Billy Napier appreciates response by players following Utah loss
The Florida Gators didn’t start off the season the way they imagined, suffering a tough loss to Utah in Week 1. But they bounced back in Week 2, handling business against FCS opponent McNeese State with a 49-7 win over the Cowboys.
The Gators may have been heavily favored to win on Saturday, but their head coach Billy Napier was still proud of his team for the way they bounced back from their Week 1 woes.
“I told the players in the locker room just now I appreciate the response that we saw from the players after last week, which was obviously disappointing,” Napier said. “But I think the leadership on the team, we said it was going to be about the mindset, the effort, the attitude and I think we had the right things early. So we’ll enjoy tonight and when we wake up tomorrow we’ll get ready for the big one next week.”
Napier was asked about the impact of just getting a win for the Gators at home in The Swamp, as they’d lost their previous four matchups dating back to last season and were in desperate need of a morale boost.
“There’s something to be said for that Mark, I agree,” Napier said. “Just relative to the emotion that comes with it right? And again, I want to compliment the players, I think that they handled that well. One of the things about college football and I would say the University of Florida in particular is it gets noisy sometimes right? I mean good and bad, if it’s bad then get loud and if it’s good it gets loud.”
Napier has one of the younger rosters in the SEC this season, and with that youth typically comes growing pains. But Napier continued to harp on the maturity of his players and their impact on the team weathering the storm.
“I think the ability to stay consistent in your approach and evaluate things objectively is important, not only for myself and our staff but I think also for the players and I think we’ve got some maturity in that locker room that helped do that,” Napier said. “And look there’s challenges ahead here, but I do think that what you’re saying is true.”
As many teams are able to against weaker non-conference competition, the Gators were also able to play some of their reserve players who rarely receive playing time, which Napier also spoke on following their win.
“Let me say one thing I think is really important for games like this. Some of the guys that we observe work hard every week that don’t get to play most weeks. We got a lot of guys that do a lot behind the scenes that make our team better,” Napier said. “To see some of those guys have an opportunity to go between the lines and play, I think that’s really special and it not only means something to those individual players and for us as a staff. It’s one of the more gratifying things about coaching. But to see veteran players excited for those individuals was a positive.”
There’s no doubt that Saturday was a much-needed boost of positivity for the Gators, but the competition and stakes increase in their next matchup, as they host No. 11 Tennessee in their first conference game of the season Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET.