Florida football: What did Billy Napier and Graham Mertz say after UF’s loss?

Florida football is 0-1 after suffering an opening week loss to Utah last night in Salt Lake City by a score of 24-11.

After the game, Billy Napier and Graham Mertz talked to the media about what went wrong and their outlook on the season after dropping the opener.

The Gators were underdogs, but it felt like they let one get away last night against the Utes.

Here’s what Napier and Mertz had to say.

Florida football: Looking to bounce back

A theme from Napier’s talk with the media was that the Gators are in a spot now where they have the opportunity to bounce back, and he thinks that they will.

"“Adversity presents a choice. You can choose character or you can choose the compromise. We’ve worked hard on building some intangibles. Already I can see that this group will respond the right way.”"

"“You find out who you really are in difficult times. I know that group in there, there’s fight in that group. We have a lot of players that will continue to improve. [The] Gators are going to continue to get better.”"

"“They beat us today. We didn’t do enough to win. There is no question we can coach better and play better.”"

"“Ultimately, the gators weren’t good enough tonight. That’s my responsibility.”"

Graham Mertz played a solid game on the stat sheet but knows that it’s going to take more than what Florida football did last night to win a good number of games.

"“Execution. That’s the word. That’s the theme. I’m going to push the guys every day. We’ve just got to execute, man.”"

"“I’m never gong to point a finger at the offensive line. I can make a better check, I can do things better.”"

"“The accountability will be raised after this…It sucks, I’m upset. You can tell by my face, but it’s a long season. We’ve got a lot of games ahead of us.”"