So many elements in place that can lead to a good season for UF

Season three of the Billy Napier era begins in 11 days when the Gators play host to 19th-ranked Miami at The Swamp. It is well documented that this will be the most experienced team Napier has put on the field. Players who have spoken after practice say this is also the closest team of the past three years, a team full of caring teammates who have embraced the idea of being a better teammate.

“It's one of the best things about this team is the trust level, the respect level,” Napier said Monday evening. “There's a certain loyalty that I think we finally have here, where there's an expectation that you're going to do your best for your teammate.”  

Trust and respect are cornerstones of any relationship, but especially when you’re talking the relationship between 120 football players, a coaching staff and an army of support. Great teams have it but you don't just flip a switch and have it. It takes awhile to build a culture. In this case, two-plus years to get to a point where there is experience and good leadership.

Back in the spring and now during August camp Napier has spoken of the leadership that he gets from quarterback Graham Mertz, who has 43 career starts, 32 at Wisconsin and 11 at Florida. He is seeing it in veterans on the offensive line such as Jake Slaughter and Austin Barber, in the backfield from Montrell Johnson, and over on defense from Joey Slackman, Shemar James, Justus Boone, Tyreak Sapp and Asa Turner.

Trust, respect, leadership and experience are why Napier sounds more confident heading into this season opener than he did in either the 2022 or 2023 seasons.

“I think it goes back to kind of what we've been talking about,” Napier said Monday evening. “It's one thing to train and practice for a battle that you have no idea what the battle is going to be like. As a competitor, like, I played football, maybe I played somewhere else. Maybe I played in high school and I'm training hard and I'm practicing. I'm trying to do what my coach is telling me, but when I run out there, I have no clue what that's really going to be like.

“I think we have more players on this team that have been between the lines. They played in the critical moments; they know how to prepare Sunday to Saturday to get ready for a game; and they won't be as anxious or uncertain about what it really will be like when they get out there. Don't get me wrong, we have a handful of those that will have to contribute to our team, but I do think that we'll be able to grow and develop those guys as the season goes. So, yeah, I think just the experience factor really matters when you start talking about getting ready for an opener. I think there's part of me that would say that that's important.”

Here is more of what Napier had to say Monday:

THE SCRIMMAGE

“You know, the scrimmage went well, we were able to get a ton of work. I think we played about 160 plays total, counting offense, defense and kicking game. I thought the defense was much better, less mental errors. I think the run fits were polished up and better. Think that we did a good job playing red zone defense, and we got some takeaways. I think we cleaned up the penalties on offense, but we did have a few penalties on defense to work on. I do think offensively we had a good day on first down. You know, overall, much cleaner, and I thought we were much more efficient. We got out of their injury-free for the most part, we did have a few typical injuries, but overall what we’ve talked about showed up. I think now going forward the details are really important, the urgency’s really important. It’s very evident that there’s great competition, we definitely have more depth than we’ve ever had, and it’s a long season, right? We will need everybody, we’re going to need every single person. I think it’s important that we embrace our role and we work hard to earn more, depth is critical in this league and certainly with the schedule that we have.”

THE OFFENSIVE LINE

“I think that we have more depth, there’s more competition. We definitely have a two-deep that we have confidence in, but there is competition. I think there’ll be, a lot of, what’s the ratio of plays: Is it 1-to-1, is it 2-to-1, and then who’s the next best inside player, who’s the next best tackle? And then a lot of that will be determined I would say week-to-week, you know, but I do think I feel really confident. In particular the pass protection has been much better. We need to continue to work on developing some of our younger players, you know, we still have some very talented players that are very inexperienced that need every rep they can get. So, yeah, we’ve got a good healthy rotation there and feel good about that group.” 

ON COMMUNICATION

“I think it's one thing to communicate in a practice setting. We talk about communicating early, loud and often, and then clearly and concisely with confidence. That's the way we would describe it. Interesting dynamic as we do these walk-throughs all through training camp, and we actually do crowd noise during the walkthroughs, so there's some verbal communication that has to take place. But there's also a lot of non-verbal in this game, so when you ask that question, I immediately think about some of these walk-throughs, where up front, in the secondary, on third down in that place we call The Swamp it's hard to hear your guy sitting right beside you, much less the corner, the safety, the nickel, all being on the same page. So, I think it's one of the challenges, and we try to replicate that for the players in training camp.”

MONTRELL JOHNSON AND THE OTHER RUNNING BACKS

"Montrell is doing fantastic. He's been able to do a few things. We expect him to be able to participate in practice, whether that's modified and at some point full speed, but we'll give you an update. Obviously we're getting ready to turn the page into game week, but we'll give you updates per the timeline up until the game. But we have confidence that Montrell's doing great and feel good about his return. I do think that the four other kids have had fantastic training camps. It is extremely competitive; like I couldn't tell you who's running out there next right now. Now I know Treyaun Webb has game experience, and I trust him – he’s by far the best protector. He's tough, he's durable, he's smart, but also standing back there behind it, and I'm watching Jadan Baugh and Ja'Kobi (Jackson) and KD (Daniels) in these two scrimmages, we feel good about that room. They're young, they're inexperienced. It’s important for those players to understand that they have to play without the ball. When it's third down and you're checking your way out and that corner comes from off the outside receiver to the boundary, you've got to have good eye discipline. Those are some of the lessons that we've learned the last couple of weeks, so those guys will be ready to go when it comes time.”

MORE ON THE RUNNING BACKS

“History is the best indicator of the future so those guys get banged up, right, we know that. I think we're going to need every single one of them and I think our ability to practice and develop our team is key too. You need a stable of backs. It's about doing their job consistently for the inexperienced players. How you play without the ball is as critical if not more critical. A lot of the important downs in the football game, you may not have the ball. You may be protecting the quarterback, and these guys are going to play on special teams. Some of them are really good special teams players. That's a good room. Coach (Jabar) Juluke continues to produce. That's just what he does. I don't think we're going to have to worry about the running backs. Those guys are always ready to play.”

WIDE RECEIVER INJURIES

“Lower body injury for Baby J (Ja’Quavion Fraziars). Andy Jean is the other player that has a lower body injury that will probably take a little bit of time, and then Tank (Hawkins) I think is day to day. We will see where he’s at, but nothing long term for Tank. I think Baby J and Andy are to be determined.”

PROGRESS OF THE DEFENSE

“I see flashes of what I would expect. I think we have high expectations for how we want to play defense around here. As a head coach I would tell you when we’ve won games, we’ve been good on defense. I think if you look at year two, three and four at Louisiana we were 25th, 18th, and 11th in the country on defense. We want to play complementary ball. We understand looking at Championship football teams, power five football, power four football now, you’ve got to be good on defense, so we’ve got high expectations for how we want to play, and I do think that we’ve made a bunch of progress. The games are here, it won’t be long until we get a chance to go out there and prove it. Our ability to do that consistently is the key, and I think Coach (Ron) Roberts, Coach (Austin) Armstrong, Coach (Will) Harris, Coach (Gerald) Chatman, Coach (Mike) Peterson and that entire group will tell you the same thing. Now it’s about the attention to detail, it’s about the urgency, and it’s about being able to do your job consistently. Can you have the self discipline to show up and prepare the right way when the game plan changes and the opponent changes? One week at a time I think your ability to take the information, to study the opponent, and then get yourself ready to prepare when it matters, and to do that week in and week out. I do think we have more experience, more competitive depth, and I think the coaches have done a good job.”