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Who's next for Texas football: A look at the Florida Gators

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook13 hours agojosephcook89
Florida-Gators-DJ-Lagway-Billy-Napier
Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier talks with Florida Gators quarterback DJ Lagway (2) against the South Florida Bulls during the first quarter at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. (Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images)

Conference play begins this weekend with the Texas Longhorns making their first trip to the Swamp since 1940 to take on the Florida Gators. With Florida at 1-3 ahead of this contest, Gators head coach Billy Napier is on the ropes and Texas can do well to get back to College Football Playoff form with a win in Gainesville.

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Upcoming opponent: Florida

Head coach: Billy Napier (4th season at Florida, 20-22), 60-34 overall

2025 record: 1-3

Last game: Florida lost at Miami (Fla.), 26-7

Star offensive performer last time out: Jadan Baugh, 12 carries for 46 yards and one score, three receptions for nine yards

Star defensive performer last time out: Cormani McClain, three tackles, one interception

Quarterback: DJ Lagway, 83-for-123 for 690 yards and five touchdowns with six interceptions

Offense: Napier calls the Florida offense, which has averaged 11 points per game against FBS competition in 2025. Napier’s system does look somewhat like Steve Sarkisian‘s, and the two coached together under Nick Saban in 2016. However, it’s struggled to find any downfield success as Lagway is averaging a rough 5.6 yards per attempt. He also has a five interception game to his name from his outing against LSU.

Defense: Defensive coordinator Ron Roberts is a coaching veteran with stops at Louisiana, Baylor, and Auburn in recent years. He worked with Napier at Louisiana before bouncing to Baylor ahead of the 2020 season. After working with Hugh Freeze at Auburn for one season, Roberts made his way back to Napier last season. He runs a 4-2-5 defense akin to many common in CFB.

Texans on the roster

Former Longhorns on the roster

  • None

This guy is on their team?

  • WR J. Michael Sturdivant – After two seasons at Cal, including a redshirt freshman year where he caught 65 passes for 755 yards and seven scores, Sturdivant transferred within the UC system to UCLA. HE could not match his Berkeley production, notching 912 yards and six touchdowns over two seasons in Westwood. For his final year of eligibility, the former Flower Mound Marcus product transferred to Florida. So far this year, he has eight catches for 76 yards and one touchdown.

All-time series: 3-0-1 Texas

Last matchup: Florida traveled to Texas in the midst of a brutal schedule stretch in 2024 and had to operate without freshman phenom Lagway. Texas jumped out to a 35-0 halftime advantage thanks to touchdown passes from Quinn Ewers to Matthew Golden, Gunnar Helm, and Quintrevion Wisner. On the day, Texas scored seven times with Isaiah Bond, Jaydon Blue, and Jerrick Gibson also finding the end zone in a 49-17 win.

Upcoming matchup

  • Teams: Texas vs. Florida
  • Date: October 4
  • Time: 2:30 p.m.
  • Location: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
  • TV: ESPN

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