Another year, another Florida Gators defeat in Jacksonville. (Photo via Georgia athletics.)
For about three and a half quarters, the Florida Gators were within striking distance of mighty Georgia.
Bulldog quarterback Carson Beck had thrown three picks. Florida’s defense was getting off the field and forcing punts in between Beck’s mistake throws. And Florida’s offensive line– even without an able passer at the controls– was doing enough for running backs Ja’Kobi Jackson and Jadan Baugh to move the ball on the ground.
But it was just a mean tease, a mirage, a pile of fool’s gold.
Because in the end, none of that mattered. The Florida Gators could not overcome the loss of starting QB DJ Lagway, could not get off the field on a critical third and seven midway through the fourth quarter, and could not reach deep enough for one more batch of big plays. And thus, Georgia– as great teams do– overcame its own shortcomings to beat Florida for the fourth straight year, 34-20.
This one was closer than the last three, but by far the most frustrating of the quartet of defeats in Jacksonville. Mostly because, despite the close score, the outcome wasn’t really in doubt after Lagway left the game due to a hamstring injury.
A defensive struggle early was finally broken open a little bit when Lagway hit Aidan Mizell for a 41 yard touchdown pass to give the Gators a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter. But soon after, disaster struck: Lagway took off on a QB power run and didn’t get up. He lay motionless for several minutes until the cart came onto the field to take him to the locker room.
The good news was that the entire Florida Gators team seemed determined to play for Lagway, which was pretty evident by the support they showed him. The bad news was that Lagway’s replacement Aidan Warner, try as he might, simply was not effective as a passer. Warner finished the day 7/22 passing with 66 yards.
And sure enough, with the limitations Warner carries as a QB, it was a bad throw of his that finished the game off. A terrible decision resulted in Warner tossing the ball right to Georgia’s CJ Allen. Moments later, Georgia scored the game-sealing touchdown to make it 34-20 and it was clear Florida had no answers.
The Florida Gators fought for 60 minutes, and for that they do deserve credit. But at this point, fighting for 60 minutes is simply not good enough. Billy Napier sits with an ugly 15-18 record at Florida, and two-fifths of those wins came against Samford, Eastern Washington, South Florida, Central Florida, Charlotte, and McNeese. Most people refer to those teams as cupcakes. Another good term is “payday” opponents.
Napier also sports a grotesque 1-10 record against Florida’s rivals: Georgia, FSU, Tennessee, LSU, and Miami. That’s by far the worst record any Gator coach has ever had against rivals (and for the sake of the word “ever” I included Auburn games as rivalry games).
Making matters worse, Florida’s 2025 recruiting class is currently dead in the water in the dead of night, and nobody is coming to rescue it. The Gators’ class currently rates 51st in the country. For comparison, Dan Mullen– fired from Florida in part due to his apathy in the recruiting department– never finished with a recruiting class outside the top 25, and that statistic holds even if you take out guys like Chris Steele and Jalon Jones who never played. (Go ahead, play around on 247 Sports’ class calculator and do the math yourself if you’d like.)
So now, here we stand, in early November of 2024. Billy Napier’s first two seasons finished with 6-7 and 5-7 records. His third year won’t be much better if at all, currently sitting at 4-4 with three ranked teams still on the docket. Recruiting– which was said to be the final remaining pillar behind the argument to retain him– is now crumbling to ash, as we’re barely a month away from Signing Day and the Gators are not only not gaining new recruits, but they are actually losing them.
It’s great that the team fought tooth and nail against a better opponent. That does absolutely nothing to combat any of the above data points.
At this point, the Florida Gators program is in full on crisis aversion mode, as even if DJ Lagway magically returns to full health against Texas next week, there’s still the problem that Florida just surrendered more than 450 yards for the fourth time in eight games this season. And sure, the Gator defense absolutely has been playing better recently, but those improved defensive showings came against Central Florida (bad offense), Tennessee (anomaly), and Kentucky (really bad offense). And now they have to face the #16, #21, and #2 offenses in the country in the next three games.
We all know what my personal opinion of Billy Napier is as the Gator head coach. It’s not a very good one. But now, the question becomes, who wins the power struggle at Florida? Do the boosters strong-arm Scott Stricklin into getting Napier out? Or does Stricklin stand firm without a real university president to fire him and continue his pattern of refusing to admit he made a mistake?
But we’re not going to get the answer to that question yet, or for the next month. So until then, watching the Florida Gators football team do the best they can is the best it will get.
