Billy Napier: 'Sometimes you deserve criticism'

Florida head coach Billy Napier knew the criticism would come following a loss to Miami. As he pointed out, he deserved it.

Plenty of things went wrong in the 41-17 loss to the Hurricanes. Once again, the Gators have more questions than answers going into Week 2.

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How that gets fixed is anyone’s guess, but Napier won’t stop chugging along.

“Sometimes you deserve criticism, you know,” Napier said. “And I think that’s one of those things I would say, I have no excuses right? So we got to go get it fixed.”

How you bounce back after a rough loss is arguably a bigger challenge. That’s something Napier pointed out ahead of Week 2.

“It is probably one of the bigger challenges you have as a head coach, you know, in terms of turning the page,” Napier said. “You know, how do you filter the results? How do you evaluate the game, especially when it’s negative? And I would tell you one of the other big challenges, when you do win, but maybe you were sloppy and you didn’t play well, that’s another big challenge. Because they’re all happy go-lucky. 

“But reality is like, look, I can remember standing up here when we built Utah the first year, telling you guys like, look, everybody thinks we’re gonna win the Super Bowl this year, but we have things that we have to clean up as a team, right?”

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Billy Napier deserved criticism following Miami game

But it’s all a learning experience, one that hopefully leads to more wins for Napier in 2024. That’s to-be-determined.

“So, you know, I would say this, there is no better learning experience than game experience, you know,” Napier said. “I mean, there’s an old military line like, we can have a lecture about bullets flying, okay? And we can talk about that for years. But when you’re in there and the bullets are flying, I think that’s an area where, you know, the consequences become real. And I played on championship teams. I’ve been a part as a coach on national championship teams, SEC championship teams, conference champions, division champions. And very rarely did we win every single game, you know? 

“And I think ultimately, a loss early can be a blessing if you don’t waste it. One thing I can say is we have a group that’s working hard. I do think that we have character. We got to go to work on the football part. And I think we got to become a more consistent team, and we have to execute better. And if we can focus on those things, and not necessarily what some guy in his basement saying in, you know, rural Central Florida on social media, then we got a chance to get better, right? So I think that’s the key.”