GAINESVILLE — Thanks largely to belief in a talented young quarterback and a roster filled with more blue-chip talent than they’ve had since reaching the SEC Championship game in 2020, Florida finds itself picked in the upper half of the SEC as the dog days of summer bleed into August, summer camp and mercifully and finally — football season.
One constant maxim I’ve learned in a decade covering college football is that it’s often the things that aren’t talked about much during talking season that define what happens during the actual football season.
Enter the Florida run game.
While national media, Florida fans, and opposing fans (rightly) focus on the health and gargantuan talent of sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway, it’s hard not to watch Florida practice without wondering if we’re all sleeping on the strength of this football team: controlling the line of scrimmage and running the dadgum ball.
Florida returns 4 of its top 5 rushers from 2025, including All-SEC freshman Jadan Baugh, who Florida strength and conditioning coach Tyler Miles said last week is the “strongest guy we’ve ever had at Florida.” For perspective, Florida has tracked weight room prowess for a long time in its football program, and Baugh, broke not only “pound-for-pound records, but team records,” according to to Miles. “He put up freaky numbers.”
This makes some sense, given Baugh’s blend of power and explosiveness helped him lead the Gators with 673 yards rushing and 7 touchdowns as a true freshman while ranking 5th (tops among SEC freshmen) in the SEC in broken tackle rate, per PFF. In other words, Baugh isn’t just a weight-room warrior. He’s a bruising bully in pads who can also outrun you when he turns the corner. Ask LSU.
Baugh is joined in the running back room by Ja’Kobi Jackson, a compact 5-11, 215-pound senior who has gone from unranked recruit to draft-bound prospect that reminds NFL scouts of Miami legend Frank Gore with a knack for 1-cut hole hitting coupled with physicality and deceptive second-level speed.
Baugh and Jackson will get the lion’s share of carries, but the group is spelled by a host of high level recruits, from sophomore Trayaun Webb (keep an eye on a recent injury suffered by Webb, however) to freshman blue-chips Duke Clark and KD Daniels. It’s as deep a stable as Florida’s had in the Billy Napier era and likely since the early Dan Mullen years when Florida was last in the national playoff picture.
Florida has 2 other significant advantages in the run game before you get to Lagway, who if healthy should, at a minimum, keep defenses from keying on the Florida backs.
First, the Gators return the most production on their offensive line in the SEC.
First-Team All-American center Jake Slaughter, the only Power 4 center to grade out above 80 as a run and pass blocker, is the nation’s most effective returning offensive lineman, per PFF. Austin Barber gives Florida an All-SEC talent and 3-year starter at left tackle. Three other Florida linemen played over 300 snaps a season ago, including both starting guards, Knijeah Harris and Damieon George Jr., who both graded out among the top 6 guards in the SEC a season ago.
All told, the Gators return 5 offensive linemen who played over 300 snaps and graded out among the top 15 in the SEC as run blockers. No other SEC school has more than 3 offensive linemen who fit that bill. Napier agreed that Slaughter and Barber deserve the preseason accolades, but was quick to praise the growth and talent on the interior of Florida’s line which, for the first time in the Napier era, has enough depth to have a truly competitive fall camp.
“I think we have 4 that are good players. I think Kam Waites and Rod Kearney are having good camps, and I think there’s a lot of competition there. Obviously Damieon and Knijeah are returning stars, but we got 4 good players. And I think Jason Zandamela has had a good camp. He’s really impressed me through the fifth day with the progress he’s made at center. So, yeah, I feel good about those guys up front, and it’s extremely competitive out there because I think the defensive line room and the edge room is a battle every day. So, yeah, feel good about that competitive depth at that position for sure,” Napier said Monday. “We know that’s critical because in this league, we know the depth will be tested. And for the first time since we’ve been here, we have the depth we need.”
Second, Florida’s run schemes are among the most effective and difficult to prepare for in the SEC, according to multiple coordinators and defensive coaches who spoke to SDS last winter. All coaches were granted anonymity to speak freely given they all will face Napier in 2025.
“(Napier) does a nice job in the run game,” an SEC defensive coordinator told SDS. “They are multiple, both in their concepts and personnel groupings. They are difficult to prepare for in that respect.”
Another longtime SEC defensive assistant agreed. “They have a host of zone concepts they disguise well, with variations that can make it hard on you. They are also very well-coached on the offensive line. That group was so much better by November last year than what was on film in September. You don’t usually see a team improve as much as they did on the line of scrimmage. That’s good coaching.”
In Florida’s final 3 games (all wins), the Gators averaged 207 yards rushing, with a 61% rushing success rate. That included Florida’s Playoff-busting win over Ole Miss, the nation’s best run defense in 2024.
If Florida can run the ball as well as the data, personnel, and scheme suggest they will, it ought to open things up for DJ Lagway and the passing game to pick opponents apart. When defenses key on Florida’s run, Lagway feasts.
On the key play of Florida’s win over LSU, for example, Lagway gets a safety cheating to slow the Gators run game after Ja’Kobi Jackson ripped off an 8-yard run to give Florida 2nd-and-short in LSU territory. With a single-high look, Lagway has 2 options: Chimere Dike, who is wide open on a finger route, or Elijhah Badger, who is open — albeit less so — on a sail route. Lagway steps up in the pocket after play action and hits Badger for a 36-yard gain. The Gators scored a play later, taking the lead for good before Baugh’s run iced the game a possession later.
This version of Florida is lethal, capable of playing Napier’s preferred brand of multiple, complementary, bully-ball football.
Does having a potential first round quarterback help? Of course it does.
But in a line-of-scrimmage league, Florida’s path to the playoff just might begin with a bruising run game.
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.
