Florida head coach Billy Napier’s weekly Wednesday press conference was canceled due to the hurricane set to make landfall this evening. Napier still joined the SEC’s teleconference on Wednesday morning.
Here’s everything Napier had to say ahead of Florida’s week seven road matchup with Tennessee.
Opening StatementÂ
Napier: “Before we get going here, a lot of thoughts and prayers for all involved with the hurricane. Our team, we have a number of players and families that are going to be right in the middle of this thing. Certainly thinking about all involved. Our team is excited about the opportunity to go play in this historic game. We are right in the middle of preparation here. Our schedule will be slightly different over the next few days, but overall excited about our team.”
What did you see defensively from Oklahoma and Arkansas against the Vol offense?
“Overall, I would say both teams play good defense, just in general. I think the staff there, T-Will has done a nice job at Arkansas. I do think coach Venables, his history on defense, the effort, the fundamentals, and a mindset. I think both played really good gap integrity, played really good on all three levels of the defense, and they tackled well. Created favorable down and distances and had an opportunity to affect the quarterback. In general, just really good fundamental play at all three levels of the defense and ultimately I do think I have a lot of respect for how both those teams play defense.”
What’s changed this week from your normal routine with the hurricane coming in?
Napier: “Our guys don’t have school today or tomorrow. I think we’ve moved the schedule up today to try and get everyone here sheltered before the arrival of the storm, and then tomorrow is a little bit to be determined based on what type of situation we have when we wake up in the morning. Overall, just moving things up today and then tomorrow we anticipate sliding things back slightly…right now we are outside of the eye of the storm, and we are anticipating getting more tropical storm type weather.”
How do you keep players in a mentally okay state when you don’t know what’s coming to you and you don’t know what’s coming to their families?
Napier: “I’d say you try to keep them up to date as much as you can, a couple times of day provide them with the most up to date information. Obviously we have our athletic department, our operations people meeting with the university leadership. A couple times a day we are able to give them the latest news and information. Probably the most challenging part is a lot of these guys’ families are right in the thick of it down south. We’ve been touching base with them throughout the entire week, trying to provide them with the most up to date information. We have done quite a bit of planning in terms of what they need to be doing here to anticipate what’s coming and then we will be there as an organization and athletic department to fully support the players and any family situations that may come up where we can help. There’s no question we will have a lot of people significantly affected by the hurricane.”
What impresses you the most about Tennessee’s defensive front?
Napier: “It’s a twitchy group. I think they’re a vertical, penetrating style of play. They’ve done a nice job really recruiting and developing those players. They are probably as deep of a group as we’ve seen in a while. They rotate a lot of players, I think they’ve got good players on the edge and also inside, players that have density, mass, and power, they can be a problem in the run game but also they’ve got some really unique pass rushers. It’s a big part of the challenge this week, accepting that challenge up front, we’ve got to be ready to go on the offensive line.”
Where do you think your team has improved the most the last couple of weeks?
Napier: “I think the combination of the fundamentals and techniques and the overall alignment, assignment, communication process on defense. I think we have a little bit better mindset; I think the mentality has changed a little bit. The open date was beneficial, thought it was very competitive, and I think we attacked the work last week. We need to continue to do the same this week.”