![New Florida interim coach Billy Gonzales takes questions during a press conference about Billy Napier’s firing at Heavener Football Center in Gainesville, FL on Monday, October 20, 2025. Gonzales was the Wide Receivers coach for the team. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_2713,h_1526/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/213/01k8k850447ecryfwj5r.jpg "New Florida interim coach Billy Gonzales takes questions during a press conference about Billy Napier’s firing at Heavener Football Center in Gainesville, FL on Monday, October 20, 2025. Gonzales was the Wide Receivers coach for the team. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]")
One of the maddening parts of the Billy Napier Era was how slow play calls would come in. It was a Napier special almost every single game to break the huddle way too late and have to call a timeout. Worse is when Florida would have to call a timeout coming out of a timeout.
But interim head coach Billy Gonzales isn't naive to these problems, and on Monday, he touched upon what he wants the Gators to look like to close out the season.
Billy Gonzales wants Florida to speed things up
Speaking at his press conference on Monday, Gonzales touched upon how the Gators could play a bit faster on offense:
"We can get the play relayed a little quicker."
To his point, Florida is 110th this season in seconds per play, taking an average of 28 seconds between plays.
Now, being ranked low in this category doesn't automatically make one a bad team. Indiana, Oregon, and Texas A&M are among the teams that are within a second of Florida in this category.
But the issue that plagued Napier while he was still in town is that he always seemed to get the plays to the QB at a glacial pace. Napier's insistence on being the play caller on top of being the head coach meant that he had other things to worry about on top of trying to get the plays in.
Throw in the insistence on some type of motion almost every play, which seldom actually threw off the opposing defense, and it's how one winds up constantly taking too long to snap the ball.
New play caller
Part of what should speed up the process is that QB coach Ryan O'Hara is going to be the playcaller to close out the season. While O'Hara has virtually zero experience in this area, he is going to be moved up to the coaches' booth and should be able to lock in to his task.
O'Hara's designation as a playcaller was also a bit of a surprise, given that Russ Callaway is technically the Offensive Coordinator on Florida's staff.
Either way, Gonzales has also stated he wants an offense that puts a premium on getting Florida's playmakers involved, and if the whole operation can come together, then the Gators might just have what it takes to make a surprise run in November.
Florida will get its first crack at its new look offense on Saturday against Georgia.