For the first time since 2019, Florida won a bowl game.
The Gators cruised to a 33-8 victory over Tulane in the 2024 Gasparilla Bowl on Friday.
Head coach Billy Napier’s team didn’t get off to a hot start, holding a narrow 6-0 lead at the half due to a pair of field goals from kicker Trey Smack. Still, Florida scored 10 points in the third quarter to gain some separation from the Green Wave before pulling away in the fourth.
Tulane struggled offensively, missing quarterback Darian Mensah after he transferred to Duke on Dec. 11. Backup Ty Thompson started in Mensah’s place, but offensive issues were rampant throughout the contest.
Thompson finished just 11-of-29 for 125 yards and one touchdown compared to three interceptions.
The Gators were buoyed by a strong rushing performance, picking up 224 yards on 44 attempts as a team. This included a one-yard carry by defensive tackle Desmond Watson that fired up his teammates on the sideline.
Florida quarterback D.J. Lagway also threw for 305 yards and a touchdown to go along with a pair of interceptions.
Fans and pundits were impressed with the Gators’ defense as well as the overall finish to the 2024 season by Napier’s squad.
Tale of two rivals: Florida is surging into 2025, Tennessee is bleeding out
The end is still raw at Tennessee, the aftermath of a soul-sucking College Football Playoff loss sudden and complete.
So while this is the last thing the Vols need to hear, they better come to terms with it.
Bitter rival Florida is in a better place heading into the 2025 season.
âMomentum is a real thing in college football,â says Florida coach Billy Napier.
In the whatâs-next age of the sport, momentum is the only thing.
Somehow Florida â which couldâve fired Napier after a disastrous first half of the season â is riding high after all of eight wins in 2024.
Tennessee, meanwhile, is seemingly bleeding out.
âItâs never just one thing,â Vols coach Josh Heupel said after a humiliating 25-point loss to Ohio State in a CFP first round game. âWeâll start again and start retooling, rebuilding and grow as a football team.â
This is where we are in the violently new landscape of college football, where one loss can change momentum and introduce doubt to the process of winning, and â more importantly â the ability to convince players (high school and transfer portal) youâre on the right path.
And where one half of a season can override two-and-a-half years of an operational mess.
But for coaching malpractice, Florida wouldâve won the game in regulation â beginning with a penalty for too many players on the field during the final play of the first half. A penalty that negated three points from a made field goal.
The very points that wouldâve won the game in regulation.
Nothing about this offseason of momentum makes sense. Not Floridaâs second-half surge that revealed mettle and moxie, not Tennesseeâs second-half shrink that exposed flaws.
But it’s undeniable in Gainesville and hard to ignore in Knoxville.
âIâve got to come harder than I did last offseason,â Lagway said. âItâs going to be a great offseason.â
During the final minutes of a bowl rout of Tulane, Napier put 450-pound defensive lineman Des Watson in the backfield for a fourth-and-short carry. He converted the first down.
Not long after that, Napier fed undersized walk-on tailback Anthony Rubio, son of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and inspirational team favorite, five straight plays until he finished the drive with a 9-yard touchdown.
Nearly the entire team ran to the end zone to celebrate with Rubio.
Florida is projecting strength. Tennessee is venting uncertainty.
Like it or not, the Vols better come to terms with it.
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