The Florida Gators suffered one of their worst losses in four years under Billy Napier last Saturday. Unranked USF came into town and defeated No.13 UF 18-16 in a rather disheartening contest.
Early season struggles aren’t unfamiliar territory for most of this Gators’ roster. In 2024, Florida lost two of their first three games in blowout fashion before ending the year on a four-game winning streak including ranked wins over LSU and Ole Miss.
In the 12-team playoff era, Florida still controls their own destiny. Redshirt junior tight end Hayden Hansen believes they can use their experiences last season to help them get through adversity in 2025.
“It’s obviously frustrating,” Hansen said. “We’ve had that taste in our mouths before and had to regroup and come back. One of the positives is that we know how to handle it. We know how to respond. Obviously, you saw last year how we flipped the narrative with that last 4 game stretch. Basically, what it comes down to now is we have to do that a whole lot sooner this time. We have to go to Death Valley, beat the No. 3 team at their place, and then get home and keep going, go play Miami. We’ve got to get this taste out of our mouth.”
Gator fans and media alike have voiced their frustrations towards the Florida football program as Napier’s overall record at UF dropped to 20-20 after their week two loss. Hansen believes it’s imperative for their locker room to continue blocking out the outsider perspective and focus on winning football games.
“That’s one thing this group will never do. We will never panic. We will get right back to work. We’re gonna address the issues we need to fix. We’re gonna do that. We’re just going to keep on sharpening the sword and we’re going to keep going,” Hansen said.
“We always try to drown out the outside noise whether it’s good or bad. I think either way, that’s a bad effect on the outlook of your season,” Hansen added. “You either use the loss and noise as fuel, or you ignore it. I feel like everyone’s doing a good job with that right now and it just starts today.”
Two of the main problems in week two were red zone miscues and penalties. The Gators marched into the red zone on all three of their first half drives but managed to tally just nine points. Penalties were a major factor here and throughout the game. Florida was flagged 11 times for 103 yards vs the Bulls.
“That’s probably the most frustrating part in my opinion,” Hansen said on the red zone issues. “We moved the ball down the field and had four chances to score in that first half, and we didn’t do it. It just comes down to execution. You can draw the perfect play, have the perfect pregame speech or whatever, but it just comes down to doing your job. All 11 for all 11 and eliminating penalties whether it was a bad call or not. We have to make sure that flag stays off the ground and those touchdowns count.”
The hard part: Florida’s schedule doesn’t get any easier. The Gators travel to No.3 LSU this weekend for a night game in Death Valley, a venue that’s widely considered one of the toughest to play in across college football. Hansen and the Gators are focused on responding the right way this Saturday after a disappointing loss.
“They are an extremely talented team. No doubt about it,” Hansen said on LSU. “They are number three in the nation. The biggest challenge is how do we respond. We can’t let this game negatively affect us. It’s a long season. We’ve got a long way to go. The one way to make everyone forget about this performance is to go out and dominate what’s the toughest stretch probably ever in college football history.”