Florida head coach, Billy Napier, took part in the weekly SEC Teleconference where he states the Gators “have work to do” after upsetting Tennessee.
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Here are highlights from Napier’s session.
How UF’s defensive line depth has helped the rest of the unit:
Napier: “Well, there’s a lot of football left to play here. I mean, we’ve just played three games, OK. So, I know we want to put the crown on everybody, but we have much more to prove and we have lots of areas that we can get better. So, we’re looking for more consistency and we want our players to get better at their Sunday and Saturday routine. We can improve our attention to detail, we can execute better, communicate better. And ultimately, we know that the best competition is ahead, and we have to eliminate the margin of error. That’s gotta be much smaller for us. So, I think overall, I’m excited about your evaluation there, but on the inside here, we have work to do and much to prove.”
Whether the SEC is wide open for anybody to win this year:
Napier: “I don’t necessarily – I mean, ultimately that’s why we play the games, right? I think the big thing for us is we know our issues, right? I think each team has its own set of problems. We know ours, right? We know where we need to develop. You just gotta get consumed with the big picture relative to your efficiency. Each individual person – not only players, but staff – and we get better at our systems and better at our processes of getting the team ready to play. So, I’m excited because I think we have young players that ultimately are getting the chance to play that can get better, right? That will continue to get better as they gain more experience. And ultimately, those games are coming. This week we have Charlotte and they present some challenges. They have a very talented roster that’s full of transfers, and they’re very capable. They were up 14-0 on Maryland, who’s a very capable team as well. So, we’re trying to dot our I’s and cross our T’s relative to get ready to play this weekend. And then look, as cliche as it sounds, in this league it’s one week at a time, right? So, you know, I get it. I know we all want to answer those questions, but right now we’re focused on the Gators.”
How the team is handling success this week:
Napier: “I thought it could have been a little better yesterday, to be quite honest. I thought we did a lot of good things. But ultimately, we have more to prove, we have work to do, we have to focus on what’s next. And we need to be thinking about how we can get better at our preparation. Ultimately that is to be determined. I think you prepare a certain way. It’s important that you prepare with some humility, and also a little bit of fear and that causes (to be) throughout the week. When it’s time to compete there’s a confidence, a fearlessness and a comfortability that you would like to have. So you go about your business the right way throughout the week, I think get a chance to be in the right frame of mind when the game gets here.”
What he’s not seeing from his team that he’d like to see more this week:
Napier: “I don’t know that I’m ever happy just to be quite honest with you. Human nature, right? We’re always in this battle against human nature and certainly, we tend to relax. We tend to cut a corner. We tend to not have the same urgency and intensity as we do when we’re in a different frame of mind. So, that’s the challenge. For us to sustain, be very consistent, to operate in a certain way relative to values, our convictions, our beliefs and not relative to the outcome with the circumstance. We gotta think about our vision and we gotta work that way and not compromise.”
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