Billy Napier identifies how Florida culture has shifted, led to big wins

Florida secured a massive win against No. 9 Ole Miss this weekend, topping a ranked opponent for the second straight week.

It’s been a remarkable turnaround for a team that underperformed enough early in the year that coach Billy Napier seemed to move to the very edge of the hot seat.

How has it happened?

“I think it goes back to what I’ve told you guys before, I think belief is the most powerful things in the world,” Napier said after topping the Rebels. “I think that at some point there midseason I think we figured out and we started to believe, like, ‘Look, we can play with any team in the country.’ We’ve tried to direct our players’ attention to things that require no talent. And convince them, like, hey, you have the physical ability, but it’s got to be about more than that.”

Whatever the sales pitch was to the players, it was bought hook, line and sinker. They’re in. And Florida is reaping the rewards now, finally building the kind of momentum that’s been hard to come by thus far in the Napier era.

Still, the Gators are just 6-5 overall. Napier remains under .500 as a head coach with Florida.

No matter, to them.

“I would just say we’re just getting started,” Napier said. “I think this is part of the big picture journey. And, look, I think for me, yeah, I’ve watched this group. College football is unique. You play 12 regular season games, maybe you get to play another or two. But I’m around these guys every day. Behind the scenes there’s a lot that happens and a lot that goes on. And we go and we put it on full display 12 times a year.

“So I’ve been saying it the entire time, I just think there was something special about this group. And when the football wasn’t right in the beginning of the year it hurt me a little bit, to be honest with you, because I’ve been watching these guys work and anticipating it would be much improved. So I think I just was consumed with anything and everything that I could do to help them get better. Like how do we fix this? And give them some credit, they were vocal. They took ownership. They collaborated with the coaches, and I think we chipped away at it.”

The message? Get better one day at a time.

It’s a Nick Saban-like approach, one that has certainly worked for other coaches. Napier did a nice job of keeping the Florida players locked in, clearly.

“You’ve got to dream big and then you’ve got to have little process, right?” he said. “So it’s about daily, can you do it daily? Can you be consistent? I think that was the big leadership challenge this week. ‘Hey, let’s go do it again.’ And I think we were able to. The staff did a really good job getting them physically ready, mentally ready and emotionally ready to go. Because it requires a lot to compete at that level in that arena, and I thought that the staff had them ready today.”

As for the person most deserving of credit for Florida’s turnaround? Maybe the player?

Napier’s not into singling guys out that way. It takes a village, he says.

“I’m not singling one person out because we’ve got more than I can count, and that’s what it takes,” Napier said. “And look, not just players. I mean we have, I had them count it up one day, we’ve got about 275 people that contribute to our team and they all matter. I think we struggled early.

“It would be easy for a lot of people, not just players, to maybe not take as much pride in what they do or blame others. I think you’ve got to be solution-oriented. Anybody can talk about problems. Who can work together with other people to come up with solutions? There’s no substitute for people remaining humble and continuing to take pride in what they do.”