Billy Napier on Florida’s ability to compete with anyone: ‘We played all the good teams’

Billy Napier is quite confident in Florida’s ability to compete with anyone on the field. He said the Gators proved that all season long despite the 7-5 record.

If you go back to the preseason, many made a face when they saw the initial difficulty of Florida’s schedule in 2024. After a rough start, Napier and crew turned it around and finished strong.

It’s not where they want to be, but it set a precedent going into 2025, which would be Year 4 for Napier.

“We played all the good teams. We know what they look like,” Napier said. “I’m excited. We’re gonna get to play one more time. That’s all we can control. I wouldn’t bet against us, that’s what I would say.” 

Florida ended the season on a three-game winning streak, beating LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State over the course of three straight weeks.

That came after rough losses for Napier and crew. Back to back to Georgia and Texas could’ve sent the season spiraling.

“That was kind of one of (the strength and conditioning staff’s) themes for the week,” Napier said. “I think it just goes back to preparing a certain way during the week, and then once you get to the park, put the ball down, and you have to go compete, you have to go execute. You got to go play ball, you know, so and I think just an attitude of, hey, put the ball down. We don’t care who you are, where we’re at, or what time we’re kicking off. You know, we’re up for the challenge. 

“And again, we recruited all these kids. We told them: you have to be up for this challenge. There’s no running from it. There’s no hiding. We have work to do to rebuild and to get ourselves in position. And the good thing is, here in year three, on the back half of this season, we’ve done that right? So we have some momentum, but there is lots of work to do here, like to get to where we want to go, but it’s good to have some momentum here. And obviously, we need to carry this over into the way we prepare for the bowl game, need to finish this academic semester strong, and sign some good players next week.”