‘He’s right on schedule’ — Billy Napier speaks highly of Florida Gators defender returning from injury

Going into the 2025 season, the Florida Gators have a few players returning from injury. Of those, the highest profile is quarterback DJ Lagway, who is now nursing a calf injury after dealing with shoulder and hernia injuries over the summer. On the defensive side of the ball, defensive back Aaron Gates is the big […]

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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Going into the 2025 season, the Florida Gators have a few players returning from injury. Of those, the highest profile is quarterback DJ Lagway, who is now nursing a calf injury after dealing with shoulder and hernia injuries over the summer.

On the defensive side of the ball, defensive back Aaron Gates is the big one who is returning after he suffered a torn ACL against Ole Miss at the end of November. He is already back practicing without restrictions, which is huge for the defense.

In his press conference on Monday, head coach Billy Napier was asked about Gates’ return to the field, espeically doing so after just eight months

“Yeah, I think first of all, I think the kid [Gates] has supplied the attitude, the effort, the self discipline. I think he had an ACL senior year [of high school], so he’s been through it before, so I think that gave him a little bit of an advantage. But we’ve got good people downstairs in the training room, in the rehab area, and then Gates is just a machine. He’s just a quiet, steady, relentless worker. And he loves football, he wants to be back. He’s still on a still managing his workload. We didn’t go the entire day Saturday, right? So, [we are] kind of managing his workload depending on how he feels. So we’re working through that. He’s right on schedule.”

Napier also made sure to speak about how good of a player that Gates is, including his versatility.

“He’s one of the best football players we have. I’m not so sure he can’t play all five positions right now. He’s playing weak safety and star. He could play corner if we needed him to. He was a corner year one, played corner in high school. It was a heck of a receiver, kick returner, punt returner, and he just has good character. His parents are awesome people. One of my favorite home visits ever, just sitting and listening to them. Yeah, he’s capital. He’s made of the right stuff.”

Having Gates will be huge for the Gators’ secondary going into the season, and he could end up playing week one at this rate.

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