Billy Napier addresses how Florida will handle adversity

Last season could have ended up looking very different for Florida had a ball or two had bounced a different way. Instead, adversity hit the Gators as they lost five of their seven games by 10 points or less.

With those kinds of margins, Billy Napier knows his team was closer than some may think. As he said at a press conference from fall camp today, the question now is how much of that experience with struggles is going to help Florida when they need to respond to it this season?

“The cool thing about where we’re at is lots of parts of our building, players and staff, had to go through that,” said Napier. “When you have adversity, I think it presents opportunity. The key here is that we grow through struggle. Anything that’s been built that’s accomplished anything significant went through some adversity. I think it’s all about how you respond to that.”

Considering they posted the program’s second straight losing season, Napier realizes that they didn’t do what they needed to in that department a season ago. That’s why he’s challenging everyone in their building to look at themselves and ask if they’re ready, mentally and from a production standpoint, to set things right.

“There’s technical aspects to playing winning football that in those games that we lost? We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do,” Napier admitted. “Then there’s an emotional component relative to how you’re going to respond. Are you resilient? Are you mentally tough enough to continue to be consistent? And, ultimately, take a good look in the mirror. What is your role and how can you do it better to help the team?

“We’ve got a core group of people that went through that with us last year that are back. And I think that has made our team better,” Napier continued.

Florida lost to Kentucky in their second game by giving up 19 unanswered points to the Wildcats. They then couldn’t keep pace with Tennessee two weeks later in Knoxville.

Then, in three of their final four losses to LSU, Vanderbilt, and Florida State, the Gators either left the door open or played football that was too little, too late for them to come back and win in the end.

Those are the differences between finishing closer to eight or nine wins rather than six with a losing record. That’s the point that Napier is trying to make as he hopes Florida will take the right step when it comes to that once they get their first taste of adversity this season.