Would you believe it if you were told the first Florida football touchdown of the 2025 season came on defense?
With apologies to Maxwell Smart, the Florida Gators made believers out of the 90,000 in The Swamp in their opener on Aug. 30 against Long Island University. After Florida deferred and kicked off to start the game, it took just three plays for Florida linebacker Jaden Robinson to deliver a jarring hit to LIU quarterback Chris Howell. The ball popped loose, and safety Bryce Thornton was there to scoop it up and race 37 yards to the end zone to give UF a quick 7-0 lead.
“We’ve been preaching takeaways, take the ball over, get as many turnovers as we can to get the offense the ball back,” Florida sophomore linebacker Myles Graham said. “But to go home and score, that’s even better. So creating turnovers and touchdowns on defense, man, that’s the brand of football we want to play.”
Thornton’s fumble recovery for a TD set the tone for a dominant defensive performance during UF’s 55-0 over the visiting Sharks at The Swamp. Florida posted its first shutout under head coach Billy Napier and first shutout since beating Vanderbilt 42-0 on Oct. 9, 2021.
“We just wanted to unleash a standard today and I think we did that coming out in the first half,” Graham said. “We came out strong, three-and-out, so establishing that standard was really important to us and no matter who we played, if it’s Long Island or whoever it is, we’re going to keep playing like that no matter what.”
Still room to grow for Florida football defense
Florida held FCS opponent LIU to just 86 total yards, even without preseason All-SEC defensive tackle Caleb Banks, who sat out the game with a lower leg injury.
The Sharks finished the game with just two first downs − with one coming in the first half and one coming in the second half.
Florida football coach Billy Napier has challenged the defense to play at a championship level after UF finished 12th (out of 14 teams), 11th (out of 14 teams) and 15th (out of 16 teams) in the SEC in total defense in each of his first three seasons. UF is entering its second season with Ron Roberts as its defensive coordinator, after Patrick Toney (2022) and Austin Armstrong (2023) called UF’s defenses in Napier’s first two seasons.
“We were on the same page,” Napier said. “I thought we communicated well against a team that’s got some triple option elements to their offense. I thought we were assignment sound and pursued the ball inside out and in general. Look, we’re going to be tested in the future, so it’s a good start, but obviously we got work to do as a team to turn this thing around.”
With Banks out, defensive tackles Michai Boireau and Brendan Bett picked up the slack. Bett, a Baylor transfer, finished with three solo tackles and a tackle for loss. Robinson had four tackles and two tackles for loss to go with a forced fumble, while Thornton wound up with a second fumble recovery at LIU’s 10-yard line that set up another Florida touchdown.
“That’s the standard we want to have every game,” said Graham, who finished with a team-high five tackles and a tackle for loss. “So Coach Roberts repeats that to us and we want to keep having that same execution, that same mentality, that same focus, that same intent every single game. That’s what we want to do.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Defense delivers as Florida football posts first shutout under Billy Napier in season-opening win over LIU
Reporting by Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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