Billy Napier's attention to detail started with addressing penalties
Billy Napier wasn’t the Florida Gators‘ coach in 2021. He probably didn’t even see a single UF game while leading the Ragin’ Cajuns to the program’s first-ever Sun Belt Championship. When he took the job it was full bore on recruiting and assembling a staff. When that dust settled, it was time to turn his attention to the team he was inheriting.
For anyone that watched the 2021 Florida Gators, the first thing that jumps out are penalties. The Gators were penalized 104 times, second worst in the SEC and 119th in the country. Prior to the start of fall camp, Napier reminded the team what they did to themselves last season.
“Coach Napier came in and (preached) discipline. He showed us the other day before we went out to practice all of the penalties that we had last season. He was just showing us that it wasn’t big penalties that hurt us. It was just all undisciplined penalties — offsides, holding, things that we can learn not to do,” tight end Dante Zanders said. “He handed out a piece of paper and it had all the highlights of all the penalties we had and the lost yardage that we had. Which ones were undisciplined and which ones were holding, offsides, stuff like that.”
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“It was shocking and embarrassing.”
Looking at the Gators’ undisciplined penalties in each game
Gators Online went through each box score from the 2021 season to look at all 104 of Florida’s penalties. We broke down the undisciplined penalties by game. We counted all false starts, offsides, procedural penalties, as well as unsportsmanlike penalties in the count. In total, Florida had 75 undisciplined penalties, including an incomprehensible 29 false starts in 13 games.
The list is not for the faint of heart but we endeavored to go through the box scores so you wouldn’t have to.
FAU:
Delay of game (3)
Holding (2)
USF:
False start
Alabama:
Holding
Substitution Infraction
False start
Tennessee:
False start (2)
Delay of game (2)
Holding
Kentucky:
Late hit out of bounds
False start (8)
Delay of game
Offsides
Holding (2)
Vanderbilt:
Illegal formation
Holding (4)
False start
LSU:
No penalties
Georgia:
Offsides
Holding (2)
False start (4)
South Carolina:
Holding
Offsides
Unsportsmanlike conduct
False start
Samford:
Offsides (4)
Holding (2)
False start (3)
Missouri:
False start (2)
Offsides (2)
Holding (2)
FSU:
False start (3)
Unsportsmanlike conduct (3)
Offsides (4)
Holding
UCF:
False start (3)
Holding
Unsportsmanlike conduct
| Game | # of Penalties – yards |
|---|---|
| FAU | 9 – 91 |
| USF | 4 – 45 |
| Alabama | 7 – 67 |
| Tennessee | 6 – 45 |
| Kentucky | 15 – 115 |
| Vanderbilt | 8 – 80 |
| LSU | 0 – 0 (0) |
| Georgia | 7 – 45 |
| South Carolina | 6 – 64 |
| Samford | 12 – 94 |
| Missouri | 9 – 80 |
| FSU | 13 – 107 |
| UCF | 8 – 85 |
| TOTAL: | 104 – 918 |
