Florida defensive back to undergo surgery, Billy Napier says
Florida is gearing up to face its in-state rival Florida State in Week 14. The Gators secured bowl eligibility by upsetting Ole Miss in Week 13 and now hope to end the season with their seventh win.
Ahead of the Week 14 matchup, Billy Napier announced that a key defender is undergoing surgery. Aaron Gates suffered a knee injury against Ole Miss and will miss the Week 14 game and the bowl game. Gates collected 1 tackle against Ole Miss before leaving.
Aaron Gates is out against Florida State after suffering an apparent knee injury against Ole Miss. He’ll need to undergo surgery, per Billy Napier.
Guard Dameion George is “to be determined.”
— Jacob Rudner (@JacobRudner) November 28, 2024
The freshman defensive back recorded 27 tackles, 3 pass deflections, and 1 interception in 10 games this season. Gates redshirted in 2023 and was originally a 3-star prospect out of Sharpsburg, Georgia.
“Aaron has been one of our best players the last probably 5 or 6 weeks of the season. He’s still a young player but extremely talented,” Napier said of Gates after the Ole Miss game.
With Gates out, sophomore Sharif Denson is expected to take over his spot in the secondary. Gates is the fifth member of Florida’s secondary to suffer a season-ending injury after Asa Turner, Jason Marshall Jr., Devin Moore, and Ja’Keem Jackson.
The Gators will hope to avoid any more injuries against the Seminoles. The rivals will kick off from Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET. The Gators are a 16.5-point favorite at BetMGM.
Five DBs out for the season. This reminds me of Muschamp’s 2013 season, where it seemed half the team was out with injuries.
If muschump was still HC 5 DBs out would be no problem since every year he recruited 17 DBs
Yes, but that made for some scary shortages on offense. I still recall how McElwayne didn’t hold a true spring game in 2015 because the Chump left him only 6 scholarship OLs. That 6 is not a typo!
Champ made his bones as a DC, and a DC is what he is now and forevermore. Tons of respect for that, but when Mack Brown named him as “Texas Head Coach in Waiting”, I think he was responding more to his passion than overall acumen for anything else. Florida bit on that endorsement though and I can’t blame them. Regardless, you can’t help but love the guy.
I can tell you this about Coach Boom, our secondary certainly misses his tutelage this year. I hope he gets bored in retirement and Kirby can can talk him back. Dude knows defense.
I agree he knows defense and that was our problem, he only knows defense
Sounds like our WR list this year, sorry for another DB loss STL.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and the fam…cheers
Sometimes you’re the windshield. Sometimes you’re the bug. I guess we know which the Gators are this season.
Here’s to wishing you and your family a happy Thanksgiving too Humper.
Any injuries to these young men stink, I pray they all have a full recovery. Happy Thanksgiving!
Let me be the first to say I absolutely hate to hear how serious Gates injury turned out to be, looked bad when it happened. I surely wish him a full and complete recovery, back and ready to do his part next season in continuing to make UF relevant again.
Finally, second. It’s harder than it looks.
Note how I said nothing about it.
Yes, you really need to work on your subtle brashness…the new goal is posting second. First is too easy.
Praying for him to have a full recovery! He was improving every game, he will be missed the last 2 games.
We need at least 8 new 4-5 star DB recruits!
The backup 3 star DBs have performed well against 2 good passing QBs the last 2 games.
Florida is going to have the deepest secondary in the nation next year when they get all of these hurt players back, on top of the youngsters that gained valuable experience on the field this season.