Napier talks trajectory of Gators after beating 'high-quality' USF team

On3 imageby:Zach Abolverdi•09/18/22•

ZachAbolverdi

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — “With all due respect to USF, they’re not considered a high-quality opponent.”

That comment was part of a question posed to Gators coach Billy Napier late Saturday night after his team survived South Florida’s upset bid with a 31-28 comeback win.

Napier took exception to how the Bulls were described in the question, which was about whether he’s pleased with the improvement and trajectory of his team at this point.

“I’m going to tell you this, the South Florida team that I watched tonight is a high-quality team, so I don’t know that I agree with you. The team we played tonight showed up and executed pretty well. They were coached well, good design, a good handful of skill players that blocked us, made it hard on us at times,” Napier said of the Bulls, who were 24.5-point underdogs. “I don’t think you can get caught up into that. I don’t care who they played, or who we played.

“The Gators played South Florida tonight and we did enough to win. That’s a credit to our players for sticking together, for competing through the adversity of the game. They made mistakes, we made mistakes. We made enough plays to win. I know that sometimes that’s part of the profession, but in our world, I don’t really care about who they played or what their record is or what the outside world thinks about it.”

After Florida went up 24-10 in the second quarter with Jalen Kimber’s pick-six, USF scored 18 straight points to take a four-point lead in the fourth. The Gators overcame two Anthony Richardson interceptions with their three-headed monster at running back and got three turnovers from their defense, including a diving pick from Tre’Vez Johnson to set up Trevor Etienne’s game-winning touchdown.

“I think what we’re learning about our team is that we’ve got the intangibles, we need to improve the execution. We certainly did enough to win tonight, but we’ve got work to do. Nobody has been hiding around that,” Billy Napier said. “We stood up here (after) we won Week 1 and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got work to do.’ We said it on Monday, we said it on Wednesday the next week. I feel the same way. That’s what I’ve been saying. We’re 2-1 but we’ve got work to do.

“I think football is a sport and a team game where you are always a work in progress. If you’re undefeated and everybody is patting you on the back, then you’ve got work to do to resolve that. If you struggle a little bit and you found ways to win, you’ve got issues to resolve that. The work is not going away. So, I appreciate your comment, but I don’t know that I agree with you. I think Jeff Scott’s team played pretty good football tonight.”

Napier added that he thinks the Bulls (1-2) will be a factor in the American Athletic Conference this season. The Gators (2-1, 0-1 SEC) return to league play next weekend with their first road game of the year at No. 15 Tennessee, which defeated Akron 63-6 on Saturday.

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