Three notable observations from Florida Football's massive upset over Ole Miss

Florida Football has officially flipped the script from where they were at the start of the season, and quite frankly two weeks ago, after pulling off a 24-17 win over Ole Miss that has realistically knocked the Rebels out of the College Football Playoff picture.

Billy Napier can now officially feel like the Gators have genuine momentum heading into the offseason. The following are three notable observations from the win.

Caleb Banks has come alive

For the vast majority of the 2024 campaign, Caleb Banks was just a guy along the defensive line for the Gators. His missed tackle rate was high through five games as Florida's defensive line was a genuine weak spot for the Gators.

But something in these last two games has clicked for Banks as he has been front and center of a defensive line that can claim as much credit for the past two weeks as anyone.

Coming into the LSU game, Banks had 12 pressures total in the 2024 campaign. In these last two games, he has had 15 combined pressures, and he had 2.5 sacks against Ole Miss after just two sacks in all of 2024 prior to the game.

Florida will need to hit the portal again for a wide receiver

For as much as the headlines for Florida this week are going to be about Napier and DJ Lagway, Elijhah Badger has continued to be the key to unlock a downfield attack for the Gators.

Lagway completed just ten passes on Saturday, but five of them were to Badger for 87 yards and one touchdown.

Badger is gone after this year as is Chimere Dike. Ja'Quavion Fraziars was the only other Gator receiver to catch a pass on Saturday, and he is gone too.

Florida has Aidan Mizell waiting in the wings, as well as Tank Hawkins. Eugene Wilson is also slated to come back, provided he doesn't hop in the transfer portal.

But beyond that, there isn't much returning to hang one's hat on, and thus, this transfer portal period is going to be a massive one for the Gators.

Keep in mind that Florida grabbed Badger at the absolute last minute in the portal, so we'll see how the 2025 portal plays out.

Billy Napier still has a lot to clean up as a game-day coach

This is going to sound like we are hating after such a massive win, but in truth, some of the continued flaws that have burned Napier in the past were still alive and well on Saturday.

Front and center was Napier's weird handling of the end of the first half, where it looked like he was finally going to get one of these sequences right, only to call a timeout to set up a stretch run.

But even before that, there was a weird sequence where Florida got to 4th and 3, and it looked like Florida was trying to draw Ole Miss offside. That part was fine, but when Napier called a timeout, the Gators snapped the ball as if they were going to run an actual play a half-second later.

Then there was the timeout Napier called during the final drive for Ole Miss, saving the Rebels from a false start penalty to give them one last gasp. That was with the backdrop of not milking the clock as much as he could in an earlier drive.

It's nitpicking, but we have seen these moments burn the Gators far too often in the Billy Napier Era to not notice them.