Florida Football: What did Billy Napier say to prepare for McNeese State?

Press conferences are more fun after a win, and unfortunately for Billy Napier, Florida football did not win on Thursday. Given the benefit of a couple extra days to analyze what went right and what went wrong, Napier took to the podium this morning for his weekly press conference ahead of Florida’s Saturday matchup against McNeese State.

The following are the three biggest takeaways from what Napier said.

Florida Football: So about that punt…

Across two different questions, Napier was asked in an end-around way what went wrong when Florida had both Jason Marshall and Eugene Wilson on the field for a punt return, leading to a penalty because both wear number three.

"“We had a really unique situation in the game that required us to have three personnel groups ready to go. We had a third-down grouping defense on the field. We had a rush team because we were in the tweener area of the field between kicker and field goal. Or their punter runs out. We will be working in the future because that caused come issues.”"

We are here to give him the benefit of the doubt that the real answer lies behind closed doors, but 3rd and 12 from their own 42 is not a “unique situation.”

And later, when asked to clarify if he felt Florida needs a dedicated special teams coordinator rather than relying on Chris Couch as a behind-the-scenes analyst, Napier deflected and tried to play off this incident as a one-time issue.

"“It was a very specific mistake within the game. It has nothing to do with infastructure or job description or assignments. It was one very specific mistake.”"

Translation: having two players on the field both wearing number three should have been caught by Couch, or whomever was delegated that duty, and wasn’t.

Napier is up for the challenge

We wrote over the weekend that those clamoring for Dan Mullen to return, or that it was a mistake to fire Mullen in the first place, are ignoring what was neglected behind the scenes.

The wrap on Mullen was that he got lazy, and there hasn’t been a reason to doubt Napier’s work ethic.

In his opening remarks, Napier made sure to let Florida football fans know he is up for the challenge to return the Gators to the mountaintop.

"“If you are a competitor, this game will challenge you. It demands all that you got. For many, it’s not worth it. For the select few out there, they wouldn’t have it any other way. We certainly embrace the things that come with this challenge.”"

Protection issues

Behind the self-inflicted wounds, the biggest glaring weakness for the Gators on Thursday was the offensive line. It was filled with newcomers from the transfer portal and guys stepping up to be starters, and the unit was overrun all night long.

Napier acknowledges that for the Gators to have long-term success, the Gators are going to have to be able to run the ball more effectively.

"“We didn’t rush the ball as effectivley as we would like. 3.1 yards on called runs is not good enough.”"

He also tried to hint there were more contributing factors to Florida’s anemic run game beyond the offensive line.

"“When you rush the ball effectivley, it’s not just the offensive line. We have to play well on the edges, we got to have percision eye discipline at runningback, the quarterback has got to make the right decision distribuing the ball.”"

He’s not wrong, but let’s be honest, the play of the offensive line was the issue this time around. There were not unseen holes that Trevor Etienne or Montrell Johnson didn’t hit.

You can view Napier’s entire 18-minute press conference on YouTube.