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WATCH: Billy Napier’s opening statement after Florida’s loss at Tennessee

On3 imageby:Zach Abolverdi•09/24/22•

ZachAbolverdi

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The No. 20 Gators dropped their second game of the season Saturday, 38-33, after their late rally against 11th-ranked Tennessee came up short.

Florida fell behind 38-21 in the fourth quarter after the Vols scored off Anthony Richardson’s fumble inside the red zone. Richardson then rallied the Gators with back-to-back touchdown drives to cut the deficit to one score, although they failed to convert both two-point attempts.

Linebacker Diwun Black recovered the onside kick with 16 seconds remaining, giving UF one last series. After reaching UT territory, Richardson’s Hail Mary was picked off by Kamal Hadden on the final play of the game.

Richardson finished with a career-high 453 passing yards, four total touchdowns (two passing) and 515 combined yards. The Gators gave up a season-high 349 yards to Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker, who also rushed for 112 yards and scored three total TDs.

In the video below, Florida coach Billy Napier discusses his team’s loss to the Vols, which snapped UF’s five-game winning streak in the series.

Billy Napier opening statement

“Nobody likes to lose, in particular, that group of people in that locker room, especially when you work as hard as they do. When you’re loyal to each other, and you commit to each other and you give your very best effort in a lot of ways. There’s a lot of opportunities out there where our group could have folded their cards today, but they kept swinging. Can’t compliment the effort, the physicality, the competitive spirit, the togetherness. I think we need to execute a little bit better, and we need to coach a little bit better, in particular myself today. I think ic an do better for our team, for our players. But id o think although we lost the game, I think we grew up a little bit today, in my opinion. Just relative to actually flipping the switch and competing, right?

“When you combine offense and defense and special teams today, we didn’t do enough to win. We gave up a few cheap ones. We left points out there on offense. In the kicking game, I think we didn’t do anything that changed the game today. So lot of credit to Tennessee. But I think when we go back and watch the film, there’s going to be 12-15 plays where Florida beats Florida tonight. When you think about that, you think about coaching, right? That’s my responsibility.

“I love that group in that locker room, right? I really do. I love the competitive spirit that they have. But you know what they did, they did what we asked them to do today. They went on the road. We brought 70 here today, and we put the ball down and they competed. Did we play perfect? No, we didn’t do enough to win.

“No moral victories. No moral victories. Back to work.”

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