Steve Spurrier claims Florida will beat Georgia in 2025: 'We're due'

The Florida Gators are getting ready for a 2025 season where they’re expected to take another stride forward under head coach Billy Napier. With that, it’s time to show some proof of concept for the Napier era. That means beating teams they’ve struggled against in the past, including the Georgia Bulldogs.

While on Another Dooley Noted Podcast, former Florida head coach Steve Spurrier shared his thoughts on the Gators this season. Notably, that included predicting they’d win nine games this season. The way the schedule breaks down, that would include getting a win over Georgia.

“[Kevin] Brockway, our local guy here, picked us to go 9-3,” Steve Spurrier said. “And I like that number. I like that number. I think we’ve got an excellent chance to go 9-3. Now, he picked us losing three SEC games. Georgia, and then at Ole Miss and at LSU… I sort of think we might lose one of at Miami or Texas A&M, but beat Georgia.”

Florida is looking for a win against rival Georgia that’s been hard to come by in recent seasons. In their last four meetings, the Bulldogs have walked away with four wins. Going back to 2016, or the start of the Kirby Smart era, Florida is just 2-7 against the Bulldogs. During that same time, Florida has had three full-time head coaches.

“We’re due to beat Georgia,” Spurrier said. “It’s as simple as that.”

In the Preseason AP Top 25 Poll, Georgia comes in ranked third in the country, while Florida is ranked 15th. Based on those preseason rankings, Florida has seven games against teams currently ranked. For a team that has yet to win more than eight games in a single season under Billy Napier, that makes for a difficult schedule.

Still, expectations are growing for Florida. A major reason for that is quarterback DJ Lagway. When healthy, he’s flashed the potential he came to college with. Earlier in the summer, Steve Spurrier pointed to him as why there’s so much confidence in the Gators this season, even amid injury concerns.

“Well, it could be [a worry]. I don’t know,” Spurrier said. “But, I think he’ll be fine. The team around him, certainly, I think, is really good. And I think our defense is as good as we’ve been since Billy Napier has been here. So, we got a chance. Of course, everybody else is pretty good. It’s always interesting to me to watch who everybody picks. They still got Texas, LSU, and Alabama, and Georgia. Those four right up at the top, and then everybody else is sort of, you know, wadded. But we don’t know how it’s going to come out. We got a fighting chance. So, hopefully, we can stay healthy, Lagway can stay healthy and get off to a real good start. After Long Island, South Florida comes in and then we hit the real schedule after that.”

Before Florida can get to Georgia or any other SEC team on the schedule, the Gators need to get through Week 1. That’s against LIU from the FCS ranks and will be played on August 30th.