The Florida Gators experienced their fair share of highs and lows during Billy Napier’s inaugural season. After knocking off the No.10 team in the country and later Pac-12 champions in week one, the Gators lost two of their next three games including a home loss to Kentucky and a loss to Tennessee on the road. Later in the 2022 season, the Gators found back-to-back wins over Texas A&M and South Carolina before finishing the year with three straight losses including a 30-3 loss to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl game.
After knocking off No.11 Tennesse in week three of the 2023 season, the Gators have a chance to do something they haven’t done in the Billy Napier era, win three games in a row.
“[There’s a] set of issues that come with success. Last year’s team couldn’t handle momentum. We failed to capitalize several times throughout the season,” Napier said on handling success. “I think this group has the right approach and I’m excited about the work that we’re going to do this week.”
The approach to improving the Gators’ response to winning started with reliving experiences from the 2022 season.
“I think we’ve done that throughout the off-season,” Napier said. “I think it’s part of the messaging from the jump when you evaluate the season, right? Ultimately it’s leadership all throughout the organization.”
“I think every part of your building has responsibility to model what we expect from the players,” Napier added. “We all have human nature to get comfortable, to relax, to not have the same urgency or detail, to not have the self-discipline to follow through. It’s our job to attack human nature when we see it. That’s at the player level, that’s the video, equipment, nutrition, the training room, the strength and conditioning staff, all parts of the building. The challenge here is that we do what we would ask the players to do so we’re not just talking about our young people, we’re talking about everybody.”
Many questioned how Florida would respond after a poor display in week one against Utah, but the Gators remained level-headed. Napier’s squad didn’t get too low on the loss, but they also haven’t forgotten what it felt like to leave Salt Lake City without a win.
“I was proud of the players and the approach they took since the Utah game. Now we can use those same things to apply to success,” Napier said. “Reality is that you don’t accomplish anything significant by staying in your comfort zone. I think we were uncomfortable for two weeks. We were frustrated. We were angry. We were embarrassed. That allowed us to have an edge and certainly affected the way we prepared for Tennessee and helped us play the way we played.”
The key for the Florida Gators right now is to remain hungry after upsetting the No.11 team in the country. While nobody knows how this team will respond, Napier likes what he’s seen from his roster thus far.
“I like what I saw last night. Then I like what I heard when I went to the leadership group today at 11,” Napier said during Monday’s press conference. “I think they’ll have a platform here at 11:30 and 1. We have two team recovery groups. We’ll see where we’re at. But ultimately the difficult days during the week are Tuesday, Wednesday. That’s when we find out where we’re at.”
Napier and his staff have reminded the team that they need to remain level-headed, even after a huge win for the program.
“Just in the meetings yesterday, a lot of emphasis was making sure we stay grounded,’ cornerback Devin Moore said on Monday. Last season when we got a bit of success, I feel like it kind of blew our heads up a little bit.”
“This year we’re putting more emphasis on the approach of, okay, that happened Saturday, Sunday new week. Let’s get to it. Let’s check the scout, just come out this week ready,” Moore added.
The Florida Gators have a chance to extend their win streak to three games on Saturday night against Charlotte before another road test against Kentucky in week five.