It was great to have an Orange and Blue game once again. I know a lot of y’all see it as a special occasion since it’s the only chance to see the Gators play anything game-like during the roughly nine-month offseason. For me it’s even more than that since I proposed to my now-wife after the 2008 spring game.
One thing that stuck out to me that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention elsewhere was the way that Billy Napier tried to thread the needle with his comments during his in-game interviews. It would’ve been easy to give non-answers, and to his credit he didn’t. He did give some of the same answers that he’s given during press conferences, but he seemed more aware that he needed to sand off the rougher edges on a broadcast in a way he doesn’t necessarily need to when few other than media are watching live.
The biggest example of this was late in the first quarter when SEC Network’s Lauren Sisler asked him about the wide receiving group, framed as a question about depth.
Napier first goes compliment: “We’ve got some great guys to work with.” Then he backs away from it: “I think it’s a room where we need some depth.” Then he drops the big one in the nicest way possible: “We could add a few players there.” Meaning, the depth we need this year is not going to come from the players currently on the roster. Ouch. He’s said that before, but to say it during the actual game is an indictment of the guys on hand.
I can’t really argue with him either. I didn’t see much from most of the receivers in orange. Even walk-on Kahleil Jackson roasted Jason Marshall for the Blue team in the red zone on Anthony Richardson’s one pass that was deflected at the line. I saw none of that level of play from all but one of the Orange receivers. I don’t think Fenley Graham is going to grow into much in the slot either. He’s supposed to be a dangerous returner, which I guess is why he got the move to offense, but I saw no spark when he was returning kicks. He’s just a guy, it seems.
Back to the interview. Napier then starts the climb back out: “But overall, been pleased with that first group.” Maybe the backups are not where they need to be, but hey, I like the starters. After mentioning how nice it is to see the pass game operate in the game-like setting, he then completes the reversal: “These guys are fantastic football players. They wouldn’t be at the University of Florida if they weren’t.” Then he closes with taking ownership of the issue: “It’s our job to get them to perform, to play to their potential. It’s why they call you coach.”
This, my friends, was a masterful performance in communications. Well, it was in comparison to the previous head coach, who was often inept at messaging.
In reality it’s a standard example of the “compliment sandwich” approach to giving feedback, which is something anyone who’s ever been within 20 feet of a management book has heard of. If you’re blessedly not one of those people who’s come into contact with the grifter-plagued world of management training, the theory says that when you have something negative to say to someone, put a compliment before and after it to soften the impact. The compliment sandwich is one of the better concepts from the management world, though it’s common enough now that a lot of folks can see through it even if they haven’t heard the term.
Anyway, the topic came up again obliquely in the second half when Sisler got another chance to ask Napier some questions. After the head coach got to gush about Anthony Richardson for a while, the reporter asked about Jack Miller’s play.
Napier again led with positives, though he cited the unavoidable demerit of Miller forcing a throw into triple coverage in the end zone. But then, watch closely what he does as he elaborates:
“Overall, you know, the second group that he’s playing with, um, y’know that’s where we need to really create some depth on our team. Uh, the main issue is, you play quarterback, it’s about the players around you. They gotta play well. A lot of times the quarterback gets a lot of the credit and a lot of the blame, and often times it’s the players around him. If they’re playing well, the quarterback typically plays well.
“So, we need more consistency from that second group. I’m confident in him. He’s moved our team throughout the entire spring. I’m glad he’s on our team.”
I left in the filler words and pauses that are normally edited out when transcribing someone who’s speaking off the cuff. They come at the beginning, and you can tell that Napier is trying to find just the right words. It wasn’t until he was talking generically about quarterbacks that he found his normal speaking cadence again, and like before, he finished with more compliments.
Because clearly, what he’s doing is trying to defend Miller’s underwhelming first half performance without making it sound like he’s throwing the entire second-team offense under the bus. That second unit has some experience (Keon Zipperer, Joshua Braun) and some guys who’ll be in the regular rotation (Ja’Quavion Fraziars, Demarkcus Bowman). It really isn’t bereft of talent. However, it also is not that good yet.
I don’t know if that answer will satisfy you on Miller or not. He had some good throws, mostly to Fraziars and Zipperer. He also locked onto Fraziars to his detriment and felt unbearably slow getting swing passes to Bowman fired off.
The bottom line is that Napier, unlike his predecessor, is taking the concept of The Gator Standard seriously, even if he has mothballed the slogan. The Gator Standard was supposed to be the national championship. There were times when the first string hit the standard. If you could’ve somehow taken the 2019 defense and paired it with the 2020 offense, the result really would’ve been a national title contender.
However in today’s environment, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and, when it has a future first rounder at quarterback, Clemson are building superteams with seemingly unlimited depth. It therefore matters how the second group is doing. It can’t just be the developmental farm team for the first string, where hopefully a backup will be ready to go in a year or two once the starter graduates. Because when your rivals are replacing 5-star starters who get hurt with 5-star backups, you can’t afford to replace an injured starter with a guy who’s only 75% ready because he wasn’t an immediate contributor-type as a recruit and you haven’t developed him in every way yet.
Napier knows what the championship standard is, and this Florida team isn’t there. He’s not afraid to say so, though he is trying to be careful about the way he says it. Managing expectations is difficult when a fan base demands excellence, and it’s hard to tell the fans, “yeah, I know we’re not good enough, hang in there with me while I work on it” while not losing the locker room because it sounds like you’re bashing the players in public.
Napier has been deft so far. I keep waiting for the cringe moment since so many recent UF coaches had foot-in-mouth disease, but maybe this one is the exception. I sure hope so.