NCAAF News

Home

Teams

Quizzes

Newsletter

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier praised his team for unselfishness earlier in the week, but a selfish penalty played a big role in the team's loss to USF. Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Spit Happens: Bett's Costly Penalty Sums Up Rough Gators' Loss

Originally posted on Florida Gators on SI | By Cam Parker | Last updated Sep 6, 2025 10:05 PM ET

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators couldn't get out of its own way, and USF's Cole Skinner couldn't get out of the way of Brendan Bett's spit on Saturday night in the Swamp.

The Gators, holding tightly onto a 16-15 lead in the game's final minutes, suffered its first loss of the season after USF kicker Nico Gramatica drilled a 20-yard field goal as time expired. The plays before that told the story.

Corner Dijon Johnson was called for a pass interference on the drive's second play before defensive lineman Brendan Bett, a transfer from Baylor, was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct and ejected after spitting on Skinner.

Napier addressed the penalty after the 18-16 loss, which moved him to 20-20 in his fourth season leading the program.

"We'll take a good look at it, but it's unacceptable," Napier said. "I think we've got a lot of players in that room as well that have the same belief that it's unacceptable.

"When a guy does something like that, he's compromising the team. He's putting himself before the team. Everything the game is about, you're compromising. So there will be lessons to be learned there. Yeah, it's that simple."

How dumb can Brendan Bett be? Spitting on a player, much less in this situation? Where’s the impulse control? The game is on the line and we JUST saw what happened to Jalen Carter. pic.twitter.com/mVzRKPimU4
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) September 6, 2025

After 28 free yards from penalties and a 29-yard catch-and-run from Bulls receiver Alvon Isaac, USF went home the victory and Florida went home with more questions than answers. Coming off a zero-penalty performance against Long Island, the Gators were penalized 11 times for 108 yards on Saturday.

"It's so out of character for us," quarterback DJ Lagway said of the penalties. "Coach Napier, he's built the foundation from day one here. He knows and we know what's the expectations here, and we didn't live up to that today."

Bett's penalty stands out among the rest.

Just days after Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter was ejected before the first play against Dallas for the same penalty, and days after Napier praised the team for maturity and leadership, Bett's decision had one of the biggest negative effects in the game.

"There's no place for that as an individual and certainly representing the University of Florida," senior corner Devin Moore said. "There's no place for that here. This is a prestigious program, and that will be addressed for sure."

Lagway is confident Bett can move past the self-inflicted penalty.

"Brendan, he's a heck of a player. He made a mistake there. That doesn't identify his character at all," Lagway said. "He's such a nice guy, nice kid, nice person to have in the locker room. He was in there crying and stuff like that, feeling bad, talking to the coaches, talking to the players, and apologizing for it.

"We don't ever hold that against anybody. He's going to come prepared this week and stuff like that."

Florida will need to move on and eliminate the self-inflicted miscues quickly with a four-game slate that includes road games at No. 3 LSU, No. 5 Miami and No. 19 Texas A&M and a home game against No. 7 Texas sandwiched between the games against the Hurricanes and Aggies.

"We just got to put the team first," Moore said. "Sometimes your emotions can get high, but you can't jeopardize the team. Then also take accountability for your actions and just clean it up when we see it on film and just address it. That's the most important part."

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

More must-reads: