Billy Napier reveals what he tells players, recruits during losses

The Florida Gators and head coach Billy Napier are having a better season than last year. But it’s still not up to the university’s standards. With the Gators finding themselves in the middle of the pack in the SEC, it could hurt their recruiting ability. However, Napier does not appear to be too concerned with this season’s results affecting recruiting. On Monday, the Gators’ head man revealed what he tells players and recruits during losses to keep them on the Gators train.

“I think at this point, when you spend an extensive amount of time with these people relative to what we do and how we do it, much like many other staffs in the history of this game, we’re in our first year. We got a lot of work to do,” said Napier. “I couldn’t be more excited about what I’m observing relative to the improvement. Now obviously, we didn’t get the results that we wanted on Saturday, but we got a group that’s working extremely hard.

“We’ve made improvements in a lot of ways. And certainly, we got a bright future in front of us. So, it’s more about the body of work at that point in time.”

Despite being 6-5 on the season, it is an improvement from last season heading into the final game. Last year, at this time, Florida was 5-6 and fighting for their postseason lives. It may not be where Napier and Florida fans want the program to be, but it is moving in the right direction. And if players and recruits buy into the first-year head coaches’ vision, the Gators will find themselves back fighting for the top spot in the SEC sooner than later.

Napier sends message to Florida fans amid struggles

Florida appeared to be cruising into its annual showdown with Florida State prior to Saturday, having won two straight going into a road trip to Vanderbilt. But the Gators were upset 31-24, falling to 6-5 and leaving first-year coach Billy Napier attempting to send a message to Florida fans amid the team’s struggles.

Patience.

“That’s an interesting question,” Napier said, asked by a local reporter what he’d relay to fans given the up-and-down season. “I would tell you that we’ve got a lot of folks working extremely hard. A lot of people that care.”

One of Napier’s real pitches to fans when he took over was that he had secured a significant investment from the program adminstrators to rebuild the infrastructure around the program, including the staffing inside the football offices.