Billy Napier shares concerns with Florida's physicality

A humbled Billy Napier admitted after Florida’s loss to Kentucky that the Gators simply got beat up by a more physical football team.

That’s Mark Stoops football. Ground ’em and pound ’em on offense, and then hard hits and all kinds of havoc on defense. Kentucky was the aggressor from the first play from scrimmage to the final horn in their third straight victory over UF and their second now over Coach Napier.

When asked what the crucial difference was in this year’s game afterwards, he answered: “Physicality, yeah. We’ve gotten beat around here. I don’t know that we’ve been beat up like that. We got to take ownership of that.”

Napier then credited the Wildcats for showing up and playing with the attitude he’d like his Florida team to have.

“Much like I’ve said before, give some credit to Kentucky,” he added. “That’s exactly what I told the team. I said, ‘look, they beat us. You have to look in the mirror. We had our opportunities out there today.’ That’s what I would say.”

The Gator head coach thought his guys were ready to compete with the Wildcats, but clearly, the execution just wasn’t there as Kentucky pushed Florida around up front.

“Sometimes, you come in here and feel like you went toe to toe. You played a brand of football you want to play and maybe execution was the issue. They got after us, both lines of scrimmages.”

What’s tough to swallow for Billy Napier is that Kentucky beat his team with the brand of play he likes to win with.

“Again, I respect it. We’ve done it to other people and I think anybody that knows me, that’s going to be most disappointing thing about the game.”

He continued, explaining how Kentucky embodied the identity that he envisions for his own team

“Anybody who knows me, knows that that game right there is going to be hard on me, just in terms of who I want to be, the brand of football that I want to play. So I think you’re exactly right. Look, I respect it. I respect it. I think you’re spot on.” 

Ultimately, Kentucky used the physicality advantage to really lay it on in the run game. Starting quarterback Devin Leary threw for less than 70 passing yards while former Vanderbilt star Ray Davis absolutely torched the Kroger Field turf, taking 26 carries for 280 yards and three touchdowns while adding another one on his only reception.