Billy Napier: Florida has to carry urgency from spring game over to summer

Florida wrapped up its spring football period on Thursday night with its annual Orange vs. Blue game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. While the Gators spent March and April going through spring practices and then capping them off with their spring game, new head coach Billy Napier has been pleased with what he’s seen out of his squad.

As Napier is tasked with restoring Florida’s program, he’s off to a solid start as the players have bought into his plan and many fans showed up on Thursday night to support the team. With that said, Napier is hoping all of that will carry over to summer workouts and then into fall camp.

Meeting with the media following the Orange vs. Blue game, Napier shared that he approached quarterback Anthony Richardson prior to the game and told him something that can resonate with the entire Florida team as it moves forward.

“You take the field there, you run out of the tunnel, you go to your sideline, Anthony’s warming up there before the game – and I think, to me, what I said to him applies to our entire team and organization is, ‘That urgency that you feel right now, we need that same level of urgency between now and the first opportunity in the fall.’

“So everyday, each opportunity that we have to improve in the offseason program this summer – every meeting, every walkthrough rep, every practice rep – we have to take full advantage of. Players, they all want to play good when they’ve got a lot of eyes on them. … But more importantly, what we’ve gotta learn is it’s about what we do when nobody’s watching.”

With the spring football period in the books, Florida now turns its attention to summer workouts and later to fall camp ahead of the 2022 season, which is scheduled to kickoff on Saturday, Sept. 3 against Utah in Gainesville.