The Gainesville Sun’s Kevin Brockway and Noah Ram analyzed Florida football’s 33-8 victory over Tulane in the Gasparilla Bowl at Raymond James Stadium. The Florida Gators (8-5) started the game slow before finishing strong to close out the 2024 season with four straight wins and their first in the league since 2019. “First game in three weeks, it’s going to be a bit of a mixed bag, especially considering how well the team has played the last three weeks, with wins over LSU, Ole Miss and FSU,” Ram said, “So you start off a little bit slow but I thought the team did well in catching up in the second period and it was great to see a lot of the guys who didn’t get playing time, especially in attack, KD Daniels, Anthony Rubio, Tony Livingston scored the winning goal Increases the fun of the match.”

Brockway said the slow start on offense raises concerns about whether head coach Billy Napier should continue calling plays for UF in 2025. Florida football freshman quarterback DJ Lagway overcame two blocked punts in the first half to complete 22 of 35 passes for 305 yards and a touchdown to win Gasparilla MVP honors Bowl. “Tulane threw some coverage to DJ and he struggled in the beginning because he was so used to that quick shot, he had to learn how to throw under protection a little bit and try to learn how do it as the game progresses,” Brockway said. “Florida’s running game also started a little slow.”