On3 Roundtable: How Florida is 'lightyears ahead' of where they were last year

Florida is in the midst of its second offseason with Billy Napier running the shots and he feels the team is now ‘lightyears ahead’ of where it was last season.

In a discussion with On3’s Jesse Simonton earlier this month, Napier said Florida is “lightyears ahead” of where they were last season.

GatorsOnline’s Nick de la Torre hopped on with JD PicKell on On3 Roundtable this week to talk about Florida. PicKell was curious what de la Torre thinks Napier means by that comment.

“What he’s talking about there is just the systems and the operation,” de la Torre said. “Last year, not only are you teaching the players a new system and a new way that practice is run, expectations, you’re teaching a coaching staff as well. Some of these guys came from Louisiana with Billy and knew what to expect. But Corey Raymond didn’t. Right now, Austin Armstrong is learning it as a defensive coordinator, a young defensive coordinator. So I think what he means by that is we’re getting more work done in the weight room, more work done in our OTAs and in our practice, more reps just because guys know where to be, what’s expected of them and the operation runs much quicker and smoother here in Gainesville now.”

Napier’s first season at Florida was a real up-and-down campaign. The team finished 6-7 with a bowl game loss to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The high moment of the year came in the Gators’ first game when Florida upset a top-10-ranked Utah squad in the Swamp. On the bright side, five of the team’s seven losses came against teams ranked in the top 17 of the AP Poll at the end of the season. But the program did go 3-5 in conference play. The three conference wins is tied for the lowest amount by a first-year Florida head coach over the past four decades.

But Napier knows the team did not live up to expectations in 2022 and needs the team to be better this season.

“Look there’s no magical potion here. We just got to do the work, right,” Napier told Simonton.

The big question facing Florida heading into the 2023 season is the quarterback position. The Gators were led by Anthony Richardson in 2022. Richardson is now in the NFL after being selected fourth overall by the Indianapolis Colts.

Transfer quarterbacks Graham Mertz and Jack Miller III are the two battling for the starting job right now.