Billy Gonzales reacts to Ole Miss loss: ‘We gotta find a way to finish’

The Florida Gators dropped their third straight game under interim coach Billy Gonzales on Saturday. It was a much better effort than the last time out, but UF still came up short in a 34-24 loss to Ole Miss.

Here’s everything Gonzales said in his postgame press conference below.

Billy Gonzales Q&A

Opening statement: 

BILLY GONZALES: “Just wanted to start off by saying these young men, they battled. Thought they played their hearts out, to be honest with you, I thought they battled on the football field. They’ve defined who they are all year long. They did it all week long, they’re gonna continue to do it for the next couple games, they’re gonna continue to battle. I told you guys before, there is no quit in this team. That’s not in their DNA. They’ve done a fantastic job from that standpoint. They’re competitors. I’m proud of them. We just came up short. I don’t think there is one major area you’re going to look at. Obviously there’s some stats we can take a look at and see where we’re at, but overall, like I said, I’m at a loss for words because I care about these young men. I really care about these young men. We’ve just got to try to put it together and finish the way we need to these last two weeks.”

On DJ Lagway’s performance:

BILLY GONZALES: “Stats wise, just going through it, 16-of-31, had 218 yards, he was playing really good. Put us in a position to where we were at. Obviously, got to continue to make great decisions. But he did a really good job of putting us in a position where we needed to be at the end of the game.”

On Lagway’s interception:

BILLY GONZALES: “Obviously, it was third down, and we were in field goal position coming off the sidelines. We talked about this before, just trying to — great players and competitors always want the ball in their hands. They want to be able to make the play. They want to give everything that they’ve got. That’s who he is, it’s in his DNA as well. But we’ve got to make great decisions. I talked about that before: there’s a time to try to extend the play, but there’s also a time to understand you’ve just got to be able to pull the ball down and run, or get the ball out of our hands at certain times. It’s a learning experience obviously, but we can’t throw back across our body, especially when we’re coming back to the left.”

On Kewan Lacy:

BILLY GONZALES: “Yeah, I think he’s proven what kind of running back he’s been all year. He was close to 1,000 yards coming into the game. He had a really good game, he ran for 224 yards on 31 carries, so they fed him. They gave him the ball. he did an excellent job, he made some people miss. We need to do a better job of wrapping up and tackling. But give him credit, he’s a fantastic football player.”

On what changed offensively first to second half:

BILLY GONZALES: “Well, they came out, they had a long drive. They got the ball back on minus 25. They had a long drive and when you take a look at that, you know, it’s a free play. We got them to a 4th and 7, and the quarterback throws the ball, it gets batted down and he catches his own pass and get a first down, and then right after that we gave up an explosive. I think that’s one thing we need to continue to harp with, continue to clean up, is we’ve got to eliminate the explosive plays. We talk about it on the offensive side, what they can do for momentum for the offense, it puts points up. So we’ve got to eliminate the explosive plays. We got them to a 4th and 1 in big personnel, they got a first down, then all of a sudden we kind of parlayed it into 4th and 1 on the 1, and we stopped it, big time stop for us. We got the ball back with 7:51 on the clock on the minus 1 yard-line. Thought process when you get the ball back there is try to get two first downs. Move the field position, play the battle of field position. We ended up popping a really nice pass to Tony [Livingston] for close to 44 yards and got the ball out. Tommy came in and punted the ball and completely flipped the field for us. So, we did a really good job of flipping the field. They got the ball back, we stopped them and made them punt, then that second drive we had a three-and-out, which was critical because we had to punt. They got the ball back, on 3rd and 5, they had another explosive play, they got down to a first and goal, TD run took them up to 24-27. We drove down on a 10-play drive in the fourth quarter, put us in field goal position, and that’s when we had the interception. So, they did a good job, they drove the ball down, used up some clock, defense did a phenomenal job again, had the goal-line stand. And then we were just on the minus 3 yard-line trying to move the ball, they were trying to play defense and stop us from moving the ball as far as throwing.”

On being held scoreless in the second half:

BILLY GONZALES: “We’ll go back and take a look at it again, but like I said, you know, when you’re getting the ball in the minus-three-yard line, you get the ball, it means the defense did a good job of stopping them, but you’re trying to get two first downs, try to change the field position and flip it. But obviously we moved the ball, I mean, we had a 10-play drive in the fourth quarter, so we were moving the ball. We were in field goal position. So as far as moving it, yeah, I thought we did a decent job in that drive right there. Then the next drive we got the ball in the minus-three like I said. So, it’s a little tougher situation.”

On how the team blocked out the outside noise and narrative regarding Kiffin: 

BILLY GONZALES: “They’re football players and they’re focusing on trying to win a game. They’re trying to continue to get better and make themselves better, make the teams better. We talked about playing for our brothers, and that has not changed. So competitors are going to compete for one another. That’s all that matters for us.”

On missing out on bowl eligibility and keeping the team together for the final two games:

BILLY GONZALES: “The message is going to be the same. Go back, gather up, get ready to work, continue to work hard. And again, we’ve got a really good group of players. I feel for them, because they played their hearts out tonight, and it just didn’t turn out the way we wanted to.”

On if he has any concerns with DJ getting injured when he’s running: 

BILLY GONZALES: “No.”

On DJ’s ability to run and how it helps the offense: 

BILLY GONZALES: “Well, I think anytime you have a quarterback that has the ability to run, it puts the defense in a situation now they’ve got to defend it. Obviously, we were, we knew Trinidad was a really good runner, but we held him to 10 yards, and talked about being able to contain him. He had a net of 10 yards, so the defense did a really good job of containing him, but it adds a different dimension to the offense when you have a quarterback that can run the ball as well.”

On being able to generate more explosives on offense: 

BILLY GONZALES: “We hit a couple big plays early on in the game. I just talked about coming out in the second half with Tony [Livingston]. We hit a big pass early on. J. Mike had a really good, really good catch. Tawaski (TJ Abrams) had a really good catch. So again, DJ was playing good. We had some good runs. We just gotta put it together. We gotta be able to finish for some reason or another. This team’s competing. We gotta find a way to finish and let these guys, let them enjoy a victory.”

On TJ Abrams’ performance:

BILLY GONZALES: “Well, you know, TJ has worked hard. We talked about this this past week – he’s a product of the program and the development. And he came in here, he was an exceptional athlete, and he’s continued to work hard, continued to develop himself. And one of the things, he played a little bit of everything in high school, so to home in, to make himself a better football player, focus on the fundamentals to become a better receiver, and he’s done that. So, I’m proud of him as well. Again, like I said, I’m proud of this football team. There’s no quit. They did not show that whatsoever. They’re fighting. They’re playing hard. They’re battling. Love the team, absolutely love the team. We’re going to get back to work and get ready to focus on the next game.”