Florida fans who want Billy Napier fired won’t like to hear Texas coach Steve Sarkisian’s praise
Texas coach heaps praise on Florida counterpart with 4-4 Gators headed to Austin
Florida fans may be disappointed in the Gators’ performance this season and want a coaching change. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian sees it different.
Sarkisian watches the tape and sees a Florida team that got better in October despite an overall mark of 4-4.
On Monday, Sarkisian spoke highly of the Gators. “This will be arguably one of, if not the best looking team in our conference. They are big, they're long, they're athletic.”
Sarkisian said they play “a multitude of coverages, but that’s the way of life, that’s the way it goes in the Southeastern Conference.”
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On Wednesday, Sarkisian was equally effusive.
“They played really good over the last month and a half,” Sarkisian said on Wednesday’s SEC coaches conference call, “and their record isn’t indicative of how good of a football team coach (Billy) Napier has, the job he's done in developing that team, so it should be a great ballgame.”
Sarkisian pointed out how Florida beat Mississippi State and USF “pretty handily.” Napier’s squad went to Knoxville and lost in overtime to Tennessee, “who I think they’re ranked sixth or seventh in the country right now.” And then came another win over Kentucky.
“Then they’re tied 20-20 with the No. 3 team in the country, Georgia, last week with seven minutes to go, and that’s playing with their third quarterback,” Sarkisian pointed out. “So I commend Billy for the job he’s done of keeping that team playing at a really high level. They played really good defense. They’re physical on the offensive side of the ball. Definitely really well coached in all three phases.”
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Florida’s defense has snagged eight interceptions in the last four games combined. Kentucky managed just 165 passing yards while completing 12 of 32 passes. The Gators are getting better each week, at least on paper.
“I think one thing is a they’ve got a good scheme that you can see their players have gained confidence in as the year has gone on,” Sarkisian said. “They’re really physical at the line of scrimmage. And so because of that, I think they can deploy people in the secondary from a coverage perspective, mix coverages and disguise coverages. But on the flip side, they’ll be aggressive at times, they’ll pressure you and they’ll force the quarterback into some poor decisions.”
Sarkisian’s positive comments probably won’t be a surprise to Napier. During his portion of the SEC coaches call, Napier said of Sarkisian, “I think he just got a good heart and certainly proud of what he’s been able to accomplish there at Texas so far.”
