Florida Will 'Keep Letting Trey Shoot' After Smack's Three Misses Against LIU

Originally posted on Florida Gators on SI | By Cam Parker | Last updated Sep 1, 2025 4:28 PM ET

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators' 55-0 win over Long Island, albeit a dominant performance, was far from perfect. Arguably the most glaring issue came on special teams with senior kicker Trey Smack missing three of his five field goal attempts.

Smack made kicks of 41 and 56 yards, which set a new career-high for the senior, and all seven extra point attempts while missing kicks from 39, 40 and 57 yards. The three misses on Saturday matched his season total from last year.

On Monday, head coach Billy Napier did not sound concerned at all about the miscues.

"First of all, he hit all three of them really well, and they were deep," he said. "I think the one that he missed that was short, he kind of punched it, which we're talking about inches in all three. I mean they're literally combined maybe off a yard. Nobody needs to be jumping off a bridge out there."

The press box angle of #Gators kicker Trey Smack’s 56-yard make:

The field goal is the longest of his career and is tied for the second longest in Florida program history. pic.twitter.com/vH8WNTYtDc
— Luke Adragna (@lukeadrag) August 30, 2025

Smack's first miss, the 40-yard attempt, came on the Gators' second drive, while his next two came in the second and fourth quarters. Both of his makes came in between in each miss.

"The guy's an elite competitor and he is phenomenal at his job. It’s important to him, so he's going to work extremely hard and he'll be ready," Napier said. "That's what makes him great is he can think he's got the mental makeup and the toughness. Great shooters, when they miss early, they don't stop shooting. They keep shooting. So we'll keep letting Trey shoot.”

Smack is coming off a strong 2024 campaign in which he made 18 of 21 field goal attempts, including eight from at least 40 yards out and three from out least 50 yards out. He was named to the Lou Groza Award Watch List going into 2025.

At the beginning of fall camp, Smack detailed to Florida Gators on SI his NFL aspirations.

"I mean, with Florida, it's such a good resume of Eddy Pineiro, Evan McPherson, now Jeremy (Crawshaw) and Caleb Sturgis back in the day. They've got such a good track record here," he said. "And I just want to live up to that expectation, because there's been so many good Gator greats going to NFL."

No. 15 Florida will host USF on Saturday, looking to start a season 2-0 for the first time since 2021. Kickoff between the Gators and the Bulls is at 4:15 p.m. with streaming coverage on SEC Network.

This article first appeared on Florida Gators on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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