Billy Napier shares how he rallies Florida after season-opening loss

It was a tough opening game for Florida and now Billy Napier has to rally the troops after the loss to Utah.

It was a stark contrast to last season when Florida upset the Utes in the Swamp in 2022 to open the Napier era. This time, Utah controlled the game for the get go.

Napier was asked how he would get the team back on track, especially with a tough SEC slate coming this season.

“I feel like we’re in the fight and we made tons of mistakes,” Napier said. “There’s gonna be a ton of teachable moments for a lot of young players, a lot of new players on our team relative to, the first thing I told the team after the game was execution wins. Just call it like, it’s simple. And I think that you know, if we do what we’re supposed to do at times out, it’s a lot more competitive game. You know, I think we contributed to that. But I think Utah contributed to that as well.”

The 24-11 loss didn’t really look good on paper. The Gators were down 24-3 to start the fourth quarter and could never get themselves back into it.

Graham Mertz made his first start as Florida’s quarterback. He finished 31-of-44 passing for 333 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Trevor Etienne was the leading rusher with just seven carries for 25 yards.

However, the Gators shot themselves in the foot with nine penalties.

“I would tell you the penalties in particular, are surprising,” Napier said. “You know, we played really clean football, you know listen, the things that we can control right? Those are things that are frustrating for a coach right? Ultimately, too many of those in my opinion.”

There’s adversity for a Florida team that won just six games last year and wasn’t projected to do much more this season by analysts and betting projections.

“I told the team, I think adversity presents a choice,” Napier said of moving forward. “You can choose character or you can choose to compromise. I think one thing I know about this group is I think that we’ve worked hard on building some intangibles. Already I can see that this group will respond the right way. I believe that.

“I sat in the press conference last year after we beat Utah and I said we have a lot of stuff that we’ve gotta work on. I feel the same way sitting here today but I also know, I feel like we’ve got a lot of players that will continue to grow and improve as we go through this year.”