Friday marked another milestone for Billy Napier as he attempts to rebuild the Gators into a championship contender. He divides the calendar into eight phases, and phase two began on Friday.
The second phase is known as the “Identity” phase and will consist of 15 rigorous strength and conditioning workouts and some position meetings over the next month. Phase three, known to the rest of the world as spring practice, will begin on March 15.
Napier believes that the “Identity” phase is a crucial period for his team. Since he took the UF job in late November, much of his time has been devoted toward recruiting and hiring a large staff. Some of his staff members have only been at Florida for a couple of weeks. The players have also had decisions to make about their futures as well with regard to the transfer portal and the NFL Draft.
So, with the coaching carousel and transfer period dying down significantly, the Gators can finally stop worrying about the future and just focus on being the best version of themselves in 2022.
“Identity is the qualities and beliefs that make a group different than other people,” Napier said. “I think every team around the country does an offseason program. We would like to think that ours is an advantage, that we do it better and that we have a very specific plan in this area. So, the key here is that the players make a commitment to the prescribed work the right way, really believe in the power of routine, structure, discipline.
“And, certainly, this workload will challenge self-discipline for the players. We need to control the controllables, and we need to work hard to create the identity of our team, and that starts inside out. It starts with the players as people. We all know that significant change is always made from the inside out.”
While every team is comprised of a different set of players and coaches and therefore will have a different personality, there are certain traits that Napier wants all of his teams to possess.
“This program will challenge your integrity because you have to tell yourself the truth,” he said. “You’re always having to answer that question: ‘Am I doing the very best that I can do? Am I cutting a corner that nobody knows about or not right about living a lie or whatever the case may be?’ I think honesty is a big component here. I think that we want to have a team that’s together, a group that’s selfless, want to have guys that are known as being great teammates.
“Discipline, effort, toughness and then a certain level of belief – I think that’s what we’re trying to establish here is our identity as an organization, as a football team. We want to compete with those things in mind.”
To instill these qualities into each of the players and build chemistry throughout the entire organization, the Gators will do some drills over the next month that are designed to test their character.
There will be a lot of manufactured adversity, and how they respond to it will determine what kind of team this will be.
“We know that growth comes from struggle,” Napier said. “We want to introduce adversity, designed difficulty. That’s what we do.
“You’re creating a certain toughness. It’s not just physical toughness, but it’s mental toughness. I think that’s the important part – the self-discipline of the player, what he eats, is he hydrated, the sleep component. I think it challenges the attitude of the player, the body language of the player, self-talk.”
Boardingham a potential matchup problem
The Gators completed their 2022 recruiting class on Wednesday night when three-star athlete Arlis Boardingham from Van Nuys, California, committed. UF confirmed that he had signed shortly afterward. He’ll enroll at UF during the summer.
Boardingham is listed at 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, and he played both wide receiver and linebacker in high school. He projects as a receiving-first tight end in college once he gets a little bit stronger.
Napier was intrigued by Boardingham’s athleticism and versatility during the recruiting process and thinks that he could pose a big problem for opposing defenses at some point.
“He ran an 11.4 [seconds] 100 meters last year as a junior at that size and could run even better than that this spring,” he said. “He can go run the full route tree as a receiver if you watch the tape. He has some play strength and physicality on defense, so my experience would say those equate to a mismatch type of player that we’ll be able to use him a lot of different ways on offense.
“He’s a very intelligent kid. His mom and dad are impressive people. His dad’s a track coach, and his mom’s very accomplished in her profession, so we’re very fortunate to add Arlis to our team.”
Pasqualoni on the move
Paul Pasqualoni was one of the few members of Dan Mullen’s staff that Napier retained. The 72-year-old was set to serve as Florida’s director of advanced scouting and self scout.
However, earlier this week, he left the program to accept the defensive line coach position with the Carolina Panthers.
Napier said that he was sad to see someone with 10 years of NFL assistant coaching and 16 seasons of college head coaching experience go, but he understands Pasqualoni’s decision and wishes him the best.
“I was so impressed with Coach P, just as a person,” he said. “Obviously, his not only knowledge but wisdom in terms of how to apply that knowledge. The guy’s done a lot of different jobs at a lot of different levels. Unique in his ability to understand all three phases of the game. So, we were excited for him. As he said going out the door there, he said, ‘You know what? I’ve got one more chance to go get on the field and coach.’ I think that’s the thing I respect about Coach P. He loves the game. He loves working with the players. He loves making the players better. He’s got a passion for people. It was a no-brainer to try to keep him here.”
Napier said that they will search for someone to fill Pasqualoni’s former role, and candidates could include people who already work for the program.
Napier increasingly confident in staff
A couple of weeks ago, 247Sports listed Florida’s staff as the best in the country among programs with a new head coach.
Napier said that he appreciates the positive review, but it really doesn’t mean anything to him.
“We’re not big into predictions or outside opinions,” he said. “It is what it is. That same group will be telling us how bad we are if we go lose a couple games. It is what it is. I’m glad they feel that way. No different than maybe how they feel about certain players in recruiting. I think it’s a little bit subjective, but I would say over time, I think their opinions are getting more accurate, if that makes sense.
“I’m thankful for it because it’s certainly helped us, but all those things are to be determined. We hired them to do a job. They’ve done it well in the past. Whether or not they’ll do it well this year, we’ll see.”
That being said, Napier also holds his staff in high esteem. He’s even more optimistic now than he was when he first hired them.
“Every day that we get settled in [and] we start establishing our process and our systems, I’m even more impressed with the people we’ve hired,” Napier said. “I think the key here is that we establish trust, we’ve got confidence in each other, we work well together.
“This is very much the sum of the parts dynamic we live in. We’re talking not just about those 10 coaches. We’ve got probably 250 people that contribute to whether or not we have success, all the way from the head coach to the manager that’s setting up the four-cone drill today. We’ve got a lot of people that can contribute to our success. It’s important we all respect each role and that we all realize that we can impact the final result.”