GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The season-opening loss at UCF left plenty to stew over. Letting a two-goal lead slip away will do that to a coach.
When Nick Zimmerman won his first game on the Florida sideline last week against Coastal Carolina, he was very stoic in the aftermath. Blowing a two-goal lead and needing a late game-winner to get out on top at home against a less formidable opponent can temper enthusiasm for a coach.
Ah, but then came Sunday.
As the final seconds ticked away — with the record Donald Dizney Stadium soccer crowd on its feet and counting down — Zimmerman raised his arms on the UF sidelines, then turned to his line of assistants and one-by-one met each with congratulatory handshakes, saving a big bear hug for associate head coach Jonathan Garbar.
Then, as his players swarmed one another near midfield, Zimmerman began strolling across the pitch, only to break into a literal skip and bee-lined toward the bleachers, where he let loose a passionate fist pump, followed by a Gator chomp, worthy of the most significant victory for this once powerful and proud program in nearly a decade.
"We put a lot into it," Zimmerman said afterward. "In that moment, it validates all the time, all the sacrifice. It feels good."
And it should, especially given how the Gators so thoroughly dominated the third-ranked Seminoles, winners of five of the previous 12 national championships and with four starters back from last season's title-winning squad. FSU came in unbeaten and unscored-upon through three games, while riding a 36-game winning streak (dating to 2019) against non-conference foes.
UF took the lead in the 21st minute when Kyra Taylor scored the first of her two goals off a beautifully placed corner kick by freshman Mia Gray and were cruising with a 3-0 advantage when FSU finally got on the board with less than eight minutes remaining. In between, the Gators were the better, faster and harder-playing team.
"Honestly," fifth-year goal-keeper Jayden Emmanuel said, "it's a long time coming."
How long?
* The win snapped an eight-match losing streak to the Seminoles, including last season's 5-0 shutout that opened the 2025 campaign. * FSU had outscored UF 24-3 during the head-to-head skid that started in 2017, including 14-0 over the previous four meetings. * The victory marked Florida's first win against a top-10 ranked opponent since 2017 (when most of the current players were in elementary or middle school).
"It shows the fight in this group. Couldn't be more proud," Zimmerman said. "We asked them to compete and they did that. The players. The staff. Just incredible."
The Gators went looking for a new soccer coach last November and found Zimmerman at Mississippi State, where he'd been just one season as a head coach, but the six before that as associate head when the Bulldogs were building themselves into an unlikely force in the SEC. With just one NCAA berth in MSU history, Zimmerman was part of a staff — headed by Jamie Armstrong, now at Auburn — that arrived in 2019 and raised the Bulldogs from the league cellar to conference champions in 2024 and guided them to four consecutive tournaments appearances.
His blueprint for ball-possession and constant, squeezing pressure on the defense made the trip from Starkville, also. But Zimmerman couldn't have brought this Florida team this far and this swiftly without an infusion of talented players (10 transfers, with seven trailing him from MSU) and a commitment to a culture reset.
"We spent the offseason growing and coming together," Taylor said.
Taylor was one of the players who came with Zimmerman. Through three games she has scored four goals, which matches the most scored by any UF player all last season.
Her first on Sunday came on a traffic-heavy corner kick from Mia Gray that got punched past keeper Katie Ockene. Taylor's second came in the second half after a booming blast from deep in the defensive end by freshman Lael Hill (daughter of former NBA standout Grant Hill) found classmate Iori Watanabe, who forwarded it ahead to Zoe Main. In a foot race up the right side against FSU's Olivia Page, Main centered a pass to Taylor, who out-ran her defender and buried a shot past Ockene for a 2-0 lead in the 61st minute.
UF's third goal came on another breakaway, this one by Florida International transfer forward Montelene Dymond, who made Ockene look silly with a give-and-take move in the open field that left Ockene on the ground and the net unattended. Dymond tapped in her first goal as a Gator for a 3-0 lead with less than 12 minutes remaining.
"It looked like she was about to cry after that goal," Emmanuel said of Dymond her teammate/roommate.
She may just as well have been talking about FSU's keeper.
Third-year sophomore mid Norah Abbott gets into the post-game act Sunday.
Along the way, the crowd of 1,632 — with new UF president Stuart Bell in the house — was treated to some great plays and hard ones, too. To the former, Emmanuel stared down a one-on-one threat from sprinting FSU mid Shaneil Buckley and threw herself in front of a shot for a tremendous goal-saving block midway through the opening period. As for the latter, several Gators had to be tended to after hard hits or push through cramps on what was a very hot and steamy afternoon.
"That's what our DNA is," Zimmerman said. "Players left it on the line. Bodies in the box, lying all over the field. Carnage. It was everything you needed, people rolling off the field."
Then he said it again.
"Can't be more proud."
And while the Gators, both players and fans, will cherish a victory the likes of which they had not experienced in nearly a decade, here's the rub: This isn't new for Zimmerman. Just last season, he beat No. 1-ranked Tennessee, which was one of three top-10 victories for the Bulldogs in '25. The year before, Mississippi State rolled through the SEC with a 10-0 record.
Clearly, he knows how to win, but also how to react to (and get his players to move on from) from the really big ones.
"We'll celebrate, but then it's back to work [Monday]," Zimmerman said of his first signature victory. "We'll meet as a staff, talk about what we liked and what we didn't like, then turn our attention to our most important game of the season. Our next one."
As the final seconds ticked away — with the record Donald Dizney Stadium soccer crowd on its feet and counting down — Zimmerman raised his arms on the UF sidelines, then turned to his line of assistants and one-by-one met each with congratulatory handshakes, saving a big bear hug for associate head coach Jonathan Garbar. 
