Billy Napier reacts to Aidan Warner's low completion percentage against Georgia

Florida was down to its third quarterback against Georgia during Week 10 after star freshman DJ Lagway went down with an apparent hamstring injury in the first half.

The Gators were forced to turn toward redshirt freshman Aidan Warner to carry the Gators to the finish line. While Florida hung around for a while, the Bulldogs ultimately pulled away from the Gators late in the second half.

Warner finished the game with a 31.8% (7 of 22) completion percentage for 66 yards and an interception across two and a half quarters of work. Gators head coach Billy Napier revealed an obvious cause of why Warner struggled against one of the top teams in the country.

“He was the backup, and obviously we were hoping that we didn’t have to go there, but we did, and then Georgia is a stingy operation, and I think they can make it very challenging for you,” Napier said on Monday ahead of Week 11’s matchup against Texas. “The coverage and the rush. Look, the kid did as good of job as he could do. There will be some plays that he would like to have back, but it’s a pretty big stage to trot out there in the middle of that one, which, yeah, I’ve been impressed with him.

“He won the [third-team job] back during training camp, late training camp going into week one in the season. We kind of decided to make him the three. He did not go through spring practice. He did not go through OTAs in the summer. Kind of proved himself during training camp, and really we were dividing reps with that third and fourth quarterback at that point.”

The Yale transfer was thrown into the deep end and expected to swim against one of the toughest defensive units in the country. Still, Florida was able to hold its own with a quarterback that did not expect to play in that game.

Florida has not ruled out DJ Lagway for Saturday’s matchup against the Longhorns, but Warner would likely be the expected starter if he’s unable to perform.

That remains to be seen, but Warner can at least practice for an entire week taking first-team reps in preparation for the Week 11 road trip.