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The Florida Gators under head coach Billy Napier have won big games, defeated ranked opponents and pulled off upsets. What the program has not been able to accomplish is a level of success that is able to be sustained through the majority of a season. After a rough start to the 2025 campaign, Florida has an opportunity to prove it is not the same team it has been the last three years when it visits Kyle Field for a fourth straight showdown against a top 10 opponent.
Awaiting the Gators are the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies, which have started 5-0 on the season with their most notable win coming at Notre Dame. Florida may well present the toughest defensive test Texas A&M has yet to face, but that all depends which version of the Gators shows up Saturday evening in College Station, Texas.
Will Florida capitalize on the momentum it gained by knocking off Texas last week, or will it revert to being the team that lost three straight games against FBS opponents despite only allowing a handful of touchdowns in those games, combined? Let’s take a look at how UF stands entering the weekend.
No team in the nation will have faced a more difficult schedule by the time Week 6 wraps up, and no team will play a tougher slate of opponents by the time the 2025 season concludes. The Aggies enter Saturday’s game as the Gators’ fourth straight top 10 opponent, three of which have been listed among the top five teams in the nation. UF proved not to be up to the task against LSU and Miami, but Texas provided an opportunity for Florida to find a shred of success, which Napier hopes his team can build off despite the murderer’s row that still awaits the program.
“This has got a chance to be a multiplier,” he said. “… We’ve handled adversity well. Now, we’ve got to handle some success.”
He continued: “We’re capable. That’s the big thing: You wake up knowing you’ve got the tools to do it. It’s about who plays the best that day. That’s the reality in college football right now: You’ve got to be ready to go each week.”
Napier said the Gators have performed as well as he could have expected in practice this week. The veterans have been trying to set positive examples in terms of building on success and not being complacent expecting one result to stack into similar outcomes.
Florida has defeated consecutive top 25 opponents under once under Napier — its final two SEC games in 2024, though both of those were played in The Swamp. Under Napier, the Gators are 0-10 against ranked teams on the road.
Sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway put together the most impressive performance of his career last week. Completing 21 of 28 passes for 298 yards with two touchdowns, Lagway shook off his rust from an immobile offseason, proving he is every bit as capable as his pedigree suggests.
Though Lagway did throw another interception against Texas, his arm was hit on the throw, leading the ball to flutter. Napier believes his second-year signal caller is “starting to look like himself again” both on the field and in practice. “[Lagway] has gotten better each step of the way,” he said.
“He communicated better. He played within the system. He threw a ton of completions. He played on time, which was impressive to me. The staff designed a really good plan in terms of getting the first guy open on a consistent basis,” Napier continued. “… Definitely his best performance of the year. I think his quarterback rating was 180, which I think was the third-best of his career. We need more of that.”
While Lagway had posted better statistical performances, they came against far lesser opponents than the Longhorns. What he executed last Saturday gave the Gators reasons to believe that he is now — physically and mentally — at the level he would have been should he have completed a true offseason program not limited due to injury.
“You see it happening. He’s never happy with his performance. He could go out there and play close to perfect, and he’s going to find to find something he can get better at,” Napier explained. “He’s that way in practice. He’s got a competitive edge about him. This has been a challenge, obviously, but he is on a mission to get back to playing to his potential.
“He’s had a great week. He continues to get better. I would say this has been his best week of practice so far — his seventh week of practice.”
And that’s … Dallas: Freshman wide receiver Dallas Wilson burst onto the scene last week with team-highs of six receptions, 111 yards and two touchdowns. The level to which his presence resulted in a turnaround for Florida’s offense remains to be seen, but Napier certainly sees him as a serious difference maker: “He’s really unique: size, play strength, catch radius. And then just his presence, as a person, he’s got incredible energy. You look forward to being around him. He brings a competitive spirit to the practice field … that rubs off on the other players.”
Give me Moore: Senior cornerback Devin Moore has flashed throughout all four of his years with the Gators. The problem is that he’s never been on the field consistently enough to put it all together and deliver on his immense talent. Napier this week credited Moore for capitalizing on not only his maturity and experience but the opportunities Florida offers to take care of one’s body off the field: “We’ve always felt strongly about what he could be. He’s just gotten healthy, and he’s been able to stay healthy. I think, if he can stay healthy, we’ll look up and he’ll be one of the elite corners in the country.”
The time is now: While first-year standouts like Wilson and Vernell Brown III are making headlines, redshirt sophomore WR Eugene Wilson III appears to have fallen by the wayside. Despite his own tremendous pedigree, injury and inconsistency has led to the elder Wilson not producing much for the Gators in his still-young career. His totals of 95 receptions, 877 yards and nine touchdowns are what one would expect to see from a player of his caliber in a single season; instead, it’s what Wilson has produced across parts of three campaigns. Even in 2025, his numbers have not been gaudy, but Napier expressed that it’s what Wilson is doing away from the ball — along with his energy, effort and attitude — that has been making a difference.
“He played great in the [Texas] game,” Napier said. “The guy played physical. He was tough. He blocked his ass off. I was really impressed with the way the guy played. The ball didn’t go his way during the game, but man, he played really well. … Receiver is one of those positions, man. I’m watching how you’re playing without the ball. Sometimes, the ball goes your way quite a bit and you get a lot of praise in the public, but the reality is you might not have played well. He played really well in the game. He did a great job for the team. We’re going to try to get him involved as much as we can every week.”
Baugh-lin’ on a budget: There’s no need to heap praise on running back Jadan Baugh as everyone knows the sophomore has picked up where he left off from his first season averaging more than 5 yards per carry for the Gators. What’s been inconsistent about Baugh is the touches he receives — 30 last week alone, double his average the first four games of the season. One reason why? Napier wants to see a significant improvement in his pass blocking: “The evolution of a back never stops in terms of football acumen, fronts, pressures, the ability to process quickly. He’s got to continue to grow in that area.”
Uh … is anyone there? While Baugh has been tremendous, he cannot carry the entire load himself on a game to game basis. Making that reality difficult is Florida’s immense injury list at running back. Redshirt sophomore Treyaun Webb has yet to play this season, and freshman Duke Clark (15 carries) has joined Webb as “out” for Saturday’s game at Texas A&M. Redshirt senior Ja’Kobi Jackson, who opened the season splitting carries with Baugh only to miss the Texas contest, is currently listed as questionable. There is not a heightened expectation that Jackson will be cleared — though it is not impossible. That means redshirt freshman KD Daniels — with 15 carries and 86 yards in his career — would be the next man up to get touches. While Daniels is capable, that would put the Gators in a tough situation.
Consistency breeds championships: Florida is obviously far away from winning any real type of hardware in 2025, but it did begin the season with what appeared to be a championship-caliber defense. A serious rash of injuries — particularly in the secondary — have hobbled the unit, which looked like a shell of itself against Texas. Napier this week stressed that defensive coordinator Ron Roberts and his staff — including three first-year UF assistants — has done a great job meshing, but he wants to see a much deeper level of consistency at Texas A&M, a much tougher test given the talent level that Florida is about to face on the road.
