Billy Napier hammers team, coaching staff over specific problem following recent scrimmage

Billy Napier knew he had plenty of work cut out for him when he decided to take the head football coaching position at Florida – there’s no question about it. He inherited a Gators’ program that went just 6-6 during the 2021 regular season and had significantly declined the past two seasons under former coach Dan Mullen, so there was no hiding the work that had to be done in order to get the program back to where it used to be.

While Napier compiled a 40-12 overall record in four seasons as the head coach at Louisiana, leaving the Ragin’ Cajuns’ program for Gainesville came with plenty of work and headache – and he’s put in much time trying to restore the Gators’ program since he’s arrived.

While Florida has been going through spring practices over the past month, Napier has had the chance to really evaluate his team while they’ve been on the field – and there’s been both positives and negatives from his viewpoint. Meeting with the media Saturday following a practice scrimmage, Napier shared that his team didn’t perform the way he had hoped.

“I do think that we had a few too many undisciplined penalties today. … That’s probably the main takeaway,” Napier said. “Last week, we played 120 plays and had two penalties. This week, we were way up there. I’m not sure how many exactly we had, but too many for my liking. … But overall, general message here – need more consistency across the board, both sides – and certainly the kicking game, as well. … I think we need better execution, and then we need to make better decisions at the point of contact and post-whistle when it comes to discipline.

“I think when you – in life sometimes – learning as we go here, if you do the things that are easy, your life is hard. If we can do the hard things on a consistent basis, embrace the work and decide that we want to be a little bit different, then I think life gets easier. I think we all could probably agree on that. We’ve got some work to do.”

Florida will continue to go through spring practices leading up to its annual Orange vs. Blue game, which will take place at 7:30 p.m. ET Thursday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. SEC Network+ will be carrying the broadcast.