One of the infamous moments from Saturday's debacle against USF was when Brendan Bett spat on the Bulls, got ejected, and gave USF a free 15 yards they used to help maintain momentum and drive down for the game-winning field goal.
The defensive tackle who transferred from Baylor was remorseful after the game, and Billy Napier said during his press conference on Monday that the coaching staff hasn't decided whether to suspend Bett for the LSU game.
The fact that Napier doesn't know yet whether he will suspend Bett is a direct result of one of the well-known core flaws Florida's roster had heading into the 2025 season.
Florida may or may not suspend you for spitting
We jokingly, but also half seriously, tweeted on Sunday that while we are sure no one on Florida's staff was like "Hey Mr. Bett, it's cool if you spit on opposing players," it doesn't help that players for Florida seem to get a soliloquy rather than a sideline chewing when they aren't doing the "process oritented" things that Napier claims they care about.
But even if Napier did have a grip on the program and really wanted to suspend Bett to send a message to the rest of the team, the truth is he litteraly has no one to replace him with.
After the spring game in April, we did a power ranking of all 11 units the Gators had. Coming in dead last as the weakest group on the team was at defensive tackle. At the time, we said:
"As we wrote after the game, the classic spring game conundrum is that if the offense looks good, then the defense looks bad.
But this group had question marks before the spring game, and giving up almost 200 yards rushing to Ja'Kobi Jackson doesn't help those fears.
The problem is this unit lost a ton to graduation and didn't add anyone out of the transfer portal.
Caleb Banks was out on Saturday and his presence will be a huge help, the Gators have next to no proven production on this unit.
The big hope is that Jamari Lyons is ready to take a step forward."
The double irony is that Bett wasn't even with the team at the time, as he joined after D'Antre Robinson departed for UNC late, and the fact that the last player from Florida to spit on someone during a key drive was Jamari Lyons.
With Caleb Banks out this past Saturday, the rotation at DT consisted of Bett, Lyons, and Michai Boireau.
That's it.
True freshmen Joseph Mbatchou and Jeramiah McCloud, who both played 10+ snaps against LIU, didn't play against USF.
If Napier thought Mbatchou or McCloud were ready for LSU, he wouldn't even have to think about whether or not to suspend Bett.
But Napier knows his job is on the line. Napier knows he can't afford to lose against LSU and Miami and expect to be the head coach when Florida returns to The Swamp against Texas. Napier knows Florida's best chance to beat LSU this Saturday is if Bett plays.
And so rather than hold guys accountable for actions that even a four-year-old knows are wrong, it gets handled "internally" with another soliloquy.