Billy Napier gains a new level of respect for Gators in loss to UGA

JACKSONVILLE — The Gators suffered their worst defeat of the season against No. 1 Georgia, but not all was lost on Saturday. First-year coach Billy Napier believes his team may turned have turned a corner in the second half, making it a one-score game and winning his respect.

They couldn’t complete the comeback, but certainly didn’t fold and showed their ability to compete with the defending national champions.

“I gained a level of respect for that group in terms of how they responded at halftime. I’d say that’s what I respect the most: they care. They really do care,” Napier said after the 42-20 loss to UGA. “I think today might have been a turning point to some degree relative to what is really in there, in your heart, in your soul, between your ears. I think there’s some things we can learn.”

The Gators went three-and-out on the first four drives and punted again on their fifth possession, while Georgia built a commanding lead behind quarterback Stetson Bennett, who threw for 262 of his 316 passing yards in the first half.

Florida faced a 28-3 deficit at the break.

“We walked into a locker room with a lot of disappointed players that were emotional, that care, that have passion, that want to do their job for the team,” Napier said. “There’s an old war term called, ‘Foxhole guy’, right? A guy that you can trust. A guy that’s loyal, a guy that you can turn your back from, and you can know that he’s gonna do what he’s supposed to, and you’re doing the same thing on your side.

“This game — there’s no comparison military-wise — but I think there’s some things that we can learn a lesson from relative to those intangibles. … I challenged them at halftime and certainly they responded the right way. We were able to get a score, create some takeaway, get it back to a game. But ultimately, we’re able to do enough there to take advantage of some of the opportunities we had.”

UF defensive end Tyreak Sapp gave his best Napier impersonation on what he told the team at halftime.

“‘Listen, boys, just pull together. We’ve got to go out and come together. We’ve got to be tight knit throughout every position group, everybody on the team. We’ve got to be complementary to each other. We’ve got to come out in that second half, and we’ve got to play better and more tight-knit, and more together-football.’”

The Gators rallied from 25 points down and outscored Georgia in the second half, with 17 straight in the third quarter. Linebacker Amari Burney made two huge turnovers, forcing a fumble and picking off Bennett to help cut the deficit to 28-20. Burney finished second on the team with seven tackles, two quarterback hurries and a pass breakup.

Florida found its groove offensively behind running back Trevor Etienne and quarterback Anthony Richardson. Etienne led the team with 53 yards rushing and a touchdown along with three catches for 20 yards, while Richardson ran the ball more and threw for 271 yards, including a 78-yard touchdown strike to Xzavier Henderson.

“That just shows us that we can play ball how we want to play ball,” Richardson said of the second-half rally. “That’s nothing new for us. We’ve been doing that this year. We always fought through it. We put ourselves in a hole like that earlier, but that’s just how we play ball. That’s what’s required, to play aggressive.

“I don’t think we came out as aggressive as we did in the third quarter. We were just trying to play play-by-play and just let it happen instead of attacking it and playing ball how we play ball. So, I think that was a key thing right there. … But, you know, that just shows us that we have a good team that knows how to fight.”