What Billy Napier told his team following Florida's loss to Kentucky
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Gators failed their first SEC test of the season, dropping Saturday’s conference opener to Kentucky 26-16. Their teacher, Billy Napier, took responsibility for his student-athletes following the game.
And he plans to do some self-reflection after his first loss as Florida’s coach. The Gators were shutout in the second half on offense and failed to convert two fourth-down attempts inside their own territory during the final quarter.
“I think coaching’s a lot like teaching, right? When the students don’t perform as well as you want them to, I think as a coach and as a teacher, you’ve got to take a good look in the mirror. That’s exactly what I’m going to do, what our staff’s going to do,” he said.
Napier struck a chord with the Gators in his first post-game speech last Saturday. UF’s skipper shared what he told his team in the locker room after losing to the Wildcats (2-0, 1-0 SEC).
“I think when you are in a leadership position and things are not going the way they should go or you want them to go you’ve got to take ownership of that,” Napier said. “That’s the coaches job put the players in position to have success.
“We did that at times tonight and we can help them a little more, but we’ll evaluate the film. I think execution comes down to coaching. We didn’t execute very well at times tonight. We had a lot of opportunities there we missed early in particular but as the game went you got to call it for what it is. You can do better.”
Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson completed just 40 percent of his pass attempts (14 of 35), threw two interceptions (including a pick-six) for the third time in his last five games and has yet to throw a touchdown this season.
And after rushing for 106 yards and three scores last Saturday, Richardson was held to a career-low 4 rushing yards on just six carries (one sack).
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“He feels like we didn’t really fight hard enough,” Richardson said of Napier’s post-game speech. “He said we did fight but we didn’t play hard enough, and we didn’t play like we deserved to win. So, we just thought we would come out here and win and took them for granted. We’ve just got to play better … and grow from it.”
Florida defensive tackle Gervon Dexter added, “His message to us is just see what we did wrong and fix it. We’re just going to prepare and get better from our mistakes.”
The Gators (1-1, 0-1 SEC) will check out the tale of the tape in the morning before hitting the practice field Sunday to address their issues from the conference opener. Napier says they can respond in two ways.
“Much like life, the game of football can teach you. When there’s adversity in your life and in this game, as a competitor and as a person, you’ve got a choice to make, right? You can choose character, or you can choose to compromise,” Napier said.
“I’m excited about the character of our team. I know how they’re going to respond. We’ll learn. We’ll learn from this experience, and we’re going to improve. We’re going to go back and work. … We can coach better, and we can play better. That starts with me.”
