The Florida Gators (8-5) defeated the Tulane Green Wave (9-5) 33-8 to win the Gasparilla Bowl. The Gators finished their season with four straight wins and their first bowl win since 2019 in front of a crowd that was virtually all orange and blue.

With this in mind, you can find the last stock report of the season here. See who got one final push and who took one final blow before the focus shifts to 2025.

Chimere Dike

It was the final game of his college career and he made it count. Dike made six catches for 96 yards. He accounted for nearly a third of Lagway’s 305 passing yards in the game.

Dike finished his tenure with the Gators with a career-high 783 yards per season and a career-high 18.6 yards per reception. He’s heading to the NFL Draft now and we’re now waiting to see where he ends up at the end of April.

Record setting and first careers

This is a category you don’t do often. This might be the only time. But there were too many records and career firsts in this game to leave this out.

First, we’ll start with kicker Trey Smack, who set a Gasparilla Bowl record with four field goals in the game. Quarterback DJ Lagway set a Gasparilla Bowl record with 305 yards rushing en route to winning the game’s MVP award.

Notable scoring firsts include touchdowns from KD Daniels and Anthony Rubio. Myles Graham and Alfonzo Allen Jr. each had their first career interceptions. And Desmond Watson had a legacy game that included his first career carry — giving him his first career first down. Speaking of Watson…

Desmond Watson

Nobody will ever forget this man. He may not have been the MVP of all time, but he will forever be one in the hearts of Gator Nation.

From stiff-arming Spencer Rattler to transforming Ty Thompson into Simba, Watson never missed a highlight. He finished his Gators career with 63 total tackles, one pass defended, one and a half sacks and a legendary fumble recovery.

Gators discipline

The penalties got out of control at times for this team. Entering the game, they had 35 penalty yards while Tulane still only had 39 total yards on offense. I’m not sure if this is a setback for Florida or Tulane. Either way, finishing with nine penalties and a loss of 95 yards is not acceptable.

Napier had to call a timeout because they only had 10 players on the field and Bryce Lovett had to knock over a coach to get to the line for one of Smack’s field goals.

“We were sloppy early. Obviously the red zone is having problems. A few penalties too many. We had a lot of different pieces in different places. I think overall we know – we defended pretty well and got some takeaways.”

That needs to be a focus this offseason. This has long been a problem despite improvements on special teams.

Smack set a field goal record for a reason. The Gators only had a 6-0 halftime lead for good reason. It took a long time for this team to get into the red zone. Lagway’s second interception was thrown into the end zone, where Tulane got a touchback.

Had Tulane come with its full roster, Florida might have suffered the consequences. However, towards the end of the game they managed to increase the score.