The Gators found their mojo against Texas; can they keep it up?

(Photo by Chris Spears)

Now for the hard part.

We have seen the Gators go off the cliff with the loss to South Florida, self-destruct with the loss to LSU and hit rock bottom with the loss to Miami. We have also seen them rally in ways we probably didn’t expect to play the best game of the Billy Napier era in beating then 9^th-ranked Texas at The Swamp.

In breaking their back-to-back-to-back freefall by knocking Texas completely out of the Associated Press top 25, the Gators (2-3, 1-1 SEC) played the way Napier and the entire civilized world thought they would when the season began. We expected a team capable of playing at a high level but it took five games to get there.

The reasons why the Gators played so poorly the first four games are numerous. They were wildly undisciplined in the loss to South Florida. They played as if they took football lessons by mail order and the delivery truck never arrived in the loss to LSU. Against Miami they were physically whipped.

At the end of a productive off week, Napier gave the Gators a couple of days off and asked them to do some soul searching including evaluating all of what Ron Zook would have described as “noise in the system.”

In the south end zone of The Swamp, speaking to the media after beating Texas 29-21 Saturday evening, Napier said, “I told them after the open date to go home for two days, and you've got to really think about what you've experienced, what you've learned, listen to the noise, listen to it closely, and you've got to know that – we’ve got to know who we are. We'll have an opportunity to change that narrative the next time we compete. 

“I wanted them to move forward. When they showed up Sunday, wash it off, flush it, forget about it, let's focus on this one week at a time. That's the key is to get this age group to – tomorrow will be a different set of challenges, right? I think that consistency will be important.”

Obviously the self-reflection worked because the Gators were the superior team Saturday in all three phases of the game. The offense put up a season-high 457 yards against a defense that hadn’t allowed more than 269 yards in a game, the same defense that held Ohio State to 14 points and 203 yards. Florida’s defense went beast mode, turning the game into a nightmare for Arch Manning, who was sacked six times, hit eight times and by Texas calculations hurried a whopping 22 times. On special teams, Taylor Spierto sent The Swamp into an absolute frenzy when he blocked a punt that rolled out of the end zone for a safety.

Up to that point the crowd of 90,714 had been very loud, but that safety was like turning up the decibels from the same level as Sunday at the GatorNationals to something close to a 747 takeoff. The lid was lifted on The Swamp and loud became louder, reaching a crescendo in the fourth quarter.

This was Jarvis Moss blocking the field goal on the last play of South Carolina in 2006 loud. That one got the Gators to Atlanta for the SEC Championship after which they beat Ohio State for the national championship. No championships were at stake Saturday to incite the crowd at The Swamp, but the frustration of three consecutive bad football games was pent up and released.

As badly as the Gators needed a win, the Gator Nation needed one, too. In both cases it was a giant exhale of relief.

And that brings us to the here and now. The hard part.

One win is nice, particularly since it was over the preseason No. 1 team in the nation, but it’s just one win. There are still seven games remaining on a schedule that will be like navigating a minefield chock full of Claymores. It starts with Saturday evening in College Station, the Gators will be facing 5^th-ranked Texas A&M (5-0, 2-0 SEC) at Kyle Field. The last time the Aggies were ranked this high was 2012 when Johnny Football (Manziel) was busy turning them into the most entertaining team in America.

Oh, by the way, in their season opener that year, the Aggies bit the bullet 20-17 at the hands of Will Muschamp and the Florida Gators. Just as losing to the Gators lit a fire under the Aggies, who went on to win 11 games, winning flipped all the switches for the Gators who went 11-1 in the regular season (11-2 after a bowl loss to Charlie Strong and Louisville), rising as high as No. 3 in the polls.

The reality of 2025 is the Aggies have football fever. They believe in the very depth of their hearts that they are on a mission from God to finally win the Southeastern Conference championship. The Aggies have been in the league since 2012 and they’re oh-fer 13 years. The last time they won a conference championship was 1998 when they were coached by R.C. Slocum and still in the Big 12.

So, think of what the Gators have waiting for them something similar to what Texas found in The Swamp. Years of pent up frustrations are waiting to be released at Kyle Field which means the Gators will be tasked with doing something they’ve never done since Billy Napier became the head coach – beat a ranked team on the road.

And this is just the first step in the journey. If they spring the upset of the Aggies they still have No. 10 Georgia, No. 4 Ole Miss, No. 12 Tennessee and No. 25 Florida State ahead with a pair of not insignificant speed bumps in Mississippi State and Kentucky. Navigating that schedule to come up with a winning record is a monumental task. Gator fans and experts alike see it the equivalent of the 12 disciples seeing 5,000 sitting on a hillside at lunch time with only five barley loaves and two fishes to go around.

It looks daunting. It is daunting, but there isn’t a team on the schedule that the Gators cannot beat if they play to the same level as they did to beat Texas. It will take that kind of effort week in and week out to not just post a winning record but to also keep Billy Napier from having to figure out how his family is going to squeeze by in the future on $20 million.

“I think the challenge will be how we handle this,” Napier said Saturday night. “I think it's going to be extremely important that we – you've got to wake up in the morning and wash all this off. Same people that talk about you are going to be talking good about you, and can you handle that. I think that's the challenge in sport is to be consistent, to be process-oriented, to be motivated by the right things and not have a letdown going forward.

“Look, that's a really good team, but just start looking ahead here. Every team is going to be a challenge.”

Every team will be a challenge, but the biggest challenge will be the team Napier takes into battle every single week. Will it be the one that gave away the South Florida game? Will it be the one that could have beaten LSU  if not for that teensy matter of five interceptions? Will it be the one that couldn’t do anything right against Miami?

Or will it be the one that got it all together to play like a team capable of muscling and finessing and elbowing its way to a win against a very good football team? And, can they do it seven straight weeks?

That’s the hard part.

Associated Press top 25: 1. Ohio State 5-0; 2. Miami 5-0; 3. Oregon 5-0; 4. Ole Miss 5-0; 5. Texas A&M 5-0; 6. Oklahoma 5-0; 7. Indiana 5-0; 8. Alabama 4-1; 9. Texas Tech 5-0; 10. Georgia 4-1; 11. LSU, 4-1; 12. Tennessee 4-1; 13. Georgia Tech 5-0; 14. Missouri 5-0; 15. Michigan 4-1; 16. Notre Dame 3-2; 17. Illinois 5-1; 18. BYU 5-0; 19. Virginia 5-1; 20. Vanderbilt 5-1; 21. Arizona State 4-1; 22. Iowa State 5-1; 23. Memphis 6-0; 24. South Florida 4-1; 25. Florida State 3-2

AFCA Coaches top 25: 1. Ohio State 5-0; 2. Oregon 5-0; 3. Miami 5-0; 4. Ole Miss 5-0; 5. Texas A&M 5-0; 6. Oklahoma 5-0; 7. Indiana 5-0; 8. Alabama 4-1; 9. Georgia 4-1; 10. Texas Tech 5-0; 11. LSU 4-1; 12. Tennessee 4-1; 13. Georgia Tech 5-0; 14. Missouri 5-0; 15. Michigan 4-1; 16. Notre Dame 3-2; 17. Illinois 5-1; 18. BYU 5-0; 19. Texas 3-2; 20. Vanderbilt 5-1; 21. Iowa State 5-1; 22. Penn State 3-2; 23. Arizona State 4-1; 24. Virginia 5-1; 25. Memphis 6-0