Often mocked Florida special teams powered a Gators surge in win over Texas

One of the many flaws of the Billy Napier Era has been the complete disorganization of special teams.

Between the muffed punt for a TD against Vanderbilt, the double No. 3 penalty against Utah, the procedural penalties while trying to kick field goals against Arkansas and Tennessee, the leaping penalty to extend a drive against Kentucky, and the ongoing struggles to simply get eleven players on the field period, special teams have been a complete liability for the Gators.

Prior to the game against Texas, we had said one of the pathways for Florida to pull the upset was for Vernell Brown III to return a punt for a TD. That didn't happen, but the Gators got the next best thing with a key blocked punt from a player who had long since been forgotten about.

Taylor Spierto blocks a punt

Coming off a Dallas Wilson TD, the Florida defense forced a three-and-out with four minutes to play in the first half. It was then Taylor Spierto broke through, blocked the punt, and forced a safety to make it 19-7.

The two points helped keep Texas out of reach, even going into the final drive.

For Spierto, it was a clutch moment for a player who was emblematic of Florida's struggles early last season. The former walk-on got a ton of snaps against Texas A&M ahead of several other notable Florida WRs.

It didn't go great as he took 29 snaps and his lone target wound up as an INT.

From there, Spierto was relegated back to special teams and mop-up duty.

Napier made sure to highlight Spierto is his opening statement after the game:

"Taylor Spierto, who was a walk-on in year one here who's earned a scholarship was a spark tonight and made a huge play."

We'll see if special teams can continue to be a positive unit for Florida, but for one afternoon, it was a plus unit for the Gators.