Gators will get a serious step up in competition against USF
- Franz Beard
- Sep 1, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 2, 2025
The 15th-ranked Gators (1-0) will take a step up in competition Saturday when South Florida (1-0) comes to The Swamp (4:15 p.m., SEC Network) fresh off a surprising 34-7 win over No. 25 Boise State in Tampa. The win over Boise was the Bulls’ first over a ranked Division I team in HBC Alex Golesh’s tenure. Golesh has led the Bulls to back-to-back 7-6 seasons that ended with wins in a bowl game.
The Bulls took advantage of Boise mistakes to pull off the upset. Boise dominated time of possession by nearly 13 minutes, but South Florida forced five fumbles and held the Broncos to a lousy 5.3 yards per pass attempt. Offensively, South Florida quarterback Byrum Brown hit 16-24 of his passes for 210 yards, an impressive 8.8 yards per attempt. Brown also ran for 43 yards and two touchdowns. Boise was unable to force any turnovers, but the Broncos did sack Brown four times.
The Gators scored an easy 55-0 win over Long Island University in their season opener, holding the Sharks to 86 total yards and only two first downs. The Gators rank No. 1 in the SEC and No. 2 in the nation in total defense, No. 1 in fewest first downs allowed, No. 10 against the run (37 yards per game, 1.16 per carry) and No. 5 against the pass (49 yards, 4.5 yards per attempt).
“I thought we were assignment sound and pursued the ball inside out and in general,” Florida coach Billy Napier said. “Look, we're going to be tested in the future, so it's a good start, but obviously we got work to do as a team to turn this thing around and get ready for a really good South Florida team.”
Florida ran a very vanilla offense against LIU in large part to get DJ Lagway accustomed to dealing with a live pass rush once again. “Really, that was his first scrimmage if you think about it,” Napier said Saturday night after Lagway completed 15-18 passes for 120 yards (6.7 per attempt) and three touchdowns. Freshman backup Tramell Jones Jr. was 12-18 for 131 yards (7.3 per attempt) and two touchdowns.
Led by Jadan Baugh (9-104, 1 TD, 11.56 per carry), Florida’s running game was good for 200 yards and 5.26 yards per carry. South Florida was good against the run as Boise managed only 122 yards and 3.21 yards per carry.
Fifteen different Gators caught passes against Long Island, led by freshman Vernell Brown III, who had three catches for 79 yards. Brown also ran back three punts for 45 yards and returned a kickoff for 25 yards.
The Gators didn’t turn the ball over against Long Island and for the second time in school history went an entire game without committing a penalty.
SEC FOOTBALL
No. 8 Alabama (0-1): Two things were quite evident in Bama’s 31-17 loss to Florida State. 1. Bama is woefully soft on both lines of scrimmage. 2. Ty Simpson is not the answer at quarterback. … Paul Finebaum reminded Bama fans calling for HBC Kalen DeBoer’s scalp that his contract buyout is a mere $70 million. Saturday: vs. Louisiana-Monroe (1-0)
Arkansas (1-0): New Mexico State transfer Mike Washington (9 carries, 79 yards) led a running attack that gained 194 yards in the Razorbacks’ win over Alabama A&M. Arkansas threw for 358 yards. Saturday: Arkansas State (1-0) in Little Rock
Auburn: Jackson Arnold can run with the ball (16-137, 2 TDs), but his passing needs work after going 11-17 for 108 yards against Baylor. Saturday: Ball State (0-1)
No. 5 Georgia (1-0): Georgia’s defense throttled Marshall, holding the Thundering Herd to 207 yards and seven points. Of concern, the Bulldogs didn’t get to the quarterback even one time. Saturday: Austin Peay (1-0)
Kentucky (1-0): Quarterback Zach Calzada struggled against Toledo, completing 10-23 passes for 85 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. There isn’t much in the way of backups, the most experienced of which is Beau Allen, who threw for more than 2,800 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2022 at Tarleton State. Saturday: No. 21 Ole Miss (1-0)
No. 9 LSU (1-0): Clemson couldn’t run the ball against the LSU defense. LSU held Clemson to 31 yards on 20 carries. LSU turned Clemson’s Cade Klubnik very ordinary. He completed 19-38 passes for 230 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. Saturday: Louisiana Tech (1-0)
Mississippi State (1-0): Oklahoma transfer Brenen Thompson caught seven passes for 92 yards. Quarterback Blake Shapen threw for 270 yards and a TD. Saturday: No. 11 Arizona State (1-0)
Missouri (1-0): Louisiana-Monroe transfer Ahmad Hardy solidified his hold on the No. 1 tailback job by running for 100 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown in the win over Central Arkansas … Missouri ranks No. 9 in the nation in total offense (580 yards per game). Saturday: Kansas (2-0)
No. 18 Oklahoma (1-0): The Sooners broke out a pass heavy offense against Illinois State. Led by John Mateer (392 yards, three TDPs), the Sooners rank sixth nationally in passing. Saturday: No. 14 Michigan (1-0)
No. 21 Ole Miss (1-0): Sophomore QB Austin Simmons picked up right where Jackson Dart left off. Simmons passed for 341 yards and three touchdowns in the season opening win over Georgia State … Ole Miss put up 695 yards against Georgia State, which is No. 1 in the country. Saturday: at Kentucky (1-0)
No. 13 South Carolina (1-0): In their 24-11 win over Virginia Tech Sunday, the Gamecocks had two explosive plays. The first was an 80 yard punt return for a TD by Vicari Swain, the second a 64-yard TD pass from LaNorris Sellers to Nyck Harbor to seal the win in the fourth quarter. Saturday: South Carolina State (1-0)
No. 24 Tennessee (1-0): The Vols were within one yard of a perfectly balanced offense in the win over Syracuse. Tennessee ran for 246 yards, passed for 247. Saturday: East Tennessee State (1-0)
No. 1 Texas (0-1): Arch Manning’s hype bubble is fizzling after his performance against Ohio State. Arch appeared indecisive, struggled to hit wide open receivers and converted only 1-5 fourth downs. You can’t win a Heisman Trophy the first week of the season, but you can all but lose one. It might take help from Benny Hinn to revive Arch’s Heisman chances. Saturday: San Jose State (0-1)
No. 19 Texas A&M (1-0): It should be a major concern for the Aggie coaching staff that UT-San Antonio ran for 203 yards and averaged 6.15 per carry. The Aggies rank No. 113 nationally against the run. Saturday: Utah State (1-0)
Vanderbilt (1-0): Quarterback Diego Pavia completed 20-25 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns against Charleston Southern … The Commodores put up 45 points and 481 yards in winning their season opener. Saturday: at Virginia Tech (0-1)
What struck me as I watched the Bama flame-out was how little protection Ty Simpson received from his guys upfront. And how poorly the Tide defenders tackled. These programs that create 8 to 10-year contracts with excessive buy-outs are foolishly led. As success and disappointment, championships and decline, are cyclical in major college football, it looks like Alabama is entering the downside again. Notably there were six “successors” to Bear Bryant before Nick Saban arrived. We’re on our fourth since Urban Meyer left our building. It appears the Gators are back on track. The concerning part of Saturday’s performance had to do with our O-line: 1) pressure on DJ Lagway, 2) eleven tackles for loss surrendered, and 3) except fo…
Only 2 SEC teams lost this passed weekend, a highly overrated Texas team and a highly over rated bammer. Both had issues on the oline and at QB. DeBoars may turn out to be a great coach and Manning may turn out to be a great QB, but neither had an auspicious start to this season.