Florida Football Athlete Faces Eagles’ Jalen Carter Fate After Spitting on Opponent, Costs Billy Napier the Game

Looks like the 2025 season of college football comes with some extra servings of penalties. Stanford’s Clay Patterson got a 15-yard penalty for his celebratory TikTok dance in their season opener against Hawaii last month. This time, Billy Napier‘s Florida Gators landed in deep soup. Courtesy? Gators defensive lineman Brendan Bett. No, not for something as frivolous as a TikTok dance, but things got serious during the USF game. Bett hurt his own team after getting ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct when he spat on a USF player. Yes, the Florida player underwent what Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Carter went through.

On September 6, Chris Hummer tweeted a clip from the game. In that clip, Bett is seen spitting on the Bulls’ offensive lineman Cole Skinner. Talking about the timing? Both teams had axes hanging on top of their heads. The clock said two minutes, fourteen seconds remaining at its own 24-yard line. Alvon Isaac ran to the right and was quickly corralled by Michai Boireau and Jayden Woods for no gain. But as the play wrapped up, Bett sprang to his feet and went straight at a USF lineman. In the heat of the moment, he leaned in and fired a huge wad of spit right at him. And with this, Napier’s defensive lineman got ejected. The consequences were not something that the Gators’ fans imagined in their wildest dreams. 

The 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty on Bett gave the Bulls an automatic first down, advancing the ball to the USF 39. With that extra yardage, USF managed to get close enough to attempt a 20-yard field goal. And VOILA! The tables turned for Napier’s boys. One play later, a 29-yard strike had them knocking on the door, setting up kicker Nico Gramatica for a routine 20-yard field goal that sealed the victory for the USF with 18-16.

With this, shadows of the NFL are seen in Napier’s squad. On September 5, the Eagles’ defensive lineman, Jalen Carter, was ejected from the game after he spat on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. But the timing did not match with Napier’s defensive lineman. In the NFL, the incident took place merely six seconds into their season opener. Meanwhile, the penalty hoopla must be bringing flashbacks for Florida fans.  

A deja vu moment for Billy Napier’s Florida

Napier joined Florida in 2021, and this incident took place in November 2023. The Gators were facing off against Florida State when their defensive lineman, Jamari Lyons, was ejected late in the second quarter. The reason? Exactly the same as Bett, “spitting on an opponent requires ejection.” The redshirt freshman played a crucial role in Napier’s defensive line. He had 20 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss entering the game.

And what happened next? The penalty and the ejection snatched the winning wand from Napier and handed it to Florida State, who came up with their first touchdown of the game. Before that blunder moment, Napier’s boys were threatening the Seminoles with a 12-0 deficit. The penalty helped spark a response, as the Seminoles marched downfield and trimmed the gap to five heading into the break. From there, they seized control, closing out a 24-15 victory to cap an unbeaten 12-0 regular season.

Cut to 2025, Napier’s plate is already filled with woes. As Elite College Football dropped the big update, Florida now has the TOUGHEST schedule in the country. As the post highlighted, “Florida now plays EIGHT ranked opponents on the year… with TEN teams being from a P4 conference. The only team not from a Power Conference is USF and they just beat Boise State by 27 points this past week 😬.” Meanwhile, do you remember how one of Napier’s weapons had sent out a warning before the USF game?

In an interview with Zach Abolverdi, starting receiver Eugene Wilson III shared, “No. 13 Florida ‘foaming at the mouth’ for first true test vs. USF.” Instead of dropping bold comments, Billy Napier’s squad should have ensured not to step on slippery stones and take the wrong route.