In his press conference on Monday, Florida head coach Billy Napier was very calm and composed after the loss to Tennessee. He didn’t carry himself like a coach that just dropped a second conference game. Billy Napier showed absolutely no panic on Monday.
Billy Napier On His Defense In Loss To Tenessee
The Florida defense was a hot topic of discussion at the Monday morning press conference. However, the defense earned every bit of the scrutiny they’re receiving. Billy Napier called a great game on offense, Anthony Richardson threw for a career-high in yards, and the special teams even recovered an onside kick. In spite of that, the defense couldn’t get a stop for them. the defense couldn’t even get a stop to get themselves off the field so that they could rest.
Billy Napier noted that many of the explosive plays Tennessee had against the Gators were due to just one player blowing a coverage or a gap assignment. Napier didn’t say this in a way that was assigning blame. He was remarking on how 99% of the defense was doing its job and one flaw in execution can cause a disaster.
Head coach Billy Napier also remarked that a lot of the mistakes on defense are easily fixable. he cited errors in communication on defense as another source of blown coverages resulting in big plays for Tennessee.
Overall Takeaways From Billy Napier’s Press Conference
This was the first week in a while that Billy Napier didn’t face a ton of questions about his young quarterback, Anthony Richardson. In the few questions Napier did answer about Richardson, he had nothing but positive things to say. Napier has been very gentle with Richardson in public to this point and I expect that to continue.
Billy Napier has been very patient and gentle with this entire young team so far this season. I have a lot of respect for that approach. Young guys are making young guy mistakes. Focusing on boneheaded things that young players did serves no one. Yes, coach them up. However, most of the time the guys know what they got wrong and don’t need to hear it several times from the coaching staff. Billy Napier definitely has the right idea in this respect.
One of the most encouraging things I noticed during the Tennessee game was that The Gators never gave up in that game. Billy Napier noticed that as well and commended the entire team on their intangibles and their lack of quit. They played to the absolute last play and gave themselves a chance. Billy Napier basically said his team’s got that dog in em’, and I fully believe him.