‘Kept Fighting’: Caleb Banks’ Faith-Driven Return Defines Heart of Gators
Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks could have foregone his senior season to pursue the NFL Draft at the end of the 2024 season. Instead, Banks returned for his final season with hopes of bringing Florida back to a premier college football program.
Following a breakout redshirt-junior year, when Banks tallied 21 total tackles (10 solo), seven tackles-for-loss, 4.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and recovered a fumble in 10 starts, Banks sought to up those numbers in his final year. The 330-pound Detroit, Michigan , native even earned preseason watch list honors for the Chuck Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy coming into the 2025 season.
But a year filled with hope and optimism quickly faded for Banks, turning into a season riddled with injuries that forced him to miss significant time. His first setback occurred in August during fall camp, after he suffered a foot injury that kept him off the field for the rest of camp and the first two games of the year.
But after bouncing back from that, Banks returned to the field for Florida’s first road game against LSU. However, during the game, Banks appeared to have re-aggravated the same foot that he had injured in the preseason. Banks left the game early and did not return, later revealing that he had a broken foot that required surgery.
While he never officially ruled himself out for the year, most people, including Banks, presumed that the injury would keep him off the field for the remainder of the year. But instead of feeling sorry for himself, Banks attacked the rehab process head-on. As each week of recovery went by, so did the belief that Banks could, in fact, find his way back on the field. Banks credits his faith the most throughout the recovery process and said that God told him he would be able to return.
“To be honest, no, I did not. I was not expecting that,” Banks said about his return. “But I stayed strong, kept fighting through, with recovery and stuff like that. And God just told me, ‘No, you’re going to go out there and play again. So go out there and play.'”
But as the season went on, Banks watched as Florida’s season fell from preseason SEC title contenders to SEC pretenders real fast. With nothing more to play for from an overall team perspective, it would have been easy for Banks to call it a season and just focus on preparing his body for April’s NFL Draft.
But Banks kept going and eventually his injury report status started to change, which caught Gator fans’ eyes ahead of the Ole Miss game. For the first time since getting hurt, Banks went from out to doubtful, which may seem insignificant since he did not play, but signaled a possible return.
In the midst of preparing for Tennessee, interim coach Billy Gonzales gave word that Banks would indeed make his long-awaited return to the field Saturday against Tennessee.
“He’s a big body, obviously,” Gonzales said. “Big body to get back in the middle of the defensive line, and he’s excited. I think that’s the one thing when you start talking about how this program is and just the thought process of the players. You got a young man that fought hard. He went through rehab, continued to push it to make sure he could try to come back.”
For the first time since Week 3, Florida got its senior leader back on the line for its rival game against the Volunteers. Unfortunately for Florida, Tennessee came into The Swamp and did whatever it pleased – winning the game 31-11 and snapping a 10-game road losing streak to Florida.
Despite missing all that time, Banks had no limit on his workload; in fact, Gonzales played him more to get him back into game shape since those valuable snaps cannot be simulated. Banks made it through the entire game and recorded three tackles.
“I think the world of him for fighting to come back and help our team. So extremely impressed with him for him to be out there and doing everything that he can do,” Gonzeles said. “He’ll be better this week, obviously. But yeah, he was a little winded. He’ll be the first one to tell you that.
“But you can see the power and the strength. He’s got strong heavy arms, heavy-handed, and really anchored the inside on some of those plays for us. So it’ll be good to get him back and playing again this weekend as well.”
With the season finale Saturday against in-state rival Florida State, Banks is ready to defend home field one last time against the Seminoles. The last time Florida State played in Gainesville in 2023, multiple players celebrated by digging up pieces of turf following FSU’s 24-15 win – something that Banks remembers and is not letting go of ahead of this one.
“I remember my first year here, I remember seeing Jared Verse, he was digging, picking up the grass. It was hitting, that’s when I started realizing I really don’t like these guys,” Banks said. “Like, why are you doing that? We can’t let that happen this year.”
Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Gators Football, SEC
