The 2025 Florida football season has gotten off to a slow start. They looked great in Week 1, but in Week 2, they came crashing down to earth and were upset by South Florida on a last-second field goal. One of the most significant issues for the Gators was that Brendan Bett spat on a USF player, resulting in a 15-yard penalty that only helped the Bulls get in field goal range.
The three-star defensive lineman from Texas was immediately ejected following his spitting on USF offensive lineman Cole Skinner. He helped the Bulls' last drive, which resulted in Nico Gramatica's last-second field goal. At Monday's Florida football press conference, Billy Napier addressed the incident and said he thinks Bett is remorseful and feels that he let the team down.
Napier said, “Brendan, we spent quite a bit with him yesterday. Look, I think that the kid is remorseful. I think he feels as if he let the team down.” Napier also said he'll apologize to the USF player he spat on.
Almost immediately, social media was abuzz with criticism of Bett's decision. There were immediate comparisons to what happened on Thursday night in the NFL when the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles opened the season. When Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter was ejected for spitting on quarterback Dak Prescott, given the timing, it's impossible for comparisons not to pop up.
In the immediate aftermath, Brendan Bett's Florida football teammates were frustrated with what happened, but they also expressed that they wanted the sophomore to learn from this.
“There's no place for that as an individual and certainly representing the University of Florida. There's no place for that here,” UF cornerback Devin Moore said. “This is a prestigious program that will definitely be addressed.”
Sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway hopes Bett can learn from this because he is still young and made one bad mistake.
“Brendan, he's a heck of a player. He made a mistake there. That doesn't identify his character at all. He's such a nice guy, nice kid, nice person to have in the locker room,” Lagway said. “He was in there crying, feeling bad, talking to the coaches and players, and apologizing. We don't ever hold that against anybody. He's going to come prepared this week.”
After the initial frustration, Billy Napier and the rest of the Florida football team seem to want to move on and grow from what happened on Saturday.
