Depth, talent: more reasons for optimism about Florida defense

(Photo by Chris Spears)

Three more days and the 2025 football season kicks off against Long Island, as outmatched an opponent the Gators have faced in a season opener since 2009 when Charleston Southern took its paycheck and limped back home after a 69-0 beatdown. If the Gators score a few touchdowns, hold the Sharks out of the end zone and emerge from this encounter without injuries, then it should be consider it a raging success.

Any way you slice it, we aren’t going to learn much of anything from this game. There is no reason to do anything that isn’t as plain vanilla as it gets. Just line up and go at it. Give DJ Lagway a chance to make some throws against live competition. Give the young wide receivers a chance to run routes and catch the football with 90,000 people watching. Let the offensive line open huge holes so Jadan Baugh and Ja’Kobi Jackson can run the ball. Run it a lot. Limit the blitzes on defense. Swarm to the football. Don’t miss tackles. No silly penalties.  

And once again, emerge from this encounter without injuries. Also, don’t leave the stadium with young guys who have little in the way of experience thinking is this all there is to college football?

Starting week two against South Florida, the schedule takes a serious upgrade but even against a second straight schedule that can only be described as brutal, the Gators have an opportunity to be very good this year. SEC Championship Game good? College Football Playoff good? Only time will tell, but competitive depth and a championship mentality will go a long way toward giving the Gators an opportunity to play for and possibly win a championship. It has been since 2008 that the Gators won a national championship. They made it to Atlanta four times – 2009, 2015, 2016 and 2020 – but came up empty. Had there been a College Football Playoff in 2009, the Gators would have made it. If they hadn’t shot themselves in the feet until they were playing on nubs in 2020, they would have beaten eventual national champ Alabama and made the playoff.

If only. The worst two words in the college football vernacular. For too many years since Urban Meyer retired, Florida football has been defined by if only. It is time to put if only in the rearview and turn the here and now into a consistent push for a championship.

Credit Billy Napier with a plan to rebuild the program from the ground up and re-establish Florida as a consistent occupant on championship radars. He has certainly upgraded the talent from what he inherited in 2022. Per 247Sports, which, based on recruiting, evaluated the talent of every Division I team, Napier will take the field Saturday with the 12^th most talented roster in the country. A roster that good should have a shot at a very big season.

The top 25: 1. Georgia; 2. Alabama; 3. Ohio State; 4. Texas; 5. Oregon, 6. LSU; 7. Clemson; 8. Texas A&M; 9. Notre Dame; 10. Penn State; 11. Michigan; 12. FLORIDA; 13. Auburn; 14. Oklahoma; 15. Miami; 16. Tennessee; 17. Southern California; 18. South Carolina; 19. Florida State; 20. Nebraska; 21. Ole Miss; 22. Missouri; 23. Arkansas; 24. Mississippi State; 25. SMU.

Also worth noting: 27. Kentucky; 43. UCF; 55. Vanderbilt; 61. South Florida; 82. Florida Atlantic; 98. Florida International.

From a purely offensive standpoint, few teams can match or exceed the talent the Gators have accumulated. Lagway is a consensus top 10 quarterback who respected Fox Sports college football analyst believes could emerge as a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender.

“If they (Gators) get to 10 (wins) with that schedule and Lagway is playing well, guess where he’s gonna be? New York.” Klatt said on the Joel Klatt Show. “The hype surrounding Lagway will be tremendous. They’ll have massive wins, in particular in some of those matchups that you know are gonna be primetime affairs down in the SEC schedule.”

Lagway alone can’t do it all, but Napier has surrounded his sophomore quarterback with an offensive line that is top five in the country, a running backs room that is flat out loaded and the most speed a Florida team has had at wide receiver in years.

Scoring won’t be an issue even after Saturday’s feeding frenzy in The Swamp. Teams that rely too heavily on winning games in shootout fashion rarely win championships. The defense is going to have to come through, but Napier is confident in coordinator Ron Roberts, now in his second year on the staff. Once Roberts moved to the booth and took over the defense last year, the Gators suddenly were formidable. Roberts has potential star power in Tyreak Sapp and Caleb Banks on the defensive line, Myles Graham and Aaron Chiles at the linebackers and Devin Moore and Jordan Castell in the secondary.

Star power is a good thing, but for there to be defensive carryover, some of the young guys who were backups last year will have to step up their game and newbies who find themselves in the rotations will have to prove they are capable of doing it when 90,000 people in the stadium and millions on TV are watching. Depth, even though much of it is young, and Roberts have Napier feeling better than he’s felt at any time since he took the Florida job.

“I do think that number one, we have more competitive depth than we've ever had, and we also have some veteran players that I think provide really good leadership,” Napier said Wednesday morning on the SEC Coaches Teleconference. “We also have Coach Roberts going into year two, which I think we will benefit from, and a couple new assistant coaches over there that I think have done a really good job.

“And don't forget that this is our fourth year in the system. Although we've had different coordinators, I think we've been able to keep the same system intact, and that's helped the players develop. But I do see a little bit more maturity on that side of the ball, and I think that in particular, the secondary group has grown up quite a bit over the last couple of years. So, look, we have the potential to play championship-caliber defense, but we have to go do that when the time comes. So, you gotta prove it on the field, but I do think the makeup of that group not only from a talent perspective, but also from a mindset is a positive for our team right now."

When the Gators went on that 4-game winning streak at the end of the 2024 season, the Gators gave up an average of 321.8 yards and 13 points per game. For the season the Gators gave up 386.9 yards and 23.1 points per game. In the last four games, the Gators got to the quarterback 19 times (20 in the other nine game) and 12 turnovers (13 in the other nine).

By finishing on a winning note – the Gators actually bring the longest winning streak in the SEC to the 2025 season – there is a level of confidence that hasn’t been there since Napier took over. In Napier’s first season (2022), the Gators lost their last three games to finish 6-7. In 2023, they finished on a 5-game losing streak.

Some might call Florida’s 4-game winning streak momentum, but the 2024 season ended nine months ago. Confidence does have a way of carrying over, however. It has shown in Napier’s press conferences throughout the month of August. His demeanor is very self-assured. When he speaks he doesn’t sound like a coach trying to sell the public but instead sounds like someone who has answers where there were far too many questions in years before.

End of the year winning streaks will do that for you.

"I think that there was a belief factor that maybe resonated that hasn't before,” Napier said. “This was the first time in our tenure that we have finished strong in the regular season and postseason, and I do think that that belief in what we do and how we do it has helped our offseason. I think our players have a certain level of confidence that's built around how we prepare. Their work, their confidence in each other, and ultimately some guys that have played a lot of football around here.

“So I think, we still have, about 30 percent of the team is new, and I think it's critical that we onboard those guys the right way here as we start the season. To get the result you want on gameday, you have to execute your process throughout the week a certain way, and I think that's where our focus is at right now."

LAGWAY NO. 8 IN CBS RANKING OF THE TOP 50 QUARTERBACKS

The top 10: 1. Cade Klubnik, Clemson; 2. Garrett Nussmeier, LSU; 3. Drew Allar, Penn State; 4. Arch Manning, Texas; 5. Julian Sayin, Ohio State; 6. LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina; 7. Sam Leavitt, Arizona State; 8. DJ LAGWAY, FLORIDA; 9. John Mateer, Oklahoma; 10. Josh Hoover, TCU

No. 11-20: 11. Nico Iamaleava, UCLA; 12. Jalon Daniels, Kansas; 13. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt; 14. Demond Williams, Washington; 15. Jayden Maiava, Southern California; 16. Sawyer Roberton, Baylor; 17. Kevin Jennings, SMU; 18. Rocco Becht, Iowa State; 19. Miller Moss, Louisville; 20. Ty Simpson, Alabama

No. 21-50: 21. Avery Johnson, Kansas State; 22. Carson Beck, Miami; 23. Haynes King, Georgia Tech; 24. Darian Mensah, Duke; 25. Luke Altmeyer, Illinois; 26. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana; 27. Behren Morton, Texas Tech; 28. Dylan Raiola, Nebraska; 29. Taylen Green, Arkansas; 30. Marcel Reed, Texas A&M; 31. Dante Moore, Oregon; 32. Austin Simmons, Ole Miss; 33. Noah Fifita, Arizona; 34. Alonza Barnett, James Madison; 35. Bryce Underwood, Michigan; 36. Blake Horvath, Navy; 37. Gunner Stockton, Georgia; 38. Devon Dampier, Utah; 39. Maverick McIvor, Western Kentucky; 40. CJ Bailey, North Carolina State; 41. Maddux Manson, Boise State; 42. Mark Gronowski, Iowa; 43. Braylon Braxton, Southern Miss; 44. Owen McCown, UT-San Antonio; 46. Caden Veltkamp, Florida Atlantic; 47. Colton Joseph, Old Dominion; 48. Joey Aguilar, Tennessee; 49. Parker Navarro, Ohio; 50. Aidan Chiles, Michigan