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Florida Gators suffer embarrassing home loss thanks in part to a moment that mimicked Jalen Carter’s viral mistake from last week

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Tyler Forness | Last updated Sep 6, 2025 11:06 PM ET

The Florida Gators continue to find embarrassing ways to lose in The Swamp, this time 18-16 to the South Florida Bulls.

Head coach Billy Napier is fully at fault for this loss, and it's not for a singular reason. His play-calling was abysmal throughout the game. He refused to focus on running the ball with Jadan Baugh, who had 51 rushing yards on the opening drive with just 42 the rest of the game. He needed to help his quarterback DJ Lagway, who is still a little rusty after missing a large portion of the offseason.

Despite the poor play calling by Napier, the Gators still had the ability to seal the game on defense, which was consistent throughout the night, but the lack of discipline came back to haunt them once again.

Gators defender ejected for committing same foul as Jalen Carter

We've seen some embarrassing losses by the Gators in The Swamp over the last 20 years. The loss to Georgia Southern when they were in the FCS back in 2013 is arguably the worst, but the most embarrassing was in 2020 when cornerback Marco Wilson threw a shoe after a third down stop. The Gators ended up losing that game and a chance at making the College Football Playoff.

Arguably the biggest “What if” moment in Florida history…

What if Marco Wilson never threw the shoe? pic.twitter.com/mIBeuZ3G26
— Florida Gators (@gatorsszn) March 10, 2025

The lack of discipline for this Gators team has been a problem over Napier's tenure, and it came to a head on Saturday afternoon. On the third play of South Florida's game-winning drive, defensive lineman Brendan Bett got ejected for spitting on an offensive lineman. The Bulls would take that momentum and drive down for the game-winning field goal

Now a Florida Gator has been ejected for spitting on someone. Hope this isn’t becoming a trend. pic.twitter.com/Nhw9l0YUcV
— Matthew Mason (@MatthewMason__) September 6, 2025

Making a stupid mistake is something that college kids aren't immune to. However, this is so unacceptable for multiple reasons. First, Napier should have prevented one of his players from doing that, as starting nose tackle Jamair Lyons was ejected for doing that against Florida State back in 2023.

Jamari Lyons has been ejected for spitting.

Keep it respectful but keep it real. That’s one of the dumbest penalties I’ve ever seen. Not quite as bad as Marco Wilson throwing a shoe in terms of how devastating it was, but it’s up there in terms of idiocy. pic.twitter.com/MPwTDQQmo9
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) November 26, 2023

Secondly, the entire nation saw the Philadelphia Eagles and former Georgia Bulldogs defensive tackle Jalen Carter get ejected in the NFL season opener before a single snap happened

Jalen Carter was ejected from the Eagles’ season opener after appearing to spit at Dak Prescott.

( NBC) pic.twitter.com/HbETVk1ALd
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 5, 2025

Considering it's happened before for the Gators under Napier, and it happened on Thursday, how are you not talking to your team about this to prevent it from happening? And if you did talk to them, it obviously didn't work, and that's a signal to a much bigger problem.

No matter how you spin it, this is beyond embarrassing for the Gators, and something needs to be done.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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