GATORS TAKE DOWN THIRD-STRAIGHT RANKED OPPONENT IN THE SWAMP

2025 Florida Football Postgame Notes
Florida 29, No. 9 Texas 21

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Steve Spurrier-Florida Field – Gainesville, Fla.

GATORS TAKE DOWN THIRD-STRAIGHT RANKED OPPONENT IN THE SWAMP

Florida won its third-straight home game vs. a top-25 opponent, highlighted by an average
margin of victory of 8.7 points.
The Gators recorded their fifth top-25 win under HC Billy Napier including the third in the last
two seasons alone – all of which have come with Florida as an unranked team.
o 2022 vs. No. 7 Utah, 2023 vs. No. 11 Tennessee, 2024 vs. No. 21 LSU, 2024 vs. No. 9 Ole
Miss, 2025 vs. No. 9 Texas
Florida claimed the first matchup against Texas in Gainesville in 85 years.
The Gators rise to 8-3 vs. top-10 opponents in The Swamp since 2012.
o Florida improved to 28-27-2 all-time against top-10 teams at home.
Florida notched its highest-ranked victory since last year’s 24-17 upset of No. 9 Ole Miss in The
Swamp on Nov. 23.
Florida notched its ninth top-10 win as an unranked team at home (9-14-2 all-time)
Saturday’s game represented Florida’s 15th-straight sellout and the 13th-largest crowd (90,714)
in program history.
Napier secured the 61st win of his career, good for fifth-most amongst active SEC head coaches
since 2018.
OFFENSIVE NOTES
QB DJ Lagway completed 21-of-28 passes (75.0%) for a season-high 298 yards (third-highest
total of career) and two touchdowns.
o Lagway was a perfect 4-for-4 for 31 yards on Florida’s opening drive.
Lagway posted the third-best quarterback rating of his career (180.8) while completing at least
75% of his passes for the second time in five starts this season.
o Lagway has posted a QB rating above 130.0 in nine of his last 11 games.
o Lagway delivered a 150.0-plus rating for the eighth time in his career.
Lagway has thrown a touchdown in 10 out of his last 12 contests.
Lagway’s 60-yard connection with WR Vernell Brown III marked his 14th-career completion of
40-plus yards.
Brown’s 60-yard reception represented Florida’s longest pass play of the season and longest
since WR Eugene Wilson III’s 85-yard touchdown reception against Samford on Sept. 7, 2024.
WR Dallas Wilson set records for a Gators true freshman wide receiver making his first-career
start with six receptions, 111 yards receiving and two touchdowns (all records).

o Wilson is not only the first Gators wide receiver to catch a touchdown pass in his first-
career start, but also the first to eclipse 100 yards receiving.

o Wilson became the first Florida freshman wide receiver with a 100-yard game since
Tyrie Cleveland vs. LSU in 2016.

Wilson became the 18th true freshman wide receiver to start in UF program history, marking
the fourth season all-time in which two UF true freshman receivers have drawn starts.
o 2025 – Vernell Brown III & Dallas Wilson, 2016 – Tyrie Cleveland & Josh Hammond, 2012
– Raphael Andrades & Latroy Pittman, 2000 – Matt Jackson & Kelvin Knight
Wilson logged his first-career reception (nine yards) on Florida’s first play from scrimmage.
Wilson later caught his first-career touchdown in the second quarter on a 13-yard reception.
RB Jadan Baugh rushed for a career-high 107 yards while adding one touchdown on 27 carries
for his third-career, 100-yard rushing game.
Baugh opened Saturday’s scoring with his 10th-career rushing touchdown and surpassed 1,000
career rushing yards on Florida’s opening drive.
Baugh caught multiple passes (three) for the third-straight game, marking the first-three games
of his career with multiple receptions.
RB Duke Clark set career highs with nine carries and 38 yards rushing.
TE Hayden Hansen made his 27th-consecutive start, which is the second-longest active streak
on the team and leads all Florida offensive players.
The UF offensive line had its breakout game, allowing zero sacks and just three tackles for loss.
Florida eclipsed 400 total yards for the second time this season and 18th time since the start of
the Napier era.
The Gators have rushed for over 100 yards in 35 of 43 games during the Napier era, including
three of five games this season.
Florida has punched in a rushing score in three of five games this season and 35 of 43 contests
under Napier.
Florida has registered a passing touchdown in four of five games this season and 33 of 43
contests during the Napier era.
By totaling 116 more yards than Texas, the Gators have outgained opponents in 23 games since
the start of the 2022 season.
The Gators have won the time of possession battle in four of five games this season and 20 of
their last 30 games dating back to the start of 2023.
straight games he has played in, dating back to his collegiate debut at Utah in 2023.
DEFENSIVE NOTES
Florida delivered a season-high six sacks and did not surrender one on offense.
Through five games, the Florida defense has allowed a total of 76 points (safety vs. USF and pick-
six at LSU) for an average of 15.2 points per game.
Florida’s defense has allowed 13.0 points per game at home.
Florida has recorded a takeaway in 16 of its last 18 matchups.
o The Gators have produced at least one turnover in 33 of 43 games in the Napier era.
Florida has held opponents scoreless on their first drive in 12 of the last 13 games and hasn’t
allowed any first-quarter points in eight out of its last nine contests.
The Gators limited the Longhorns to 87 total yards (63 passing, 24 rushing) and four first downs
in the first half.
DL Brien Taylor Jr. (second quarter), DL Micah Boireau (third quarter) and DB Devin Moore
(fourth quarter) notched their first-career sacks.
Taylor Jr. finished with a team-high 1.5 sacks, as he also teamed up with LB Jaden Robinson (0.5
sack) for a sack in the fourth quarter.
George Gumbs Jr. also added a sack in the fourth quarter, giving him 10.5 for his career.
EDGE Tyreak Sapp posted a team-high six tackles and 1.0 tackle for loss.
DB Jordan Castell nabbed his second-career interception and first since his freshman 2023
season by picking off Texas QB Arch Manning in the fourth quarter.
o All three Manning quarterbacks to have played in The Swamp have thrown an
interception (Peyton, Eli, Arch).
DB Devin Moore intercepted Manning in the fourth quarter for his fourth-career pick including
his first of the season.
Florida has yet to allow a 300-yard passer this season (season high: 263 vs. USF).
The Gators allowed fewer than 100 rushing yards for the third time this season and 12th time in
the Napier era. And in three of their last five games.
S Jordan Castell extended his team-leading starts streak to 29 in a row.
SPECIAL TEAMS NOTES
WR Taylor Spierto blocked a punt to force a safety in the second quarter.
o It marked Florida’s first blocked punt since Derek Wingo vs. Charlotte on Sept. 23, 2023
and the Gators’ first safety since Nov. 25, 2023 vs. FSU.
o The play also represented Florida’s first blocked punt in SEC play since Jordan Pouncey
at LSU on Oct. 16, 2021.
K Trey Smack went 3-for-3 on extra point attempts to remain perfect in his career (86 of 86).
o Smack moved into ninth in career PATs made at Florida, passing Jonathan Philips (83).
Smack finished 2-for-2 on field goal attempts, connecting from 34 and 38 yards.
With two field goals in today’s game, Smack tied kickers Matt Leach (2001-04), Bobby Raymond
(1983-84) and Brian Clark (1979-81) for the fourth-most in UF program history with 43.
P Tommy Doman punted five times for an average of 39.0 yards, highlighted by a long of 51,
one of 50-plus yards and two inside the 20-yard line.

EXPLOSIVE PLAYS (11)

WR Vernell Brown III: 14-yard rush, first quarter
RB Jadan Baugh: 12-yard rush, first quarter
WR J. Michael Sturdivant (from QB DJ Lagway): 23-yard reception, first quarter
RB Jadan Baugh: 16-yard rush, first quarter
RB Jadan Baugh: 12-yard rush, first quarter
RB Jadan Baugh: 11-yard rush, second quarter
WR J. Michael Sturdivant (from Lagway): 19-yard reception, second quarter
RB Duke Clark: 11-yard rush, second quarter
WR Dallas Wilson (from Lagway): 18-yard reception, second quarter
WR Vernell Brown III (from Lagway): 60-yard reception, third quarter
WR Dallas Wilson (from Lagway): 55-yard touchdown reception, third quarter
SERIES UPDATES
Today’s matchup in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium marked the fifth meeting all-time between Florida
and Texas and just the second in Gainesville.
o It also represented the second conference matchup between the two schools.
With today’s victory, Florida improves to 1-3-1 all-time over Texas, while Napier evens the series
over his tenure at 1-1.
With the victory, Florida evens the series in Gainesville at 1-1.
THE SCORING STREAK
Florida has scored in 466 consecutive games — an NCAA record and 55 games longer than any
other college football team in history.
o Florida broke Michigan’s record of 365 games (1984-2014) vs. LSU on Oct. 7, 2017.
o The last time Florida was shut out was on Oct. 29, 1988, vs. Auburn (L, 16-0).

GAME DETAILS

Florida Game Captains: #14 DB Jordan Castell, #0 DB Sharif Denson, #89 TE Hayden Hansen
Coin Toss: Texas won the toss and deferred; Florida received in the north endzone.
Attendance: 90,714 (largest since Sept. 16, 2023 vs. No. 11 Tennessee – W, 29-16)

University of Florida Football
Media Conference
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Gainesville, Florida, USA
Coach Billy Napier
Press Conference

Florida 29, Texas 21
BILLY NAPIER: I’m going to tell you what, our fans
showed up tonight, or today I should say. They showed up
and showed out. They were a huge factor in the game.
We’re thankful for that.
Good SEC football game out there today. I think it came
down to the things it typically does. We rushed the ball for
159 yards to their 53. The turnover margin was 2-2. DJ
was 180 quarterback rating, played really clean for the
most part.
We got off the field three out of 11, and we stayed on the
field 7 out of 14 and blocked a punt. Taylor Spierto, who
was a walk-on in year one here who’s earned a scholarship
was a spark tonight and made a huge play. How about
that freshman receiver Dallas Wilson going off and setting
about every record that there is for a rookie?
In general, we had four sacks. I thought we limited the run
game. Thought we affected the quarterback, covered him
pretty good. That’s a good team. They’ve got a lot of
resources at Texas, and they’ve put together one heck of a
football team.
I would say for me, that’s the football team I thought we
had in the very beginning, and we finally kind of put it
together there and played all three phases very
complementary, all parts of the team really good.
We started fast. That was a huge emphasis in the game.
Got the crowd into it.
Man, you’ve got to give these kids some credit. I think
nowadays in college athletics, maybe there’s a little bit of a
black eye about the sport, what it can teach, what locker
rooms are like, and I can only speak for ours. I’m not
giving up on team. That’s a football team.
I’m humbled to be a part of it. For them to do what they’ve
done over the last couple weeks, I think, is to be
commended in today’s world. They didn’t blame anybody

else. They took ownership, and they went back to work.
It’s been a challenge. You guys know because you write
about it every day. But we handled some adversity. This
is just the beginning here. We’ve got a lot more games just
like that when it gets to really good teams in the future.
We’ve handled adversity, now can we handle a little bit of
success. I think that’ll be really important.
In general, I’m extremely proud of the staff and the players
for the way they held together and the work that was done
in the open date.
DJ battled through the injury today. He had a little bit of a
leg injury that we’ll know more about, but in general, I
thought he was kind of back in that mode that he was in at
the end of the year last year where he was playing
immobile and for the most part was a great leader, great
teammate, and very effective today.
Go Gators.
Q. Not only DJ’s best game of the season, arguably of
his career, even with that injury. Is this a reflection of
what you saw in the bye week or what do you take
from this performance from him?
BILLY NAPIER: Well, I think he’s a great teammate, and I
think what motivates him is doing his job for his guys.
That’s one of the things these guys kept saying: My guys.
I think let’s take our guys and go beat him and his guys, if
that makes sense. I think ultimately that’s when he’s at his
best, when that’s consuming him and he’s grinding
throughout the week and he’s studying the opponent, he’s
taking care of himself, he’s working in practice. He flips
that switch and kind of gets into that competitive spirit in
practice, and I think we kind of saw it Wednesday of this
week. I would say it was the first time I kind of saw he can
kind of get in that place as a competitor. I kind of saw that.
You kind of saw it out there tonight. In general, I think he’s
a great teammate and one that — he wants to be loyal,
wants to come through for his guys, and ultimately I think

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that’s what showed up out there today.
Q. You mentioned handling adversity in the past,
handling success in the future. How relieving is this
for you and this team after what’s been endured the
last month?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I think the challenge will be how we
handle this. 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.
I think football at this level is turning into that. You’ve got to
be ready to play every week.
Q. You alluded to Dallas Wilson, long awaited debut.
He lived up to it. But the 55-yard touchdown in
particular, did that just kind of encapsulate his skill
set, catches the ball, tightropes, runs over guys?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, he’s a big, physical player. He’s
got unique play strength. Big frame. Just a total creature
from a testing perspective, and then he has a competitive
spirit that’s second to none. He turns it up.
I’m going to tell you, his energy, I think, was a spark this
week. In practice he was just doing what he did out there
today and really elevated the energy, went to a different
level.
He’s got a great spirit about him. He’s fun to be around.
He’s got a sense of humor, and he’s a great competitor on
game day, and that’s his first game in a uniform here.
Q. And that physicality on that play, the team in
general, what did you feel about just the physicality
from the opening drive where you guys went 84 yards,
the defense right out of the gates, and you guys were
all over Manning all day?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I think that’s who we have to be to
win here. If you’re going to win in this league you have to
be build in the trenches to go toe to toe. We’ve been doing
that on defense to some degree. I thought we did it
consistently today. To hold them to two yards a rush, and I
think we rushed the ball 37 times and DJ — I don’t think DJ
ran it, so no quarterback involved there.

Yeah, that’s the recipe that we’ve been — it’s worked for us
in the past. We played to that formula today, and it worked
for us.
Our teams look like that when they’re playing at their
highest level. Eight years as a head coach, that’s
complementary ball. That’s what it should look like.
Q. You alluded earlier in the week to starting fast and
staying on schedule and you were able to do that in
that first touchdown drive. What did that do for the
confidence of the offense the rest of the game?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, and a good mix. I thought DJ did a
nice job in that possession. Did a great job on 3rd down. I
think we were 50 percent on 3rd down, way over that going
into the four-minute situations. We got stopped a couple
times.
Yeah, I think that getting 2 off to a good start knowing they
would feed off of him, getting 6 involved early, and then
being able to rush the ball. 13 has got to be a presence
there with him. I thought Duke Clark stepped up in a major
way today. I thought he was very effective for a rookie to
be out there playing in that type of game.
Look, in the kicking game, when you play Banks at Texas,
it’s toe to toe. It’s real football. I thought Joe Houston and
his staff did a great job today. We blocked a punt.
Certainly specialists could be better at times, but overall
the plan was really good. The specialist play needs to
improve a little bit.
Q. What’s been the attitude of the defense kind of
playing and holding the weight while the offense has
kind of fought to come along a little bit, just their
growth week to week, kind of putting things together
and then kind of breakout with a huge game,
turnovers, sacks? What’s their weekly mentality been
as they prepare?
BILLY NAPIER: You know, if you think about that side of
the ball, there is some veteran presence there. There’s
some guys that have been a part of the program for a
while.
Look, these guys are — there’s crossover relationships
between the offense and the defense, and I think when our
team is at its best, they’re complementary. They’re
interacting throughout the game, throughout the week. We
work against each other.
I think it’s important that we challenge each other, and I
would say the defensive leadership has challenged — hey,
look, we’ve got to pick it up on offense.

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We watch all this tape together now. I do a summary of
the game. It’s usually about 40 plays. So they get to see
the mistakes. They get to see the detail and the
undisciplined play, the fundamental issues, the decision
making.
I think in general, there’s accountability there, and I think
that’s up to our team.
Q. It’s a line of scrimmage league, and tonight you
guys dominated on both lines of scrimmage. They
didn’t sack DJ a single time, you run the ball well and
your rookies there on the defensive line like McCloud
played really, really good.
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, in general we knew — look, every
week in this league, that’s the challenge. You know — and
we’ve played — LSU and Miami are outstanding teams, so
we’ve played two of the better teams in the country
already, and South Florida obviously has played well given
their schedule.
I think in general, we know what we’re capable of. We
know who we are and what we stand for in the locker
room. We know what we’re capable of. It’s healthy for that
group to gain some confidence and see that they’re
capable of that. We’re going to need to continue to play
well on the line of scrimmage to beat the teams that are on
the schedule the rest of the way.
Q. You mentioned you were humbled by the guys in
the locker room. What do you think it is about your
guys, you, your staff that when your backs are against
the ball like last year, like this year, that you guys
come out fighting?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I think it’s more of a big-picture
program, organizational philosophy in terms of what we
want our program to be about, the investment in people.
We teach values. We prioritize education. We run a tight
ship. We don’t put up with crap. They’re going to do what
we ask them to do, and I think they have a healthy respect,
and they chose us. They chose that experience.
I think that that requires a certain character from that
person to sign up for that.
To me, it’s a reflection of the organization as a whole in
terms of what we want the program to be about.
Look, we cannot connect our identity to the outcome. I
think it’s important. Sometimes when we don’t get the
results we want, we typically — it’s in our nature to
compromise, to blame others and not be accountable, and

who can be objective.
I think it’s important not only for myself and our staff, but
we’ve got to be very consistent in fair. We have to define
expectations for the players and then we have to hold them
accountable.
Look, it’s a game. Winning football looks a certain way,
and you’re going to lose if you play the way we played in
the past. We’ve got to keep it technical and show them,
hey, this is how you get the result that you want, and they
did that today.
Q. Billy, the 3rd down battle today, you guys were able
to win. How satisfying was that just coming off of
Miami and the bye week and how much emphasis you
put on that?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, 7 of 11 I think — or 7 for 14, and
that’s with the last couple being four-minute and having to
run it and punt it.
Look, I thought DJ was sharp. I thought the staff had a
really good plan, and we kept it manageable. I don’t know
how many long yardage situations we had today. I know
we had a holding penalty. We ended up throwing a screen
on that one and ended up getting a big chunk back.
You’ve got to keep 3rd down manageable, and that starts
with good 1st and 2nd down efficiency, run the ball, good
quarterback play, keep 3rd down manageable, and when
you get to the red area you’ve got to score.
Look, that was a heck of a football team. Texas has got a
really good team. The guys in blue won today.
Q. I asked you this week about the success Jadan and
Ja’Kobi had last year against Texas and trying to
replicate that. Ja’Kobi is out today. Just Jadan being
able to carry the load that he did today, 27 carries, be
as productive as he was?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah. I’m going to give him a sponge
bath tomorrow, I can tell you that. (Laughter.)
No, you’ve got a player like that, you’ve got to give him his
opportunities. This is our formula. When we’re playing at
our best, the guys up front are ready to go. They’re mixing
it up and we’re able to be physical, and there’s a
cumulative effect to that, and I think that we feed off of that.
He’s a marquee back, and he deserves a number of carries
each week.
Q. You had the bye week, so did you look at this past

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week as just — the prior week as just a reset on getting
those three losses out of the way? What was the
approach? And did they run basically the practices
into this game the way that you wanted them to?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, look, I really think we got good
work done Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the bye
week. I think obviously a little bit of a struggle early.
They’re hurt, man; this is like you’re putting the paddles on
a bunch of 17- to 23-year-olds trying to get them back to
life. We went through that a couple weeks in a row.
You’ve got to have good people around you from a
leadership standpoint to get that done, and the players got
to be made of the right stuff.
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.
We’ve got a good group of kids in there with some adults
leading them. Like some of these guys that are vets
around here have done a great job leading the pack.
Q. When DJ makes his comment and gives his
guarantee two weeks ago after a couple really rough
games, obviously it can open him up to critiques
social media-wise good or bad, but as a coach, what
was your initial thought on that, and obviously you
thought he could follow through with it, but what did
that do for you as a coach, if it did anything?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I think DJ speaking to his
teammates indirectly, in my opinion, he wanted to make
sure — maybe he didn’t have a chance to say that in the
locker room in that moment, but I think he wanted to make
sure that they heard that.
Look, I think the kid, there’s a sincerity to this kid in terms
of he chose the University of Florida and he’s all in. He’s
on a mission to do special things here, and he’s committed
to that.
There’s a certain level of pride there. This kid has been
through the gauntlet this off-season. There will be a book
wrote about this set of circumstances. The kid is tough.

He has character. I think that he is loyal, sometimes to a
fault.
But he works like no one else.
For him, this experience — that’s kind of what I’ve been
saying to him is look, you’re going to be playing the game a
long time and there’s going to be days like this, there’s
going to be weeks like this. Playing in this league, playing
in the next league, every team is a good team and you’re
going to have bad days, and you’ve got to have an identity
independent of the game. That’s where his faith — he can
stand on that, where maybe someone else who doesn’t
have that foundation — he has that, and I think that makes
him really unique.
Q. On the final offensive drive, the time-out to avoid
the 10-second runoff, can you take us into that play,
just what happened? I think a lot of people were a little
confused with Texas not having any time-outs.
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, the clock stops because our helmet
came off, right, so we wanted to get our best tackle back in
the game. We wanted to talk as a group about the 3rd
down play, and that’s ultimately why we did it.
Q. Building off of that, your defense coming back out
on the field for one final drive, a sack by George, how
much are you proud of your defense for continuing to
just rise to the occasion in moments like that?
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, it’s a special group, man, and
they’re good football players, but that’s the easy part. I
think the leadership over there and the ability to continue to
show up and do their part for the team — and look, knowing
the circumstance, knowing the struggle on the other side,
for them to challenge the group, for them to maintain their
character, for them to continue to work, and they practice
that way. They’ve got a maturity about them.
I think the coaches on that staff have done a fantastic job.
Ron is exceptional. He’s one of the best defensive minds
in the game. Chapman and Mike have been around the
block here and been with us, and certainly the three new
guys have added another dimension to that side of the ball.
They’ve been ready to play every week so far. We talked
about establishing that here, knowing that’s what it takes to
win a championship, and we finally paired it with a good
offense today.
Q. Back to Arch Manning for a second, what’s the
challenge he poses? We saw his feet, we saw that one
scoring drive late where it was like boom, boom, and
they’re in their end zone. And what did it take to

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perform the way you did against him? You guys were
all over him most of the game.
BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, look, offensively there’s a lot of new
faces over there, not just him. That’s important. But he’s
no different than any quarterback; you get all the blame,
you get all the criticism.
But in general, you saw today how talented the guy is.
That’s the guy I remember from high school. Elite arm
talent, obviously the football IQ is there, and he’s a heck of
an athlete. That’s what I remembered in high school.
We knew going in if we got out of our rush lanes, the guy
could make us pay, and he did that.
But the coverages that we play, we’ve got to live with that
sometimes, and I think that when we’re doubling receivers
and chasing routes, we’ve got to make sure that we’re in
our spokes.
We gave up a couple scrambles where he extended the
play today. But in general, he’s got a bright future in front
of him. You could see that today. He’s going to be a
special player.
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