Billy Napier opens up on if Florida is game ready
The 2023 college football season is rapidly approaching. It’s going to be an important one for Billy Napier and the Florida Gators.
Recently, Napier explained that he doesn’t think it’s a question about whether Florida is ready as a team. Instead, he thinks the question should come down to whether or not individual players are ready for the season.
“I think it’s an individual player question,” Billy Napier said. “I think that’s probably the way I would assess it more than the team. You know, I think the individuals make up the team. The collective effort of each individual.”
As Napier explained, experienced players know what’s expected of them. The problem is that Florida is still a very young team.
“I think there’s a lot of players on our team that are veteran, that are experienced, and understand what will be expected of them and what it’s going to be like. But we have a huge group of players that haven’t played a ton of football. So, I think we need to refine our game. As we get our legs underneath us, as we narrow the installation. That’s kind of what I’m describing when I say attention to detail.”
Florida is going to need to be ready from top to bottom when the Gators travel to Utah to kick off the season. It’s going to be an incredibly challenging game for Florida, but Billy Napier knows that it’s going to come down to execution.
“I think overall that we’ve made significant progress, but it’s all about game planning and knowing the plan and going and executing the plan.”
Paul Finebaum says Billy Napier can’t waste 2023
College football analyst Paul Finebaum thinks that Billy Napier needs to have a good 2023 season for his tenure at Florida moving forward.
“The first game is really important. It was important last year and it didn’t really matter in the end that they beat Utah. The Cam Rising injury is a question mark and I don’t have a good answer yet. There’s some people in Gainesville that believe that they can go out there and steal that game. I’m not one of them. I would like to know who the quarterback is going to be for Utah,” Finebaum said.
“But, assuming they lose that game? Their schedule is problematic. They have Kentucky and Tennessee in the first few weeks of the year. It’s entirely possible that they could have three losses even before they get to Georgia, Florida State, and the garden variety SEC East games. Napier has the advantage of just dumbed down expectations but he can’t waste this. He has a half a mulligan this season. I don’t know how that carries if you hook your tee shot. If he wins seven or eight games? He’s going to survive.”