The University of Florida attended SEC Football Media Days in Atlanta on Wednesday with an air of confidence, a new belief.

They ended 2024 with a four-game winning streak and were among the hottest teams in college football by season’s end.

“There was a critical stretch right in there around Tennessee-Kentucky where all of a sudden we flipped the switch, and there’s a confidence and a belief that we could play with anybody,” said Florida football coach Billy Napier. “And from that point forward, I think they felt like they were good enough, and it was about just going and executing and playing on game day.”

But it didn’t start out that way.

Last year, the Gators were blown out at home by No. 19 Miami, 41-17, in the season opener.

After an easy bounce-back win against Samford, the Gators dug themselves a 20-0 hole at home against Texas A&M in a 33-20 loss to drop to 1-2.

“They were a really talented team,” said senior preseason First Team All-American offensive lineman Jake Slaughter. “Across the board, there were a lot of guys, big, strong, fast, real good football players. I remember it felt like we could never get our feet underneath us. It was a tough game for us, but I think there was a lot of growth we got from that game.”

There was definitely noise in the system and Napier was on the hot seat. His firing was imminent.

The growth came slowly with a 45-28 win at Mississippi State and a 24-13 home victory against UCF.

Florida almost got its biggest win of the season in a 23-17 loss in overtime at No. 8 Tennessee, but the Gators scored a season-high in points with a 48-20 win on Homecoming the following week against Kentucky to get above .500 at 4-3.

Losses to No. 2 Georgia, a game Florida was winning, 13-6, at the half before Florida true freshman quarterback DJ Lagway left the game with an injury, and to No. 5 Texas, dropped the Gators to 4-5.

With nationally ranked LSU and Ole Miss coming up at home, and a trip to FSU, the chances of winning two games and making a bowl game were fading.

But then came the turnaround.

They had their biggest win of the season in a 27-16 upset win in The Swamp against the No. 21 Tigers.

“It was a really big win for us,” said senior defensive lineman Caleb Banks, who opened up on why he stayed at Florida instead of chasing NFL dreams. “We wanted to be able to prove to everybody we can beat a top team. They kind of thought we couldn’t. We had to prove to ourselves and everybody else that we can do it. Simple as that.”

Lagway was injured and basically played on one good leg.

“I remember that whole week it was a lot of ups and downs mentally, just figuring out what’s the plan going to be, if I’m going to even be able to be out there,” he said. “But once we hit Thursday, it’s time to lock in — we’ve got to go get this W, doesn’t really matter. Playing against a great LSU team, they were good last year. And I’m excited to go to Death Valley this year, and it’s going to be fun.”

The Gators followed that up with an even bigger win, knocking No. 9 Ole Miss out of the College Football Playoffs with a 24-17 win at The Swamp.

They closed the season with wins against the Seminoles, 31-11, in Tallahassee, followed by a 33-8 win against Tulane in the Gasparilla Bowl to finish the season at 8-5.

Napier attributed the turnaround to his team.

“I think we had really — I think we had a quality group of kids,” he said. “I don’t think a normal group would have been able to handle that…I think that they had unique relationships with each other…and I think we had really good leadership. They took ownership. We collaborated, players and coaches. We made changes. And I think we saw some of those young players grow up.”

Slaughter said they had a “huge mindset shift in the locker room.”

“A lot of guys stepped up into a leadership role that maybe they weren’t in before,” he said. “We called it a one-day-contract type of mentality. Guys really shifted the way they thought and approached practice and the weights and the training room. It was a tremendous change and a big mindset shift.”

According to ESPN Analytics, the Gators have the toughest schedule in the nation, and they are only projected to win 6.4 games in 2025.

“I think for me, as a competitor, you want to play against the best, the very best,” Napier said. “There’s an old saying, ‘to be the best you gotta beat the best,’ and I think we get that opportunity competing in this league.”

The good thing for Florida is that a huge majority of that group is back and they’ve added some really good young players to the mix.

In fact, Napier said “this is the most talented team we’ve had in Gainesville.”

“This group believes in what we do,” said Napier, who is one of eight SEC coaches entering the season on the hot seat. “I think that’s where we really took a big step in the right direction last year, is we found a level of confidence that we could go toe to toe with any team in the country, any place, anytime. You spot the ball last year — at the end of the year, you could argue we were playing as good of football as anybody in the country, and I think that that’s a result of our development process.”

A 2-0 start is likely with home games against Long Island University and South Florida, but three of their next four games are on the road at LSU (Sept. 13), Miami (Sept. 20), and Texas A&M (Oct. 11).

The game in Baton Rouge against LSU will feature a matchup of Heisman hopefuls in Lagway, who was 6-1 as a starter last season with a 60% completion rate and 1,915 yards passing, and LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who threw for 4,052 yards, 29 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and a 64.2% completion percentage.

“Death Valley is an amazing atmosphere,” Lagway said. “I’ve been to games there as a recruit and it’s pretty hectic, so I’m just excited to go out there and play football. It could be at Death Valley, or it could be at the parking lot at Walmart, as long as I’m out there playing football, it’s all that matters.”

Following the trip to LSU, the Gators head south to face the Hurricanes, who finished 10-3 last season and have high expectations this season.

After a week off, the home game during that stretch is on Oct. 4 against Texas, which defeated Florida, 49-17, last year in Austin and advanced to the national semifinals.

Texas quarterback Arch Manning opened up as the early 2025 Heisman Trophy favorite.

Florida then heads to College Station, Texas.

Pro Football Focus ranks Texas A&M’s offense and defense as top 10 units.

In last year’s game against the Aggies, Lagway struggled in relief of starting quarterback Graham Mertz, completing 6-of-13 passes for just 54 yards with two interceptions.

He was also sacked twice.

“What stands out to me about A&M’s defense is just their interior pressure,” Lagway said. “They have a lot of good defensive linemen, and they had a lot of good corners, too. They had a really good safety….a great all-around great defense.”

Lagway, who hails from Willis, Texas, is looking forward to going back to his home state.

“For sure, I’m definitely excited to go back to play at Kyle Field,” he said. “I’ve been in, like, a lot of games at Kyle Field. For me to be able to play in one that’s going to be surreal, having all my family, my teammates, my classmates, my coaches, teachers, all of them being at the game, it’s going to be fun.”

But no matter the opponent, each game is different, and you have to have that one game at a time approach.

“That’s one thing I love about Coach Napier,” Lagway said. “He always preaches. One of his favorite things he says is one day contract. What that means is every day you just focus on being the best you can be that day. You’ve got to earn your next contract that day.”

Or put another way, “spot the ball.”

“It doesn’t matter who we play, spot the ball,” Lagway said. “That’s kind of our mindset. That’s what we kind of took on when we went down that stretch was ‘spot the ball.’ It doesn’t matter who stands in front of us. They’ve got to play the Florida Gators.”