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Florida Gators Defense Dominates UCF Knights in 24-13 Victory

The Florida Gators officially have its first back-to-back wins in nearly a year with a dominating defensive performance against the UCF Knights.

Cam Parker

Oct 5, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators defensive ends Tyreak Sapp (94) and T.J. Searcy (19) celebrate after a quarterback sack against the UCF Knights during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images
Oct 5, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators defensive ends Tyreak Sapp (94) and T.J. Searcy (19) celebrate after a quarterback sack against the UCF Knights during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images
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GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators have its first back-to-back wins in 357 days.

Behind a stout defense and efficient first-half offense, the Gators on Saturday night downed the visiting UCF Knights, 24-13, in front of over 90,000 fans inside The Swamp. It's also Florida's first win over an in-state opponent in two seasons, which came against USF on Sept. 17, 2022.

Facing the nation's No. 2 rushing offense and a quarterback who's already gotten the best of the Gators once before in KJ Jefferson, the Florida defense played its best game of the season. The Knights were held to 273 total yards of offense, 108 of which came on the ground. UCF came into the game averaging 326 yards a per game on the ground.

Additionally, the Gators held Jefferson to 126 yards passing, no touchdowns, sacked him five times and intercepted him once.

"I think today was a product of a lot of hard work the past two weeks," said UF head coach Billy Napier. "I think we made a ton of progress in the open date. I know we talked specifically about that, but I can't compliment the players and the staff enough in terms of their attitude towards the work we've been doing the last two weeks and then I thought that carried over."

UCF outscored Florida 10-0 in the second half, but a lack of urgency and over-reliance on the run cost the Knights, whose hopes for a comeback were ended by a Bryce Thornton interception with 1:48 left in the game.

Offensively, Florida used a two-to-one ratio of drives for quarterbacks Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway. Mertz completed 19 of his 23 passes for 179 yards and one touchdown, while Lagway went 4-for-4 with 50 yards passing.

Florida opened the game with a fifteen-play, 75-yard drive, which ended with Mertz finding a wide-open Elijhah Badger for a 13-yard touchdown. The Gators converted three third downs with rushes from Montrell Johnson Jr. and Jadan Baugh as well as a reception from Hayden Hansen.

"The drive, it was a long one, 15 plays, but we knew we had to set the tone early," Mertz said. "We knew it was going to be a physical game and we had to run the ball. The O-line did a great job. Skill players did a fantastic job, YAC, getting open, stuff like that, so it was a great first drive. We definitely need to -- that was a point of emphasis. Start fast. Start fast. Start fast. And I thought we did a job on offense tonight."

Florida wouldn't relinquish its early lead for the entire game, despite UCF answering with a 12-play, 65-yard drive, which ended in a 27-yard field goal by Grant Reddick. From there, what's been a lackluster, ineffective UF defense for most of the season completely stifled the Knights' offense.

Florida held UCF to 69 yards of offense in the first half after the Knights' opening drive, forced two turnover on downs and forced two punts. By the halftime break, the nation's No. 2 rushing offense had only 29 rushing yards. The Knights had 35 rushing yards after the first drive.

"I think that we played with better gap integrity. I think we got after it up front," Napier said. "I thought we tackled. There was a lot more pursuit, gang-tackle, knock back. I think we're on the same page and ultimately we played well on all three levels, I think got to do that if you're going to play good run defense. We're close to playing even better."

On the Gators' third drive, Lagway replaced Mertz and only needed one play to make an immediate impact. A 37-yard pass to Chimere Dike set up a one-yard score for Ja'Kobi Jackson on the Gators' third drive.

Two drives later, Mertz led Florida on a seven-play, 58-yard drive capped off by a three-yard Johnson Jr. touchdown. The Gators' sixth-year quarterback threw for 51 yards on two completions and drew a roughing-the-passer call to set up the score.

UCF was forced to punt, but a running-into-the-kicker call on Caleb Banks combined with a post-play unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Napier extended the Knights' drive and pushed them into UF territory.

However, the UF defense continued it's dominant effort with a fourth-down sack on Jefferson, and a 34-yard rush from Johnson Jr. set up a 28-yard field goal from Trey Smack to end the scoring in the first half.

UCF's three points was the least-allowed by the Gators through one half of football since holding Eastern Washington to three on Oct. 2, 2022.

However, the Knights kept things closer in the second half. Florida was held to 108 yards of total offense as UCF shoutout the Gators.

UCF immediately answered Smack's field goal with a 37-yarder from Reddick to begin the third quarter, and Knights' running back RJ Harvey scampered in from 13-yards out to make it a 24-13 game with under eight minutes left.

"I think when we look back at it, there'll be some things we can clean up," Napier said. "Some of it is execution. Some of them we can help them as a staff. I think with got to some good stuff as we went there. We had I think second and one in the red zone and we got a holding penalty. Ultimately I think we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. I think ultimately when we look at it that's what it's going to be. And we only had it three times, right? So they really chewed up the clock and had some long possessions."

However, UCF's over-emphasis on the run and lack of urgency eventually cost them. UCF drained nearly eight minutes of clock in the fourth quarter over the course of three drives and scored only seven points in the final 15 minutes.

UCF only took one shot down the field in that time, which was intercepted by Thornton.

The Gators (4-2, 1-2 SEC) next take the field on the road at No. 4 Tennessee with kickoff set for 7 p.m. Television coverage is on ESPN.

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Cam Parker
CAM PARKER

Cam Parker is a contributing writer at AllGators.com of FanNation-Sports Illustrated and is a recent graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in journalism. He also covers and broadcasts Alachua County high school sports with The Prep Zone and Mainstreet Daily News. When he isn't writing, he enjoys listening to '70s music such as The Band or Lynyrd Skynyrd, binge-watching shows and playing with his cat, Chester.

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