Florida football’s championship window is opening in 2025

In March of last year, I wrote a piece that was not one of my more well received ones of my career. I knew it wouldn’t be, though the backlash was a bit stronger than I expected.

The general thrust of the article was that, while I knew no one wanted to hear it, the 2024 season appeared to be setting up for a real surge year in 2025. If nothing else, it was absolutely 100% true that no one wanted to hear that at the time coming off of the 5-7 campaign in 2023.

However, I’m ready not just to declare that I was right, but that Florida officially has a championship window opening in 2025.

To be clear: that does not mean I’m predicting that the Gators definitely will win a national title this season. It’s still plenty possible that things go poorly and UF is going through a coaching search rather than a playoff run at the end of the ’25 regular season.

However, I do think that Billy Napier has done a good enough job rebuilding the roster to declare that, if he does his job well enough, Florida could make a run at a title this very year.

The centerpiece of it all is, of course, DJ Lagway. After some sturm und drang about him not throwing in spring, Napier is giving regular updates lately about how his rehab is progressing on time. That’s a good thing, because the championship window slams shut if anything causes Lagway to miss games.

But Lagway is also the kind of generational talent who can carry a team to the mountain top. Some of the throws he connected on and plays he made down the stretch last year while limited by a hamstring injury were better plays than most quarterbacks ever make in their careers. He was doing that as an injured true freshman. Now, his body is in better condition than it’s been in years — he reportedly wasn’t even throwing the week before last year’s Samford game, which was well before the hamstring injury. All that’s behind him now, per the staff.

Protecting Lagway and paving the way for a deep and talented running back room is a very veteran offensive line. They’re not just old, but they’re good. Jake Slaughter is a reigning All-American, and Austin Barber was recently mocked as a first-round NFL Draft pick in 2026. Four of the five players are back from last year’s lineup, so they’ve played a ton of snaps together. The fifth player right now projects to be likely Bryce Lovett, though possibly with Caden Jones making occasional appearances. Both are entering their third seasons with the program, so it’s not like they’re transfers coming in cold.

One of the emerging trends of the NIL and free transfer era is that old teams thrive. If you are a power program with veterans who’ve played together a long time, you probably will out-execute teams that have a mix of dudes who don’t work together as a unit as well. That kind of formula helped Michigan win a title a couple years ago despite having a quarterback less talented than Lagway is.

If Napier was willing to take more input from newly minted sole offensive coordinator Russ Callaway, UF’s passing game could be a real nightmare to defend with Lagway throwing behind that line. Consider the likely starting receivers.

J. Michael Sturdivant is a big, physical guy who can nonetheless get behind defenses. Tre Wilson will be coming out of the slot with incredible agility, and, like Lagway, he’s finally fully healthy for the first time in years. He also bulked up over the offseason to help his durability. Then the third receiver is likely to be Dallas Wilson, a borderline 5-star who looks like a legit 5-star.

Just how many teams out there have three corners able to deal with all those guys at the same time? Someone is getting single coverage, and that someone is liable to make a big play with Lagway always looking for one. The rotation behind those guys includes the likes of the blazing fast Aidan Mizell and Tank Hawkins, plus another ready-to-go freshman in Vernell Brown III. If Callaway was allowed to spruce up the passing attack, all those dudes will be a big problem for literally any defense.

As for Florida’s defense, I can’t emphasize how big it is to have Caleb Banks back. Remember the 2010 Auburn team that won a title because Cam Newton carried it there? Well, he did have help from a future first-round defensive tackle in Nick Fairley. Fairley’s solution to Oregon’s fast-tempo read option in the national title game was to get to the mesh point the same time the ball did and blow the play up before any reading could be done.

Banks was a monster at the end of last season. I don’t know if he and Lagway could lead a team to a title like how Newton and Fairley did by almost themselves, but I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand. The great thing is that UF has way more future pro talent than that Auburn team did, so we don’t have to find out.

Tyreak Sapp was mocked to the first round in that same projection that Barber was. UF has its most promising linebacker room since Muschamp recruits were on the field. The secondary will need to stay healthy, but nothing helps out coverage like quarterbacks running for their lives. Devin Moore staying healthy all year would be a big plus, and Cormani McClain reportedly made huge strides in the spring.

Florida is not a superteam like Ohio State of last year, or Georgia teams of a few years ago, or most Saban Alabama teams, or even Urban Meyer’s best Gator teams. Those superteams don’t exist anymore, because NIL and free transfers mean that talent distributes itself more evenly now. There is no buzzsaw out there for UF to run into.

Napier will have to do his best coaching job of his entire career to get this 2025 Florida team to its ceiling, but make no mistake: it’s ceiling is a national championship. I don’t know if this bunch could win a title in 2008 or 2011 or 2019 or 2021, but it’s playing in 2025. It has what it takes to win it all this year, particularly with that key duo of Lagway on offense and Banks on defense.

The time is now. The window is open. It’s up to the players and staff to find their way through it and win another national championship.