Florida Gators HC Billy Gonzales sends firm statement about state of the team after firing of Billy Napier
The Gators’ cuture continues to shine through after Billy Napier’s firing.
The Florida Gators have dealt with a lot of adversity over the course of this season. That ended up coming to a head the day after a 23-21 homecoming win over Mississippi State when athletic director Scott Stricklin fired head coach Billy Napier.
With the Gators having a bye week after the firing of Napier, the coaching search has taken center stage. It’s going to dominate the headlines for the Gators over the next few weeks until they decide on who will replace Napier, but there are still five more games left to play.
Billy Gonzales has the team in good shape
With those games, the Gators are going to need to have their team in good shape both mentally and physically, especially with a big rivalry game about to take place against the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville this weekend.
During the weekly teleconference on Wednesday, interim head coach Billy Gonzales was very clear about how the culture Napier built is coming to fruition, and they are in the right mindset.
“Their attitude, I think it’s probably been the number one thing we talk about, having an opportunity to go out. And they’ve shown a lot of renewed energy. Attitudes been fantastic,” said Gonzales. “And again, we’ve been preaching to the team, making sure that we take ownership as a team, be a player-led team, and they’ve done a fantastic job coming back and preparing. We had a great practice. The first two days of practice have been great, and we got to have another great one today. Obviously, we want to continue to prepare until the foot hits the ball on Saturday, but overall, so far, it’s been a pretty good atmosphere with these guys getting back on the field and wanting to play next to one another.”
Napier can be criticized for a lot of things during his three-plus year tenure as the Gators head coach, but what he deserves to be praised for is how well he rebuilt the infrastructure of the team that was in the doldrums when Dan Mullen left the program. It was a big factor in the roster and program being set up well for the next head coach. Now that there is a new voice at the top, this could be the exact shift the Gators need to catapult them into the next season.
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