What they said: Gators snap six-game losing streak in SEC play

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Gators notched their SEC win of the season Saturday against Missouri, snapping a six-game losing streak in conference play dating back to last season.

Florida pulled out the 24-17 victory behind two interceptions from Jaydon Hill and a turnover on downs by the Tigers on their final drive. After a slow start offensively, UF put together back-to-back touchdown drives in the second half and Hill’s pick-six was the difference in the game.

In addition to getting his first SEC win, Florida coach Billy Napier also got the best of Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, who was 2-0 against Napier in 2019 when they coached in the Sun Belt.

Here’s what both teams had to say after Florida’s win over the Tigers.

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Billy Napier opening statement:

“It’s always good to win on Homecoming. I think that we talk specifically to the team about taking great pride in representing such a special place. The University of Florida is a special and unique place. It’s impacted a lot of lives for the better, and I think our guys worked extremely hard to be well-prepared today. And it was a team win. It wasn’t necessarily the best in any of the three phases of the game, but we did just enough. To score on defense, to have a game-changing play in the punt return, rush for 200 yards, certainly Anthony made his plays that impacted the game. And defensively, at times we played really good out there. Obviously, game up some third downs. It was truly a team win and the intangibles that we’ve developed in this group of players, I’m proud of that. They continue to kind of respond and to play through the ups and downs of the game, and we’re thankful. A good team win.”

Napier on winning close games:

“We have not executed our formula to win games at the rate in which we would desire at any point. I think we’re very much a work in progress, but I do believe in this group relative to the fight they show, the competitive spirit, the intangibles. I think we’ve developed some togetherness, there’s some chemistry there. I think that’s getting stronger. We’re learning how in practice. I do think we’re built to play winning football. We’ve got a formula that’s won a lot of games. I think we’re getting better at that process and I’m hopeful we can win more in the future.”

Napier on if UF is where he had hoped:

“That’s more than a press conference (question), right? You know, I’ve got a long list of things we can do better, and that list, it’s there every morning when I wake up and it’s there when I go to bed at night. And all we can do is we just continue to work, right? Every single day we’re working to improve, we’re working to eliminate the deficiencies that we have. We’ve got lots of people that contribute to our team, not just players but staff members, so we’re concerned with making that list smaller, right. And I think every team in this game, that list is always there. So, I think we’ve got a lot of work to do is what I’ll say.”

Anthony Richardson on ending the skid:

“It’s definitely a great feeling. We were talking about it all week that we had to get the first one. I’m pretty excited that we got the first one. The energy’s great in the locker room, it was great on the field. A lot of guys were saying, ‘We got to win. We got to win.’ And we finally pulled through.”

Richardson on other units stepping up:

“I’m grateful, because in this game, the first half, the offense wasn’t doing enough to put points on the board. So, the defense came up clutch and special teams did their job. It’s having a team and unit which allows us to win a game together.”

Eli Drinkwitz opening statement:

“Disappointing for my team, just the way the fought and continually fight in very difficult circumstances to give themselves a chance. Got to find a way. Haven’t found that way yet and its not from a lack of effort or a lack of fight, just got to find a way.”

Drinkwitz on Florida’s run defense:

“They have good players. You have to try to run the ball at 51, Ventrell [Miller] is a heck of a player. We certainly found him. I mean, we don’t mean to not block the middle linebacker on every play. We have to go back and see why we weren’t able to get him blocked. That was the main guy that I saw.”

Drinkwitz on UF’s sacks, turnovers:

“We were inconsistent. We can’t have four sacks and pressure on the quarterback. Inconsistent, but
we are a work in progress. … You give up an interception for a touchdown and you have what would have been three points and you take it off the board and that went to a touchdown drive. It can’t happen.”

Mizzou WR Tauskie Dove on the red-zone pick:

“It hurt us. But we gotta bounce back the next drive. The DB (Hill) was inside playing a catch technique, I had an in-cut, and he was all ready.”