Gator Nation has posted sellout after sellout at The Swamp through two-plus seasons of middling results under head coach Billy Napier, who is 10-6 at home in his tenure.
Other than freshman quarterback DJ Lagway’s dazzling starting debut for the Florida Gators against FCS opponent Samford, there hasn’t been much to cheer about at The Swamp in 2024. Florida is 1-2 at home and has dropped four of its last five in Gainesville dating to the 2023 season. That includes a 39-36 overtime loss to Arkansas in which UF entered the game as a 6-point favorite.
Florida (2-2, 1-1 SEC) will benefit from another electric sellout crowd when it hosts UCF (3-1, 1-1 Big 12) under the lights at The Swamp on Saturday (7:45 p.m., SEC Network).
UF needs to take advantage of it, or it could serve as another death knell for Napier and his staff. No matter how much progress UCF has made, big-money Florida boosters and fans won’t take kindly to losing to a school that began playing football as a Division III program in 1979.
Florida football seeking another fast start
The best way for Florida to get the crowd into the game is a faster start. Florida built a 21-point first-half lead in an eventual 45-28 win Sept. 21 at Mississippi State. But the Gators were shut out in the first half by Texas A&M in their last home game and were held to 10 points before halftime of an opening home loss to Miami.
“Starting fast is critical to playing winning football,” Napier said. “Certainly, when you play at home, if we’re able to get the crowd into the game, it’s a big piece of puzzle.”
Another piece is finding ways to get off the field. Florida enters the UCF matchup ranked 15th out of 16 SEC teams in scoring defense (27.3 ppg) and total defense (425.5 ypg).
The open week following the win at MSU presented an opportunity to fix some defensive issues.
“One of the small details that we had to fix, being able to match team’s tempos,” Florida cornerback Jason Marshall Jr. said. “Coming in, Mississippi State, they did run some tempo a little bit. It was at times where we were just standing around looking for the signal. Like I said, that was one of the small details that we had to fix knowing that it’s going to be a few other teams that run tempo later on in the season.”
Familiar face returns to The Swamp at QB for UCF
Florida faces a challenge in UCF dual-threat quarterback KJ Jefferson. Yes, that’s the same Jefferson that led Arkansas to an upset win over the Gators at The Swamp last season. The 6-foot-3, 261-pound Jefferson passed for 255 yards and two TDs that game while rushing for 92 yards and another TD.
Jefferson will run a different offense with different personnel under UCF coach Gus Malzahn.
“The issues that he can create because he’s a big man, ultimately I think that’s what you take away from that (Arkansas) game,” Napier said. “A lot of the players on our team now were out there in those situations last year. So, we have a ton of awareness.”
Marshall said the key Saturday is to try to take away Jefferson’s rushing ability and make him one-dimensional.
“Then … being a defender in the back end, taking away his reads and things like that,” Marshall said. “Just trying to make the game hard for him.”