The Florida Gators took their turn at SEC Media Days on Wednesday afternoon in Nashville, Tennessee as Billy Napier, Kingsley Eguakun, Jason Marshall, and Ricky Pearsall all attended the event.
Napier hit on several different topics during media days as several questions remain about the Gators heading into the 2023 football season.
GatorCountry is live in Nashville and brings you a notebook on what Napier had to say during Media Days on Wednesday.
- Offensive lineman Micah Mazzccua hasn’t been cleared yet but should be cleared sometime in August. Mazzccua is on schedule with his recovery from shoulder surgery.
- Offensive lineman Jalen Farmer and linebacker Derek Wingo missed time during the spring and Napier says both are cleared and are going through offseason workouts.
- 93% of the Gators fall roster went through spring practices and Napier credits that to helping the team improve because of the midseason enrollees.
- Out of the midseason enrollees, the Gators added players who will bring over 10,0000 snaps to the team and have started 123 games in their career at other schools.
- The new football facility is something that Napier says has benefited the team both on and off the field as guys are spending more time in the facility and bonding with others but they’re also being able to get their work done in one spot.
- Quarterback Max Brown is someone that has impressed Napier and the coaching staff this summer.
- The topic of where the Florida/Georgia game should be played at was brought up again and Napier says he sees a benefit for playing home/home with Georgia but also says he sees the benefit in the game being played in Jacksonville. Napier says they will have to cross that bridge soon when the stadium renovations get underway in Jacksonville.
- Napier was asked about whether he should have someone else call plays and he says he likes having his hand in the play calling because he can establish the identity of the football team with his play calls.
- Quarterback Graham Mertz work ethic is something that stood out to Napier and the staff during the evaluation process, and he has impressed the staff.
- Napier says having Austin Armstrong on the staff has helped the defense a lot but he also says having all of the other coaches back was big for the defense as well. Napier noted that all of the assistants were in their first year in the system last year.