GAINESVILLE — Florida’s 55-0 decimation of overmatched Long Island gave the Gators a feel-good vibe Week 1 but proved little.
No matter.
The schedule and gauntlet now facing the Gators will handle that in short course.
Beginning with Saturday’s home tilt against South Florida (4:15 p.m. ET, ESPN), the Florida Gators will face 5 consecutive opponents who are either ranked or currently receiving votes in the AP Top 25. The Bulls, fresh off a 34-7 whipping of then No. 25 Boise State, are the only team among Florida’s next 5 foes currently unranked. The rest are ranked No. 3 (LSU), No. 5 (Miami), No. 7 (Texas), and 19 (Texas A&M), respectively. If Florida manages to win 3 of these 5 games, they will almost assuredly make the College Football Playoff simply by finishing 5-1 in their final 6 games. If they finish 2-3, they’ll likely need to run the table, with games against Georgia, Tennessee, and suddenly resurgent Florida State all waiting down the line.
But first things first.
South Florida can play, and Billy Napier knows it.
It isn’t just that the Bulls beat Boise State, a respected program that appeared in the 2024 College Football Playoff. It’s the way they dominated them along the line of scrimmage.
“Yeah, I think the film itself of Game 1 gets the attention of the players. It doesn’t hurt that Boise, obviously, was a Playoff team and ranked in the top 25. The old saying, ‘Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.’ That’s just not for failure. This game requires a certain level of humility. And I think it’ll be critical,” Napier said. “You look at them up front and the way they pushed a quality team around. That’s difficult to do.”
Alex Golesh is an outstanding coach, and he’s guided the Bulls to consecutive bowl appearances (and wins) after the program won just 4 games in the 3 seasons prior to his arrival in Tampa.
Quarterback Byrum Brown (253 total yards, 2 touchdowns vs. Boise State) gets the attention, but it’s the Bulls’ defense that shined brightest last weekend, limiting the Broncos to just 4.39 yards per play offensively and forcing 3 turnovers.
“I think that (USF defensive coordinator) Todd Orlando is one of the best defensive coaches in football,” Napier told the media on Monday. “This guy’s been around the block. He’s always been a tough prep. You go back to the Houston days, the Texas days. And I mean, I think in general, he’s got front variables, pressure variables and coverage variables. And I think he gets them to play hard. Look, this is a team that was in a tie game right in the fourth quarter last year at Tuscaloosa. It’s tied up. So, we’ll have no issue getting the attention to the players here. They’ve got a really good football team.”
If Florida can’t block a little better than it did Week 1, when the right side of the offensive line struggled to hold up against Long Island, the Gators could become the victims of a huge in-state upset.
Here are 3 things I’m looking for from Florida, who needs a decisive win to build confidence ahead of the road gauntlet (at LSU, at Miami) that will close a challenging September.
A better afternoon for the right side of the Florida offensive line
It was a strange opener for the Gators experienced offensive line.
All-American center Jake Slaughter graded out as the best offensive linemen in college football in Week 1 and left tackle Austin Barber wasn’t far behind (best OT in the country, per PFF). The duo surrendered no pressures and handled their business in pacing a Florida run game that tallied 201 yards on opening night. Left guard Knijeah Harris, another third-year starter, was steady.
The right side? They’ve had better days.
Bryce Lovett will make his second start at right tackle despite a shaky debut which saw him grade out at a gruesome 39.1. Lovett completely fanned on a block on Florida’s first play from scrimmage, resulting in DJ Lagway taking a season-opening sack. Right guard Damieon George played just 22 snaps before giving way to Roderick Kearney, who outshined him in every way, grading out better as both a pass blocker and run blocker.
Napier spent much of camp talking about how this team had more offensive line depth than any he’s coached at Florida.
They’ll need to prove—and find the right combinations—against a talented USF front led by Ira Singleton, who terrorized Boise State with 6 pressures and 6 quarterback hurries, lining up both at defensive end and on the left edge—where he’d get the chance to work on Lovett. Dennard Flowers, the defensive end who tends to line up opposite Singleton, was also marvelous against Boise, collecting 4 pressures, 3 hurries, and a tackle for loss.
Has DJ Lagway shaken off the rust?
Lagway was a perfectly acceptable 15-for-18 for 120 yards and 3 touchdowns in a half of football last week in The Swamp, but he left the game frustrated.
He took a sack, missed multiple open receivers down the field, and generally felt like the offense was lethargic under his leadership.
“We didn’t play our brand of football,” Lagway told media following the win.
By all accounts, Lagway’s had an incredible week of practice since disappointing himself — even if he didn’t disappoint the fans or team — last weekend.
“He’s been on a mission this week,” Napier told media Wednesday. “He’s showed up with an edge every day, and I think he’s excited about getting back out there and proving he can play better.”
Opportunities to make big plays should be there for the Gators, who flashed big play potential at various receiver spots in their Week 1 romp. From the speedy Tre Wilson to freshman Vernell Brown III to speedy UCLA transfer J. Michael Sturdivant, Florida has no shortage of riches on the perimeter. Can Lagway deliver?
It’s hard not to be rusty when you play your first live, game-speed football of the year after missing 11 on 11 for an entire spring and the bulk of summer camp. But for Florida to reach its ceiling in 2025, Lagway needs to show he’s back to being the sensational five-star difference maker who won every game he started and finished for Florida in 2024.
A statement game from the Florida defense
Napier insisted this defense had all the makings of the group that could return Florida to its longstanding tradition of defensive excellence.
From 1982 (when Jeff Sagarin and the NYT started tracking total defense) until 2019, Florida ranked behind only Alabama and Ohio State in fielding top 20 defenses. Steve Spurrier may have revolutionized SEC football with the Fun-N-Gun Offense, but the staple at Florida has long been elite defense. That hasn’t been the case recently. Florida hasn’t fielded a top 50 defense since Todd Grantham’s unit finished 9th nationally in 2019. Not so coincidentally, that season was the last time Florida won 11 games.
This group should be different and looked different on Saturday, surrendering just 86 yards and 2 first downs.
But Long Island never stood a chance.
USF, with the electric Byrum Brown, who threw for over 3,000 yards as a redshirt freshman and was balling out again in 2024 before an injury, can move the football. Brown, a gifted runner, makes the type of unscheduled plays that have frustrated Florida defenses throughout the decade. The Bulls also have outstanding talent at receiver in Tennessee transfer Chas Nimrod (96 yards vs. Boise State) and Keshaun Singleton (5 catches, 93 yards). Their ability to get vertical should push Florida’s secondary, which was prone to giving up explosive plays a season ago.
The difference should be Florida’s revamped linebacker room. All camp, Napier told anyone who would listen he felt this linebacker room was special, perhaps the best in America. Led by sophomore Myles Graham, they looked the part Week 1, but it’s hard to measure much against a Long Island team that never challenged the Gators physically or vertically. If the Gators can manage to contain Brown as a runner and slow the South Florida run game, that will take pressure off the Florida secondary. But that’s easier said than done, and if Brown manages to extend plays with his legs—Florida will need to hold up on the back end to avoid a nip and tuck, four quarter football game.
Prediction: Florida 38, South Florida 14: The trending pick is to go with the Bulls, who are getting 17.5 heading into Saturday’s Swamp showdown. I don’t see it. Florida will dominate the line of scrimmage and Jadan Baugh, who looked All-SEC good in Week 1, will explode against a Bulls defense that bent — but didn’t break — against Boise State. Florida will make USF one-dimensional by slowing the run game and this game won’t be interesting by the time 90,000 strong roar “I Won’t Back Down” on Saturday night.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
