Florida’s tough loss against Georgia gave Gator fans a great look at how much ground this team must cover if they want to catch the Bulldogs in terms of talent and consistency. The issues are fixable but will only come with time and won’t happen overnight.
For a very young football team, experience is the one thing that will lead to better production in the long run as this staff adjusts and places players in the best positions to succeed. Both sides of the football have proven how close they are to being successful on a consistent basis, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Billy Napier.
“I have confidence in our group relative to their attitude and their approach,” Napier said on this team. “I think the key thing for us here is what matters most today. I think regardless of what’s happened in the past, I do think that this is a group, every single detail, really challenging all parts of the organization to do their best work. We need to be operating at our best, firing on all cylinders. We need to lead our people. We need to impact our people and get consumed with preparing for this game.”
Around this time last season, the Gators were a team that we knew a lot about from playing a large amount of football together over the years. This season is the complete opposite. The Gators are a very young football team that are just starting to gain experience and chemistry with intent to improve on both sides of the ball.
“I think the biggest difference would be the makeup of our roster relative to who’s gaining experience, who’s been productive, the leadership that we see at the player level, the level of discipline that we observe every day, the camaraderie, the chemistry of the group. Look, I think the football’s improved in a lot of areas on our team. I mean, there’s areas we’ve gotten better. There’re still areas where we need to play with more consistency. Overall, I think we’re operating at a little bit more efficient rate,” Napier said when comparing last year’s team. “I think there’s good processes in place. We’re getting better at what we do. We haven’t necessarily got the results we wanted a couple times this year, but I do think there’s improvement in the big picture.”
Compared to last season’s total of 3,378 yards through eight weeks offensively, the Gators currently sit 87 yards short of that total in 2023. Defensively, the Gators have drastically improved this season while only giving up 2,673 total yards to opponents. Last season, Florida gave up 3,560 yards in total through eight games played.
“I think for me, walking off that field Saturday, that’s how I felt. I feel the same way today after watching the film. I do think there’s a lot of positives on the tape. There’re also areas we have issues, and we need to get better,” Napier said on his team’s performance through eight weeks. “I do think that some of the things that happened in the game are very fixable. I think ultimately when we look at that with the players, I think they feel the same way. As a staff, I know there are things we can do from a concepts standpoint that can help the players in all three parts of our team. It causes me to double down on kind of what we believe from an evaluation standpoint, recruitment standpoint, having continuity in system relative to the concepts that you run, scheme, adjustments. I do think there’s a development component to that, as well.”
The preparation in practice has been inconsistent through eight weeks of the season. With only four games left to play, the Gators can’t have many more issues defensively with KJ Jefferson and Arkansas heading to the Swamp this weekend.
“Coach Pittman is an offensive line coach. His teams are tough,” Napier said on Arkansas. “Certainly, I think there will be an element of that. He’ll have some imprint on the offense. I do think that’s an element of the game. I think ultimately for us, we’re going to have to find the right balance of prep in terms of what we expose the players to, but also being ready to adjust within the game.”
The Arkansas Razorbacks (2-6, 0-5) will travel to Gainesville this weekend to take on the Florida Gators (5-3, 3-2) at 12:00 p.m. ET this Saturday.