Skip to main content
Join Now
Team Avatar
Florida

Urban Meyer on Florida's 2024 turnaround: 'They were done, the casket was being lowered'

On3 imageby: Dan Morrison05/18/25dan_morrison96
Florida-Gators-Billy-Napier
Florida HC Billy Napier. (© Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images)

The Florida Gators went into the 2024 season with their backs against the wall. By the halfway mark of the year, it looked like they were facing another difficult season. That’s when the Gators began to fight back on their way to an exciting end of the season.

That battling back caught the attention of former head coach Urban Meyer. He appeared on Another Dooley Noted Podcast, where he praised last season’s team, emphasizing its strong culture to bounce back from that difficult start.

“I think Coach [Billy] Napier and the Gators,” Urban Meyer said. “The casket was being lowered. That team — I don’t know Coach Napier very well, got a lot of respect for him, and I don’t know the team that well because we just don’t cover the SEC. I’m kind of hearing we might and Big Noon [Kickoff] might go into the ACC, SEC, because we have Mark Ingram and all that, but when you saw certain teams crumble, somehow the culture of that team and staff and leaders on the team rallied up with some big wins.”

Florida went into 2024 facing a massive test. Napier was on the hot seat and they had, on paper, one of the toughest schedules in the country. When starting quarterback Graham Mertz was lost for the season in the Tennessee game, it forced highly-touted freshman DJ Lagway into a starting role. At the time he fully replaced Mertz, the Gators were 3-3. They’d go on a 5-2 run to end the season, including four-straight wins to wrap up 2024 from there.

For Urban Meyer, there was a comparison to be made between last season’s Florida team and his team in 2005. That was his first season and the Gators went 9-3. That included a stretch to end the season with four wins in five games to build some momentum into his second season.

“Big wins reminded me of ’05 a little bit. When we finished that season with some momentum into the offseason,” Meyer said. “You got your quarterback back, who is a hell of a player. I know they did some good things in the portal. I’ve heard, because I kind of follow them now, this is shaping up for a nice run for the Gators.”

In his second season coaching Florida, Meyer had made the Gators national champions. It’s still a long shot that the Gators get to that level in 2025, but it’s not impossible that they take another major step forward next season.