Florida Gators

Florida Bowl Guide | Tulane Bowl Guide | Gasparilla Bowl Game Day | Broadcast Information

TAMPA, Fla. — In his third season as head coach of the Gators, Billy Napier has a second shot at his first bowl victory at Florida.

More importantly, the Gators have an opportunity for their first four-game win streak under Napier.

Florida (7-5) faces Tulane (9-4) on Friday afternoon at Raymond James Stadium in the Gasparilla Bowl. The Gators enter on a simple mission: maintain the momentum they built with a three-game winning streak to close the regular season. Florida upset LSU and Ole Miss at home and then defeated Florida State on the road to create renewed excitement around a program that needed a jolt.

"We've gotten to a place where we think we could beat anybody," Napier said. "This team has a ton of confidence. I think that comes from the work. I think they realize the results that they've gotten are because of the mindset and the approach they've taken toward the work.

"We've seen that carry over."
 

Gasparilla Bowl Trailer 🎥 pic.twitter.com/vEnEFHTnre

— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) December 19, 2024

The Gators finalized the No. 11-ranked recruiting class earlier this month and have retained several key players heading into 2024, including defensive lineman Caleb Banks and starting offensive linemen Austin Barber and Jake Slaughter.

We've switched it up for the bowl season in the final edition of The Opening Kickoff in 2024. The Gators last faced Tulane 40 years ago, so these former Southeastern Conference rivals have grown apart. Instead of the usual deep-dive preview, let's look at 10 topics drawing attention heading into Florida's first bowl game since 2022.

Here we go, in no particular order: QUARTERBACK QUANDARY

This is more about Tulane than Florida. Darian Mensah, the Green Wave's starting quarterback during the regular season, is not playing in the game. He entered the transfer portal and has committed to Duke. Another Tulane quarterback, Kai Horton, has entered the transfer portal and is not playing. That leaves junior Ty Thompson as Tulane's starter against the Gators. To make the situation more unusual, the 6-foot-4, 224-pound Thompson has also announced that he has entered the transfer portal. If that sounds familiar to Gators fans, it should. When Florida last played in the Gasparilla Bowl in 2021, starting quarterback Emory Jones played even though he announced he planned to enter the portal. Thompson threw only 11 passes during the season but finished third on the team with 243 yards rushing and six touchdowns. The Gators are prepared for a much different challenge than if facing Mensah, who threw for 2,723 yards and 22 touchdowns. "Heck of an athlete. They've had packages with him throughout the year,'' Napier said of Thompson, a former five-star recruit who transferred to Tulane from Oregon. "This guy's one of the better quarterbacks in the country coming out [of high school]. We'll see some wrinkles. We know it will be an adjustment game. It'll be important that we're ready. Once we get through that first quarter, we'll have a little bit of a pulse on what we're going to get. Then we'll make the necessary adjustments."
  DYNAMIC DJ

Florida's season turned when true freshman quarterback DJ Lagway took over for injured starter Graham Mertz. Lagway is 5-1 as Florida's starter and is 5-0 in games he starts and finishes. The Gators led Georgia late in the first half when Lagway suffered a strained left hamstring and had to leave. In the six games Lagway started, Florida has outscored opponents 195-105 and averaged 6.7 yards per play to 4.7 for its opponents. Lagway has thrown for 1,301 yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions in his six starts to deliver optimism heading into 2025 that he can be the spark toward a potential College Football Playoff berth. "He's one of the rare guys at an early age [who] has been hungry and has this laser-like focus and knows what he wants to accomplish,'' co-offensive coordinator Russ Callaway said this week. "He doesn't just talk about it. He does it." Lagway has an opportunity on Friday to become only the second true freshman quarterback in program history to win six games as a starter. Chris Leak was 6-3 in 2003.   FORMER RIVALS

The Gators last played Tulane in 1984 in the final game for head coach Charley Pell, a 63-21 victory at Florida Field. But the programs have played 21 previous times. Florida leads the all-time series 13-6-2. The Green Wave was an inaugural member of the SEC in 1933 and remained part of the conference through the 1965 season. Tulane won nine of its first 11 games this season and eight consecutive games until a two-game losing streak to Memphis and Army. You must go back to 1946 to find the last time the Gators lost to Tulane. That was a 27-13 loss in New Orleans in Florida's first season under head coach Raymond Wolf, a campaign that ended with a 0-9 record. Wolf was fired after the 1949 season and resurfaced in 1952 as Tulane's coach. Wolf spent two seasons leading the Green Wave before he was replaced and transitioned into a long administrative career. First-year Tulane coach Jon Sumrall took over the program this season after a successful 23-4 run in two seasons at FCS program Troy University.
  EDGY CONCERNS

There has been angst among fans about the Gators' prospects at edge rusher for the Gasparilla Bowl and beyond following the departures of Jack Pyburn and T.J. Searcy to the transfer portal. Pyburn has committed to LSU, and Searcy remains in the open market. Meanwhile, defensive lineman Kelby Collins, who has experience on the edge, entered the portal and committed to Alabama. Don't fret, the Gators still have ample players at the position. Tyreak Sapp, George Gumbs Jr., Kamran James and true freshman LJ McCray are available. Sapp and Gumbs have been standouts this season, with Sapp registering 3.5 sacks over the last three games. Sapp is expected to return for his final season of eligibility but told reporters Wednesday he is not ready to announce his decision publicly. Meanwhile, Napier is confident that the Gators will retain their key players still with the team for Friday's game. "I think for the most part,'' he said. "I mean, you know, nothing surprises me anymore. I think we got, for the most part, most of that is done. There's a handful of things that we got to get resolved, but look until they show up for class in January, I think it's not a done deal, right? The perfect world, you have some type of document you could sign that would kind of lock them in, but we don't have that. So, look, we got to we still have some work to do. We want to add a couple more players to our team."
  DEFENSIVE DEFECTION

Florida lost co-defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong last week when he was named defensive coordinator at Houston. Armstrong spent two seasons at Florida. Armstrong was reunited with his mentor when the Gators hired Ron Roberts as co-defensive coordinator in the offseason. He started the season calling the plays in the booth but was moved to the field — and Roberts to the booth — after four games. Napier said no decision will be made on how the staff will be retooled until after the Gasparilla Bowl. "First of all, congratulations to Austin,'' Napier said. "I think, just obviously getting a chance to call the defense and lead the group, I think that's his passion. And we were very supportive in that regard."
  ROLLING WITH ROBERTS

Roberts met with the media on Wednesday for only the second time this season and was asked about the defensive turnaround once he moved upstairs to the booth. "I prefer to be up top,'' he said. "I can see things a little better, how things are going. It was early. It was kind of a thing of getting to know the staff and who's going to handle what on the field. But I prefer to be up top, and it's worked pretty well for us." The numbers prove it, especially late in the season. Following a 49-17 loss at Texas in which the Gators surrendered a season-high 562 yards, they tightened up in their final three games. Florida had 34 tackles-for-loss, 18 sacks, eight forced fumbles and two interceptions in the wins over LSU, Ole Miss and FSU. The Gators allowed 14.7 points per game over the stretch despite fielding a unit missing several key players due to season-ending injuries. "A lot of it was our guys getting more comfortable with what we're doing. Some of them just stepped up their game," Roberts said. "They worked at it all season long, and you just got to that point where everything kind of came together. As the coverage got better, all of a sudden, we got coverage sacks. What it comes down to is a kid's mindset when he shows up on Saturday. That is what it's all about."


  LINING UP

The day after All-American center Slaughter announced he was returning in 2025, starting left tackle Barber followed suit. Combined with the return of right guard Damieon George Jr., who planned to enter the portal and then changed his mind, and the expected return of left guard Knijeah Harris, the Gators will have one of the more experienced offensive lines in the SEC next season. They lose starting right tackle Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson. Barber is pumped about the possibilities. "I'm excited to be back with the team and all these guys I have been here with,'' he said. "It would be great just to get another win under our belt. Going 8-5, bringing that together. Get some momentum going into the offseason. Showing people that we can play and just believing that we can win here."
  TULANE TALK

The Green Wave lost to Army in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game on Dec. 6 and have played against an SEC opponent this season. Tulane lost 34-19 at Oklahoma in September before reeling off eight consecutive wins and cracking the AP Top 25. However, losses to Memphis and Army at the end of the regular season dropped the Green Wave from the rankings and landed them in Tampa to face the Gators. "It's a tough draw. We all know that," Sumrall said. "We're playing Florida in their backyards, and they are playing like one of the best three or four SEC teams the last month of the season." Tailback Makhi Hughes has rushed for 1,372 yards and 15 touchdowns and figures to be a prominent target of the Gators in the wake of Mensah's departure. In the loss at Oklahoma, Hughes rushed 19 times for 71 yards.
  MONTRELL MOMENT

Gators senior running back Montrell Johnson Jr. sealed Florida's win at Florida State with a 65-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. He eclipsed 3,000 career yards during the game and is set to conclude his productive career in the Gasparilla Bowl. Johnson has rushed for 593 yards despite missing three games because of injury. He needs 107 yards Friday for a fourth consecutive 700-yard season. Johnson played at Louisiana as a freshman before following Napier to Florida. He has started 28 games over the past three seasons and recently accepted an invite to the East-West Shrine Bowl game in Arlington, Texas, on Jan. 30. "I was happy for Montrell," Napier said. "I've been with him all four years of his career, seeing the evolution, the consistency, not only the practice habits, the way he trains in the offseason but the leadership. He's a professional player, and he will get an opportunity to put that on full display."   REAL DEAL

The transfer portal has dominated the college football news cycle the past few weeks despite the looming College Football Playoff and bowl season. Gators receiver Chimere Dike entered the portal after four seasons at Wisconsin and has teamed with fellow transfer Elijhah Badger (Arizona State) to form one of the top recruiting tandems in the country. Dike and Badger are one of four SEC receiving duos with more than 680 yards receiving apiece. Dike has met with potential incoming transfers about his experience at Florida. "My biggest thing is, everything that was communicated with me is exactly what happened. And I feel like if you hold up your end of the bargain and you're the player you're supposed to be and take your responsibilities, the coaching staff isn't going to come here and sell you lies. They're going to tell you the truth and they're trustworthy people. As a player looking for a home, that's super important." Dike enters the Gasparilla Bowl with 36 catches for 687 yards and two touchdowns. He needs only two yards to match his single-season best of 689 yards receiving at Wisconsin in 2022.