Those watching the Florida-Texas A&M game on Saturday may have noticed that the Gators seemed to play with a certain confidence or attitude that hasn’t been there for most of the season.
First-year Florida coach Billy Napier noticed it and praised his team for the effort they gave following a 41-24 win over the Aggies. For Napier, this is the moment he’s been waiting for all year, and he’s not afraid to say so.
“I think that this game of football, we spend countless hours on scheme, countless hours training, lifting weights, running working on fundamentals, working on situational football, but there’s a human element to this game,” Napier said, according to Gators Online. “And that’s a battle that we’ve been living with this group of players, and I really can’t compliment the leadership on our staff and the leadership amongst our players enough relative to, the character, right, the accountability, the brotherhood. Playing the game with a special team dynamic, a certain morale, just out of respect for the game and the way it should be played, and I think we saw some of that today.”
It wasn’t all roses and sunshine for the Gators on Saturday, though. Florida allowed Texas A&M to score on four of its first five drives and trailed by four points at the half. Napier didn’t need to say much during the half to inspire the team. The leaders of the team had already identified what needed to change, and the coaching staff went to work on making corrections for the second half.
UF held Texas A&M scoreless over the next 30 minutes of in-game action.
“I think could have easily got frustrated with our defensive performance in the first half, but man, in that locker room, you would never know,” he said “It’s really a group that stuck together, they knew exactly what the issues were. The ownership in each position group, being vocal, about the things that they could do better, and I think the staff did a terrific job making adjustments, just really proud of the overall response here.”
For the first time in the Billy Napier era, it seemed like real progress was being made. Napier dismissed JACK linebacker [autotag]Brenton Cox Jr[/autotag]. from the team earlier this week, signaling a zero-tolerance policy for whatever undisclosed off-the-field issues led to the decision. That’s not to say Cox did anything horribly wrong, but whatever happened seems to be attitude related.
It’s important for everyone to be on the same page, and that was made evident in Saturday’s win.
“There’s a certain part of this game we’ve been working hard on and I think it showed up today, and the execution was there,” he said. “Really proud of the defense to shut that group out in the second half, to play complementary football. I’m pretty sure we didn’t turn the ball over. Three weeks in a row that we haven’t turned the ball over. We’ve gotten takeaways, we’re starting to play football the way it’s intended to be played in just the energy and the approach. So, just extremely proud of the players and of the staff.”
The hope is that Florida can ride this wave and continue to play Napier’s brand of football down the stretch. The Gators need just one more win to secure an extra few weeks of practice, and winning out would put the team in a position to land in a decent bowl game.
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