fumbles, whatever it is. But I just want to be the best version of myself for my team, honestly.

>"I just want to be that guy that guys can lean on and go out and attack, play fast, play physical. If you do that, do your job, take care of everything, all those goals and everything that I have for myself will take care of itself."

What has this coaching staff done in terms of energy, bringing the juice, and also helping you guys along to be the best you can be?"Yeah, this coaching staff brings a whole lot of energy. Like I've been saying today, one of our team rules is do not be an energy vampire.

>"You'll see in practice, like, Coach White, he'll hop in our tackling drills. We get to tackle him. And you'll see, even the offensive guys, they'll run full speed after the play, trying to chase the ball down. They'll beating some of us to the ball.

>"When we get tired, they bring a whole lot of juice, a whole lot of energy. And it's gonna be really fun to play for them because you never know what you're gonna expect. It's gonna be just fun every single day."

How confident are you that you can be the face to turn this around after the season that you had last year?"I'm extremely confident just having that, like you said, year of experience last year; it gives me a whole other level of confidence under my belt.

>"Just knowing what to expect at this level and playing a lot of snaps, it really helps me just be able to process the game faster and make even more plays and just be a guy that I just want to be the anchor in the defense that anchors that defense in the middle."

Who is an incoming freshman that's caught your attention so far?"On defense, I would say incoming freshman would probably be KJ Ford. He's just a natural kind of pass rusher. He's just a natural football player. He's just very limber, loose. He's very mobile. He's fast.

>"I think he's going to be a great player for us this year and the next years to come."

Saturday afternoon in Gainesville, it's hot. It's humid. Stadium is packed. You're standing the tunnel again. Still get goosebumps?"Every time. I just get goosebumps just thinking about it. Because honestly it's nothing like it. It's a lot going through my head. But at the same time, it's not, like, I'm just speechless. Like it's just like a dream come true. You gotta pinch yourself.

>"So I definitely get goosebumps. And it's just nothing like Gator Nation showing up every single Saturday, no matter what the outcome was the week before. They're always there for us.

>"It's not been a game that I've been a Gator that it hasn't sold out, that the home game has not sold out. It's a big thank you to the Gator Nation for always showing up for us."

Yesterday a couple of the players said the Swamp was the best stadium that they've played in. What does it mean to you to get to call that stadium home?"Just seeing that stadium, just driving by anytime I'm just grateful. It's just, honestly, it's really a blessing. And, like you said, walking out into The Swamp and seeing that sea of orange and blue is a blessing. I'm really thankful."

How would you describe the Gator offense? "Our Gator offense, we just got a full weapon arsenal. Just the receivers and the running backs and quarterbacks, the O line, just top to bottom it's just a whole bunch of weapons. It's gonna be deadly.

>And then pairing that with Buster Faulkner, who's a very great OC, and just seeing how creative he is and how complex he can really get. And I'm just excited to see what he can do with all of those pieces.

Where would you put Jadan Baugh in terms of the talent among the playmakers in the SEC?"Just going up against him every single day in practice since freshman year, it's definitely made me better. We go back and forth in practice, we talk trash all the time. But he's definitely the best back, in my opinion, in the country. And I'm excited to see what he does this year."

There's been some talk about the talent and the results not really matching up. What's it going take to unlock that talent?"I just think it's going to take a great attention to detail, great focus from our end. The coaches can do whatever Xs and Os, they can coach how hard they want, but we're out there making the plays. So it's really up to us. We have to be very focused and very honed in on what we're doing and just executing our job.

>"We have to come together and be close, be a close-knit group of guys and build our relationship with one another to have a great year. But I think we can do it."

What has LJ McCraye done this offseason that gives you confidence that he can truly blossom into his five-star billing?"The potential is obviously 100% there. I mean, from one, he's just completely changed his body, just gotten very strong in the weight room. And being like 6'7" and being that tall, it's hard to do that in the weight room. But he's done it. So I'm really proud of him.

>"Coming off that injury, he's really hungry. He's ready to go. I'm excited to see him just let it loose this fall and just wreak havoc."

How do you balance these next several weeks — the competitiveness that you want to keep throughout the roster, but still get to Week 1 healthy and fresh?"We're itching. We're itching to play. I think that's really up to Coach Sumrall, Coach Whitt and the coaches to really pull us back. I think our job is to go 100%. Whenever they say we gotta go. We got to compete, we gotta get benefit, we gotta push each other, we gotta hit, we gotta strain, we gotta run to the ball, we gotta do everything that they tell us to do.

>"I think it's (the coaching staff's) job to help us pull it back. But we're gonna be competitive and we're gonna get better these next few weeks, for sure."

Which SEC team's offense do you see giving you the biggest challenge this year?"The SEC is definitely very competitive. The new nine-game schedule and everything, I'm really excited about it. I think we play a whole bunch of great offenses, honestly. Last year we did, too. Ole Miss, Georgia, they were all really good. And I'm excited to play all of them."

You're a leader and a veteran on your team, but you're also on the SEC Fall Football Leadership Council. What does that mean to be a leader in those conversations as well?"It means a lot, just having that respect from my peers just being able to be voted for that. It really means a lot to me just coming up as a young kid and looking up to guys like Shemar James and Jake Slaughter, and seeing how they did it. I just wanted to kind of do the same thing. And I'm just blessed to be on that council."

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>This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: What Florida LB Myles Graham said at 2026 SEC football media days