Billy Napier’s egregious comments following Saturday’s loss continue proving he’s not the Florida Gators’ future
It continues to be an issue with Billy Napier completely lost as to why.
The Florida Gators are in a rough spot at 2-4, and the majority of their failures have to do with head coach Billy Napier.
Overall, the defense has been stout during the first five games, but it finally showed signs of the injuries slowing it down. The defense allowed the most points this season, 34, whereas it had not allowed more than 26 in the first five games.
Even so, the Gators had plenty of chances to win the game, as it was a close going into the fourth quarter. The biggest issues are on the offensive side of the football, and they continued to manifest on Saturday night.
Billy Napier’s postgame message to fans is void of accountability
After the game, Napier did his postgame press conference and tried to reassure fans.
“Well, I think we’ve played some of the better teams in the country,” Napier said. “Our team has been in the game. I think that you can see that DJ is getting better as he gets more reps and more opportunities, obviously, you can see the impact that Dallas is having on our team. And you know outside of the first couple of possessions tonight, we played pretty good defense.”
The first part of the statement is pretty fair. The Gators have genuinely been in every game this season, but they have struggled to take that next step that great teams need to finish games in the fourth quarter.
It wasn’t the end of the quote either. He says some nice things about his players before the quote got preposterous.
“I think our kids are battling their ass off. They’re working and they’re playing [hard],” continued Napier. “We’ve got to stay the course here. We’re gonna have opportunities to play better going forward. We got a chance to be back at home next week, and we’ll have to hit the reset button and get to work quickly on that plan. So, there’s no quick fix here. The best thing to do is go win. We saw that last week. I think we got a lot of kids in there trying to do things the right way. We’re close. I think we’re getting better on offense, and I think the defense has played really tough and hard the entire way.”
This is where Napier completely loses me. He says that there is no quick fix. First off, that’s not true. The quick fix was getting a competent play caller in here, and you refused to do that. Despite the multiple questions and criticism about it, you still won’t do it.
Secondly, the issues that are plaguing this team are mainly due to Napier’s offense. It’s incredibly uncreative and boring. It’s just running plays, horizontal route concepts (screens, drags, etc), and fades on the outside. Defenses can key on those elements, and it completely stalls the unit.
There is certainly enough talent to maximize this offense and make a real impact across the board, but they aren’t being given the tools to succeed. That will happen, but only when Napier is replaced as the play caller. Since he refuses to make the move, athletic director Scott Stricklin needs to gather the courage to make it happen.
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