When Attitudes Changed, So Changed the Florida Gators

“It’s these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, nothing remains quite the same” -- Jimmy Buffett, 1977, “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes”

Tyreak Sapp (94) splits to FSU blockers on his way to a sack (Gator Bait Photo by Chris Spears)

TALLAHASSEE -- Tyreak Sapp can’t pinpoint the exact moment all the attitudes changed for Florida’s defenders, but nothing has remained the same since it happened.

“I wouldn't be able to tell you the exact point in time, but I just tell you like we all had to look each other in the eye and tell each other that we're going to make things change and that and that was it because our word is probably one of the most important things and it means a lot to each other,” Sapp said Saturday night after the Gators completed a rather remarkable turnaround with a 31-11 regular season ending win over Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium.

What happened Saturday night in Tallahassee was in stark contrast to the events three Division I opponents the Gators played in a September to forget. The Gators couldn’t get off the field in losses to Miami and Texas A&M. The Gators scored 45 points against Mississippi State, but the defense struggled mightily. Those three teams scored 102 points and gained 1,497 yards.  The Gators forced one fumble, picked off one pass and had four sacks, although three were against Mississippi State, not exactly the poster child for pass protection.

When September rolled into October, consensus was head ball coach Billy Napier had one foot out the door. Contrast that to the last three games of the season, punctuated by an exclamation point effort against the Seminoles, whose quarterback Luke Kromenhoek was permanently engaged in feet don’t fail me now mode. The Gators gave up just 239 total yards, got to Kromenhoek eight times for 39 yards in losses and had another six tackles for loss that totaled -14 yards. Florida State fumbled the ball eight times, five of which the Gators recovered.

Add Saturday’s stout defensive effort with wins over LSU and Ole Miss and it is a Jekyll and Hyde transformation. The Gators gave up 44 points in the last three games, got to the quarterbacks 18 times for 104 yards in losses and had another 16 tackles for loss. The 3-game turnover totals are seven fumbles recovered and two interceptions.

Defense needed to set the tone against Florida State because the Florida offense struggled all night to find a measure of consistency. The Gators ran the ball well -- 235 yards including 99 from Montrell Johnson Jr. and 81 from Jadan Baugh -- but DJ Lagway never got in any sort of groove throwing the ball. Lagway did have one remarkable play in which he somehow escaped the grasp of 6-5, 330-pound Darrell Jackson Jr. and threw an absolute dart downfield to Chimere Dike.

Lagway’s up and down game didn’t deter the UF defense, which has found motivation in the freshman quarterback’s explosive tendencies.

“We gotta go out there and set the tone no matter what,” Sapp said. “However many ways we can get DJ the ball, that’s what we do.”

Lagway became the full-time starter when Graham Mertz tore an ACL in the Tennessee game, a game that Napier and the entire team know they could have and should have won. The Vols are 10-2, shoo-ins for the College Football Playoff, but that’s a game the Gators would love to get back.

The Gators are 4-2 since that 23-17 overtime loss to Tennessee in Knoxville. The Gators blew out Kentucky and were leading Georgia, 10-3, when Lagway left the game in the second quarter. The Gators were playing with such confidence that you don’t have to be a visionary to believe Florida wins with Lagway going the distance.

Forget the Texas game in Austin. With Lagway out and walk-on QB Aidan Warner at the helm, that loss proves nothing.

The next three games, however, are milestones in a journey that is unfolding. With Lagway starting, the Gators are 3-0, and the defense has swarmed and overwhelmed three consecutive opponents. The once thought dead in the water Gators are now 7-5, assured of their first winning season since 2020, and projected by some experts to face an ACC opponents (Duke or Syracuse seem likely) in the Taxslayer Gator Bowl January 2.

That’s a long way since the Mississippi State win that closed out the September schedule. To his credit, even when the Gators were getting rolled by Miami and Texas A&M Napier never wavered in his belief that the Gators were on the right path, that they simply had to start channeling their inner winner.

Napier credits the bye week for the transformation. He shuffled defensive coaching responsibilities, sending Ron Roberts to the booth to make the defensive play calls and bringing Austin Armstrong down to the sideline. That proved a solid decision, but ultimately, the difference was found between the ears of his players.

“I think that Wednesday of that first open date, that's where I kind of saw our guys change tunes a little bit, change gears as competitors, right, get back to playing the game, enjoying playing the game,” Napier said Saturday night. “And then I think the way we competed on the road at Tennessee in that first half, we really showed up and fought our tails off. And, you know, I thought we were in position to win that game.”

Since leaving Knoxville believing they could have and should have won, it is indeed a different Florida team. Despite a rash of injuries that would have crippled most teams, the Gators are winning close games with kids plugging the gaps where veteran players have gone down.

Saturday night in Tallahassee, for example, the Gators plugged in Bruce Lovett at right guard for injured Damieon George Jr. Four sophomores started in the secondary and when the rotation called for subs, freshmen Gregory Smith and Jameer Grimsley stepped in. While Montrell Johnson Jr. gave the Gators 99 yards including a 65-yard sprint to the end zone that put him over the 3,000-yard mark for his career, it should be noted that he missed three full games and parts of two others due to injuries. In his place Baugh and Ja’Kobi Jackson stepped up. Baugh gained 81 yards against FSU while Jackson had 51 and a TD.

"Man, we got two rookie DBs out there playing tonight, Greg Smith and Jameer Grimsley are out there,” Napier said. “So yeah, I think next man up, big time in special teams. I think we have a lot of players that have played different roles, but the running back group I think has stepped up when we had a few guys banged up and the secondary, and obviously the quarterback dynamic.”

A winning season has been achieved even though the betting odds -- the over/under for the Gators was 4.5 wins when the season began -- were completely tilted against Florida. How winning has unfurled is a rather interesting tale, but Napier gives a lot of credit to belief.

Belief in the coaches. Belief in themselves. Ultimately, belief in their teammates as part of the whole team concept.

“There's no guarantee of a return,” Napier said. “You got to do all the work during the week, and then when the ball gets spotted, you have to go execute. You have to win one-on-ones, you have to communicate at a high level. You got to play with an extra effort, you got to play with physicality, but it's something we figured out. We could do it and I think that it’s football and they think we’ve got some guys that can play ... and they finally started playing with some confidence, you know. I think some belief, I think, is powerful.”

Belief is a powerful thing. So is the attitude that there is no sense of entitlement, that everything done on the field has to be earned. It starts in the locker room, extends to practice and then manifests itself with effort on the field on game day.

Tyreak Sapp, whose Saturday night effort produced five tackles, one sack, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble, probably said it best.

“We don't deserve anything,” he said. “We earn everything that we have and everything that we get. Nobody gives us anything because when people play the Florida Gators they're going to put their best foot forward and they're going to try to destroy us just because of who we are. And, we accept that challenge, week in and week out, day in and day out. And, we take that personally and we go ahead and we go to work and no matter what happens out there on that field we always come back together as brothers.”

Saturday night, the band of brothers that is Florida’s defense closed out the regular season by making a statement against an arch-rival that had walked away a winner the last two years. The Gators earned the right to win this game, but it’s merely the last step taken in an ongoing journey that still has one more game remaining in this season.

One more game. A bowl game that could get the Gators to eight wins, which seemed unlikely back in August, impossible back in September. Looking back, that’s a remarkable accomplishment, but the Gators can’t dwell too long on what got them here.

As the late philospher Jimmy Buffett penned, “Oh yesterdays are over my shoulder, so I can’t look back for too long. There’s too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just can’t go wrong.”