A Roller Coaster Season
Florida Gators fans are learning to put their trust in Billy Napier and DJ Lagway
That Was Then…
On September 14th the boos rained down unmercifully.
The Florida Gators were in the midst of an eventual 33-20 loss in the Swamp to Texas A&M. They were now 1-2.
Meetings were taking place and talks were happening to raise $26 million by boosters who had seen enough.
The Gators had turned in another listless performance against Texas A&M. They had no heart. There was no passion. There was only ineptitude and an obvious lack of coaching.
The defense was horrific, possibly worse than the year prior.
The offense, that had turned a corner at the end of the previous year, regressed.
We the fans, had seen enough to know Billy Napier was Gainesville’s version of dead-man-walking.
Talk started about who would be the next head coach for Florida? The unanimous choice was Lane Kiffin.
It was done in the minds of the fans and the boosters.
This Is Now!
On November 23rd that same Lane Kiffin brought his Ole Miss Rebels to the Swamp. The Rebels had control of their own playoff destiny.
Billy Napier and the Gators dashed their hopes, just like they’d done the previous week to LSU.
The fan base was renewed. The coach, no longer on the hot seat, and the team, were both showing so much promise for years to come.
So how did we get here?
It’s not easy to watch this, it being your team that it’s happening to.
The past decade of Florida football has been full of promise that never materialized. We’ve been through four coaches and the prospect of another coaching change was nauseating.
I was a Napier supporter up until the Miami game, a 41-17 loss at home.
They were so listless. There was no imagination. No way this team had made the progress over the offseason that they kept telling us about.
But some promise started to show in Week 2, with the emergence of freshmen QB DJ Lagway. But even that had trouble written all over it if Napier was fired, as there would be nothing to stop Lagway from eventually hitting the transfer portal and moving on.
Florida hit the road September 21st and beat up a woeful Mississippi State team. It got the Gators to a bye week. And a turning point.
The rumors were swirling around the program that with the next loss Napier was out.
But something happened during that bye week.
Whatever it was, the team that came back on October 5th against UCF was different.
They went to Rocky Top and took it to the Vols in the first half, until a Graham Mertz injury.
But the injury to Mertz thrust the DJ Lagway Era to the forefront, well before anyone was expecting.
And the team fought. They took the took the Vols to OT.
They didn’t win, eventually losing 23-17, but there was something.
A week later they absolutely blasted a Kentucky team that had their number for the past couple of years.
Then another bye week before the next test — Georgia.
The kings of college football. This shouldn’t have been close.
The Gators jumped the Dawgs and took an early lead. Then Lagway’s hamstring gave out, and the Gator faithful faced immediate dread. But still, even with a walk-on redshirt freshmen QB taking over, the Gators fought, and took Georgia to the end.
The Texas game is the anomaly of the second half of the season, but that team was a MASH unit.
Injuries everywhere and the Gators looked lost and young again.
So how would they fair against an LSU team with a not 100% Lagway the following week?
Actually, just fine.
The defense rose up, again. The offense was clicking, and they took down a Top 15 team. Just like they did this past week against Ole Miss.
So what’s the point of this?
Simple: college football is beautiful.
The Roller Coaster
It’s been a roller coaster of a season. We the fans are fickle. Especially when our favorite team is down.
But we forget so much. These are 18- 21-year-old men. And the five losses were all to teams ranked in the Top 15, and many playoff bound.
We want to blame things we don’t fully understand. Armchair quarterbacks all of us. But we only want the same thing the players and coaches want: To see our team win and be better.
It hurts when they lose. It hurts when they struggle. Human nature takes over.
But following the Gators this year and you saw the lowest of lows and the trials to get better.
As depressing as the beginning was, the end has been invigorating and fun.
Billy Napier said as much after Saturday’s win.
“They love you when you win,” he said, “and not so much when you lose.”
He’s right. We’re fickle. Hell, we’re spoiled from Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow.
But it’s always a hell of a ride. And we’re always there.
And at least we can all laugh at FSU!
John Crimella, our resident-college-football-expert, is a lifelong fan of the Florida Gators. He does not like Florida State.