Florida football: Billy Napier’s halftime adjustments pay off for Gators

Through one half of football inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, there was a very real narrative building that Florida football was on the pathway for another meltdown on offense. Anthony Richardson was 4-8 passing, the run game was useless, and the offense for the Florida Gators couldn’t claim responsibility for any of the 10 points that were on the scoreboard.

After halftime, Billy Napier ditched the scripted game plan and made one critical adjustment that salvaged the day for Florida and gave the Gators its first SEC victory in almost a year.

Florida football: Roll out! Roll out! Roll out! Roll out!

Richardson’s first pass of the day was an intermediate route to Justin Shorter and it seemed like it was going to be a good day for the up-and-down QB. Problem is, Richardson only completed three more passes during the entire half. Thanks to a couple of extended Missouri drives, Jaydon Hill’s pick-six, and two Florida drives going three-and-out, the Gators only had four drives in the first half for a total of 18 plays on offense.

The run game was scuffling for Florida football, but Richardson wasn’t having a great half sitting inside the pocket. He had a throw to Pearsall and to Henderson that were both late, he had a couple of deep shots that were close but incomplete, and he had a couple of screen attempts that Napier needs to stop calling.

At halftime, I would imagine the halftime conversation went like this:

“Hey Anthony, what should we do in the second half?”

“Man I ain’t got nothing to prove, I paid my dues. Breaking the rules, I shake fools while I’m taking a cruise.”

“So you’re saying you want to roll out?”

“Yeah, because the better I’m feeling, the more that I’m chilling. Winning, drilling, and killing the feeling.”

“Were you even born when Ludacris released that song?”

Fun fact, the answer is yes but barely. Richardson was born May 22, 2001, and Roll Out! was released October 16, 2001.

The moral of this conversation is that coming out of halftime, Napier put Richardson in a position where he is more comfortable and puts more stress on the opposing defense. After being stationary in the pocket in the first half, Napier started calling more roll-out plays for Richardson and it paid off for Florida football.

On the next 20 offensive plays, five of them had Richardson roll to his right. Missouri had tried to negate this the same way Kentucky did and also brought pressure to Richardson’s right, but he was able to sidestep the pressure to keep the chains moving.

Florida’s first offensive touchdown wasn’t a rollout, but it came off the heels of Richardson escaping the pocket and being given the green light to run if the play breaks down.

The second TD, which proved to be the game-winner, did in fact come off a rollout to Richardson’s right and he threw a strike to Ricky Pearsall.

Combined with Montrell Johnson and Trevor Etienne breaking loose for big runs and the offense did just enough in the second half to avert disaster. Make no mistake, beating Missouri by seven is cause for relief more than it is for celebration. But in a year where all of college football has seen some wild results, it was better for Napier to adjust and let Florida football survive to see another day than the alternative.

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