Steve Spurrier analyzes state of Florida program under Billy Napier

The first year of the Billy Napier era at Florida might not have gone as fans expected. The Gators finished with a 6-7 record after he came over from Louisiana, but are looking to take a jump in 2023 even after losing Anthony Richardson to the NFL.

As the year gets closer, though, legendary Florida quarterback and coach Steve Spurrier said it doesn’t necessarily matter who the quarterback is — even though the job now officially going to Graham Mertz. The rest of the roster can still help the Gators win games.

Spurrier specifically pointed to the UF running backs, led by Trevor Etienne. He had 6.1 yards per carry last year, trailing only Richardson, and finished second on the team with 719 total rushing yards. That trailed only Montrell Johnson, who’s also back to form quite the two-headed monster in the backfield.

“We’ve got to get ballplayers and ballplayers with some real good attitude and effort and all that kind of stuff,” Spurrier said on Open Mike with Mike Bianchi. “I think sometimes, all of our fans make too big a deal about who the quarterback’s going to be. And obviously, quarterback’s a very important player. But if he is an excellent leader and a wonderful team guy, you can still win games running the ball, playing defense and mixing the pass in there. We won a bunch of games where it was low-scoring. It can still be done.

“But I really like our running backs we have. I think Etienne averaged 6.1 a carry last year. Hindsight, you say maybe we should’ve run him and let the quarterback fake it and run with it and things like that a little bit more.”

Steve Spurrier: Florida defense is ‘going to be better’ under new DC Austin Armstrong

One of Napier’s biggest hires this offseason was Austin Armstrong, Florida’s new defensive coordinator who had previously taken a job on staff at Alabama under Nick Saban. Armstrong, 30, is considered one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the game, and On3’s Matt Zenitz listed him as an assistant coach whose stock was on the rise in November.

Spurrier noted the shortcomings of the Florida defense in 2022. The Gators ranked 12th in the SEC in total defense and tied for 10th in scoring defense. Additionally, the Ol’ Ball Coach pointed out UF’s third-down defense ranked 129th out of the 131 FBS teams.

He expects those numbers to improve, and he also thinks Armstrong is going to throw some different looks at opposing teams.

“Our defense is going to be better,” Spurrier said. “I really like Austin Armstrong, a very young defensive coordinator. He’s got a lot of spirit, he’s got a lot of life. He does things differently. … Just different things that create problems for the offense.

“You don’t realize how bad our defense was. I read something in the paper. Our third-down defense was ranked 129 out of 131 colleges in America last year. That’s bad third-down defense there. We might’ve been lucky to win six with that defense. But yeah, we’ve got to play a lot better on defense, which I think we will. Offense, play smart. If we can beat Utah 17-13, that’d be a good victory.