Moments after the clock hit zero and before the alma mater was sung, Tyreak Sapp sat in the middle of the Florida Gator head at midfield.
He looked around, taking in the moment. It was his final time suiting up for the Gators and playing at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
After UF’s 40-21 victory over Florida State to cap off its 2025 season, Sapp said the emotions were finally starting to hit him.
“I’ve just been trying to soak in every moment, make the most of every moment and kind of just enjoy everybody,” Sapp said post-game. “I’ve been through a lot, and I’ve seen a lot, and I’ve seen this place go through a lot, so it just means a lot to me.”
It was a culmination of the edge rushers’ journey from a kid from Fort Lauderdale idolizing Gator greats to becoming a UF defensive lineman to heading toward the NFL.
“I was a dude up front, and I just wanted to be one of those guys,” Sapp said. “I knew the tradition, I knew the history and I knew the standard … I wanted to be a part of this. I knew it was something special.”
Alongside 19 other seniors, Sapp, who spent five years at UF, was celebrated for Senior Day before the game began, coming out through the tunnel with his daughter sitting on his shoulder. He walked out to thunderous applause before greeting the rest of his family at midfield.
When reflecting on that special moment post-game, Sapp spoke about how his family has made him the man he is today.
“I owe them nothing but so much gratitude,” Sapp said. “Through this whole process, through all my years of college, [they] did nothing but support me and help me become better.”
Sapp committed to Florida after his sophomore season in late 2018, well before his arrival in Gainesville in 2021.
He recalled the time he quickly spoke to former Florida head coach Dan Mullen on the phone during his freshman year of high school.
“Coach Mullen said, ‘What we doing?’ And I said, ‘I commit,’ and I hung up the phone,” Sapp said. “So I’ve always been a Gator.”
Sapp has been a constant force on Florida’s defensive front since his redshirt freshman season in 2022, playing 49 of UF’s 50 games in that time span.
He finished his Gators’ career with 124 total tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks and four forced fumbles. Thirteen of his tackles for loss and seven of his sacks came in 2024, where Sapp led UF in both categories.
While he and the Florida pass rush have not been as effective in 2025, they came out with a vengeance on Saturday, sacking FSU quarterback Tommy Castellanos four times en route to the blowout victory.
For Sapp, there was no better game for him and his fellow seniors to go out.
“The tradition of that game is special, and it runs deep,” Sapp said. “We didn’t just have to win that game for us, but for the past Gators that have come and laid the foundation.”
Sapp is not the only leader on the UF defensive line to potentially depart to the pros. His close friend Caleb Banks also played his last game as a Gator on Saturday, finishing a 2025 season in which he only played in three contests.
After suffering a foot injury against LSU Sept. 13, Banks was out of the lineup until Nov. 22, when he returned against Tennessee. While his draft stock as a highly-touted player was already set, Banks decided to return to suit up alongside his teammates one last time, helped by some encouragement from Sapp.
“We can’t play at UF anymore after this,” Sapp said. “So, you don’t want to look back and say, ‘dang, I wish I did it.’ … That’s what I told him. I said, ‘you only get to do it once, and I’d love to do it with you again.’”
Banks and Sapp will join the list of former Gators to make their marks on the next level. Sapp mentioned Brandon Spikes and Dante Fowler Jr., both first-round picks out of UF, as guys who made him want to come to UF when he was a recruit.
Sapp departs Florida just as the Gators announced Jon Sumrall as its next head coach Sunday. The former Tulane head coach will become the 31st head coach in program history.
“It’s about true love,” Sapp said. “Do you really love where you are, and do you love the people around you? … And if not, there’s always a place that will obviously take you in and who will love you.”
And while the game of college football might be over for Sapp as he makes his next steps in his career, he had one mission.
“Forget tomorrow,” Sapp said. “Tomorrow isn’t promised. So what would you give for today? … Because you don’t know what tomorrow holds, and all we’ve got is just one moment right here.”
Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X @maxbernstein23.
Max is in his sixth semester at The Alligator and now serves as The Alligator's Football Reporter and is a junior sports journalism student. He previously served as The Alligator's Sports Editor, and served as reporter for women's tennis, volleyball and lacrosse. He also has made multiple appearances on the Paul Finebaum Show. He wants to shoutout his cats, Scooter and Zoe, and niche former Florida Panthers players (shoutout Tomas Kopecky).
