Florida is coming off arguably its biggest win of the season, upsetting Ole Miss while rival Florida State needed any kind of win and secured that last week by beating Charleston Southern.
Ending the season on a high note by winning the annual rivalry on Saturday night in Tallahassee, Fla., is the goal for these programs, but Florida stands an opportunity to further improve its bowl standing as a parting gift.
Florida leads the all-time series 37-28-2, but the Seminoles have won the past two meetings by nine points or fewer.
But this season, although they have experienced their ups and downs, things have gone markedly better for the Gators (6-5) than the Seminoles (2-9).
Napier had been thought to be on the hot seat since the start of the season. Everything changed in November.
With the support of his administration, Napier revived the Gators. Consecutive victories over ranked SEC foes LSU and Ole Miss the past two weeks have Florida’s outlook on the sunny side.
The Gators beat ranked teams in consecutive weeks for the first time since 2008 led by DJ Lagway, who threw a pair of touchdown passes in the 24-17 victory.
A win over the rival Seminoles in a year they are favored to do so would be huge heading into a subsequent bowl game.
“It was complimentary ball,” Napier said. “We had a lot of comments about the game afterwards. So, you know, we have no time to play around here, because we’re turning the page.”
Florida State is fresh off its best offensive performance by far of this season, albeit against the lowly FCS-level Bucs, who finished their season 1-11.
The Seminoles scored a season-high 41 points, which was 20 more than their previous high, and snapped a six-game losing streak.
Quarterback Luke Kromenhoek completed 13 of 20 passes for 209 yards and threw three touchdown passes and no interceptions. The performance earned him the chance to start again in Saturday’s game per Florida State coach Mike Norvell.
“To be able to have three touchdown passes, he made a lot of good decisions,” Norvell said during his Monday press conference. “There’s some throws that he missed, some parts of different reads and progressions where I think he’s going to continue to even become that much more efficient around it.”
