There's no overlooking Florida, or any SEC foe, for Steve Sarkisian and Texas

Florida’s 1-3 start to the 2025 season that doesn’t include a win over a Football Bowl Subdivision team has the pressure cranked up on Billy Napier, DJ Lagway, and the rest of the Gator football program. Between job security discussions and questions about Lagway’s play one-third of the way through the season, most of the talk about Florida has been decidedly negative. Things don’t appear to be in good shape in the Swamp ahead of Texas’ first trip to Gainesville since 1940.

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Yet Steve Sarkisian is not taking Florida, or a game in front of 90,000 fans at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, for granted. Nor is he thinking Saturday’s game will be a cakewalk.

“Obviously a very difficult place to play,” Sarkisian said Monday about the Swamp. “A place that has been known around the country as one of the more difficult places to play. They’ve been playing great defensive football all year, and they’ve got explosive playmakers on the offensive side of the ball. They’ve just been off the mark a little bit offensively, but it’s not for lack of players and it’s not for lack of scheme.”

Florida’s 1-3 record is the result of a lot of components just not coming together in Napier’s fourth season. The Gators are No. 113 in total offense, No. 106 in rushing offense, No. 98 in team passing efficiency, and No. 98 in scoring offense. Those totals all include the 55-0 demolition of Long Island. Against South Florida, LSU, and Miami, things have not worked for the Gators offense.

Even so, Sarkisian won’t allow his team to doubt what Lagway can do. They avoided playing the Willis, Texas prep star in 2024, so they haven’t seen anything from the Gators’ signal-caller first hand. Lagway hasn’t lit the world up in 2025, but it’ll take a game effort from Texas to make sure the Longhorns aren’t the recipient of his coming out party.

“What I do know is the competitor and the talent is still in there,” Sarkisian said. “We had better be mindful and be ready to get the best version of DJ Lagway. I know the competitor that he is. I know the coach that Billy is. They’ve been scheming people up, they just maybe haven’t been hitting them here in the first few games.”

Florida’s defense has been much more competent. UF is No. 22 in total defense and No. 24 in scoring defense. They are No. 7 in first downs defense, allowing only 53 through four games.

Under defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, the Gators have been solid in trying to stop opposing offenses thanks to their defensive front and varied looks in the secondary. Sarkisian believes there’s an element to his offense that has to show up in Gainesville in order to find success against the Florida defense.

“The key to the drill is we’ve got to maintain the line of scrimmage,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got to run the ball well.”

Despite Napier and Florida approaching a point of no return and entering this game as a 6.5-point underdog, Sarkisian does not want his team to overlook an opponent that has talent in Lagway, running back Jadan Baugh, and defensive standout Tyreak Sapp. In fact, he doesn’t want any member of his program to overlook anyone in the SEC.

Sarkisian and company were able to sit at home all weekend and watch great games like Alabama vs. Georgia, Tennessee vs. Mississippi State, and LSU vs. Ole Miss. They saw just how tough this conference is, even teams considered “weak.”

“There’s not a game on anybody’s schedule in our conference where you’re just like ‘hey, you know what, nobody really needs to tune into this one because we know what’s going to happen,'” Sarkisian said. “I think everybody better buckle up every Saturday in our conference. We’ve got eight straight conference games. It’s going to take a high level of play week in and week out to perform at a high level because there just are no gimmies.”

That week in and week out high level requirement starts Saturday as the Longhorns embark on an eight-game conference schedule. Four of those teams are currently ranked within the top 16. The other four have shown the ability to play great football and defeat quality opponents.

While Florida isn’t one of those ranked teams, Sarkisian knows it’ll take a great game not just to win his SEC opener but also every SEC matchup.