WATCH: Billy Napier reacts to Florida's 55-0 win over Long Island

GAINESVILLE, Fla — The No. 15 Florida Gators kicked off the 2025 season with a 55-0 win over Long Island. It marked their fifth straight victory and first in a season opener since 2022.

Here’s video of Billy Napier’s press conference and everything he said after the game.

RELATED: Takeaways from Florida’s win over Long Island

Billy Napier Q&A

BILLY NAPIER: The crowd was definitely a factor. Guys fed a off of it early and certainly a lot of positives out there tonight. I think there’s also some things we need to clean up, a little more crisp, a little more detail. Hats off to Ron Cooper and Long Island. Everybody a program that has some momentum and I think they’ve improved sense last year and I think Coach Cooper will have a good team this year, so.

In general, a lot of positive. It’s been a long time since we’ve shut out an opponent in the swamp and I thought the defense got a score and I thought we tackled well. We flew around all night. Obviously a little bit of a slow start on offense but once we kind of identified their defense and settled in, a lot of good stuff, so.

Good to see Tramell Jones get an opportunity to play and a lot of players that worked their butt off through the offseason and give us a look during the week and got a chance to get in there at the end of the game, so it’s a happy locker room right now. What do we got?

Q. Yeah, Billy, for DJ’s first action for a while. Kind of knocked off some rust as the half went. What was your assessment?

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, no, I think in particular early… first of all, Long Island did a great job. Showed up with a new scheme. Gave us a lot of few variables early maybe that weren’t on tape, caused some issues for us and I think you could kind of see once we figured that out we settled in pretty good, but, yeah, I think we got to play a little better around him. And then I think obviously he can play better a little bit, forced a few things, but in general, what you would think.

Really that was his first scrimmage if you think about it. He didn’t participate in the scrimmages, been practicing for about two weeks, so, yeah, he’ll get in his rhythm. He’ll continue to get better. You saw him get better as he kind of got comfortable and settled in.

Q. Did you feel like you had to manage anything with him given that he’s coming off a couple of things offseason?

BILLY NAPIER: No, we played the way — not much different than the past I think in general. It was good to see him get out of there healthy, get a good half of football and obviously he’ll adjust and go back to work tomorrow.

Q. You mentioned Tramell. Just can you discuss what you saw from him throughout the week, his reaction when you told him that he was going to be the backup? Can you go into I guess a little bit of the decision just to not play Aidan and Harrison tonight.

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, well, first of all, I think Tramell has earned the job. He’s really had a strong surge the last few weeks. I think we’ve seen him as he got healthy and we started to give him more reps with the first and second unit. We saw him, he just kept getting better and he’s a pure passer, man. He can really throw it. He’s got velocity on the ball. The spin rate is impressive and then he’s a very accurate quarterback.

I think you can see he’s got some savvy, made a few plays with his feet but in general, he’s impressed us and he earned that job. He earned that role. This is an opportunity to give him a lot of work and we felt strongly about that.

Q. I know you mentioned some things to clean up, but penalty-free football. Looks like you guys came out of it injury free as well, just the importance of those aspects on top of the outcome.

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I think it was a good night, you know. I think much like most openers, there’s lots of things you’d like to clean up. We played turnover-free football. We played penalty-free football. We got some takeaways. I thought we tackled well, and overall, the operation was pretty clean. But in general, we like to make those field goals, obviously. But we all know Trey Smack and what type of competitor he is and he’ll be back at his best here soon.

But in general, I think we punted one time in the second half, and the defense, did they even have a hundred yards? I don’t know if they had a hundred yards.

Q. 86.

BILLY NAPIER: So reality is, that’s probably what it should look like, but I’m going to hammer home about 15 plays that weren’t good enough. So you guys watched them like I did.

Q. Yeah, you were challenging championship-level defense. Was that pretty close in terms of and obviously the takeaway early gave you guys a lot of momentum and Bryce got another one too. Just how big were those plays early on?

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, we’ll see when we see the tape were we assignment sound. I thought we were on the same page. I thought we communicated well against a team that’s got some triple option elements to their offense. I thought we were assignment sound and pursued the ball inside out and in general — look, we’re going to be tested in the future, so it’s a good start, but obviously we got work to do as a team to turn this thing around and get ready for a really gad South Florida team.

Q. Billy, Vernell Brown III is just the third true freshman receiver to start an opener in school history. He joins some elite company with Antonio Callaway and Percy Harvin. That catch that he made tonight, does that exemplify one of the reasons why he earned that job?

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I mean, I think he’s a great competitor. He’s obviously skilled, but I think more importantly, he’s got a certain maturity level and you could see tonight it’s not too big for him. He’s comfortable in that setting, right? So he’s a play-maker. He’s been doing that very consistent, very dependable, know what you’re going to get and he’s an even better person, teammate. He’s going to be a great leader and he’s a guy that really, really cares about the University of Florida and I think that makes it special for him. You can see he’s comfortable out there. That will be the first of many like that, if I was betting.

Q. And then what did it mean for the team and for Taylor, dirty 30 to get in the end zone tonight?

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, they celebrated in there. I think that was his first touch down, they went crazy in there, so I kind of felt bad, but I think, yeah, guys like that who have been in the program since day one, since we got here. That guy’s done about every job in the building in terms of scouting special teams, scout offense. All he does is just show up and work and then when we get a few guys nicked up, he’s available. He’s become a very good special teams player. He’s a really good communicator, makes everybody around him better. He’s a strong example in his faith and he’s really bright. He’s in graduate school now, so, yeah. The guy made a memory tonight that he’ll remember the rest of his life. Pretty special.

Q. Kind of a followup about Tramell. When he took the field, I know he had a couple starters out there with him, Jadan, Austin, and Bryce. How impactful was that or maybe intentional, I guess, to have some guys out there who got experience helping him out?

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I think we went into the deal trying to get control of the game and get DJ out, get him some good work and we started the half with some pieces around him to try to give him the opportunity to be successful. And then we have a lot of twos who are really good players. I think we got a lot of those rotational players in the game. It’s one of the benefits of a game like that is the play counts don’t get too high and you get a chance to play some of these guys who need experience and then they’ll all get better result of that. There’s no substitute for playing in a game. I think that was Tramell’s first opportunity. I think he’ll be better next time.

Q. Would you talk about the way your defense pursued. You only gave up one first down in each half.

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, I’m pleased. We emphasize it, we’re fanatical about the effort we practice and play with and there’s no doubt that you could see that show up tonight. I always talk about the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth defender showing up. We got some takeaways, which is a positive. We’re going to face the best teams in the country, some of the better offenses in the country and the real challenges are ahead.

Q. Jadan Baugh set the tone early in the opening possession for you guys, finished I think with 105 yards. What does that mean for — what did you think of that as a performance and him just being that leader you’re counting on him to be?

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, Jadan is special. Obviously a lot of creativity. I thought he made something maybe wasn’t there sometimes and he made some plays. I have been impressed with Jadan because he played as a rookie, experienced some success, but I haven’t seen him — there’s been no complacency there and I think that’s a tribute to his character. He’s really a good leader as well. Him and Ja’Kobi are two of the better leaders we have on team, so. Again, that running back room continues to be a strength for us. These guys, you know, you got to sea some of the other players. Good to see Duke get some reps tonight. KD.

We need Jadan need to be his best football player but we also need him to be a great leader for this team to be what it’s capable of being.

Q. Going back to Vernell and his catch. Can you take us through what you saw? Did you think he was going to catch it? And then also did you realize a freshman hadn’t started in a season opener in almost ten years when you make that decision?

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, it wasn’t a very complicated decision based off what I watch every day. But, yeah, those are the ones you don’t forget, right? That picture’s in your mind just like the Pearsall catch a couple years ago. Those are unique and people will be talking about that catch for a long time. Yeah, it was incredible.

Q. Billy, so much went right for you guys tonight but I know Trey missed three field goals were you. How concerning is that? I know it’s the game but he is a veteran and I know you probably almost expect him to be automatic.

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, Trey will bounce back. He’s an elite competitor and some of those were deep and we got to help him. But we’ve got a ton of confidence in Trey. That’s the why we put him out there and we kept putting him out there. We’ll see. There’s no telling when you look at the tape, you got to play good around him, good snap, good hold, good protection. He’ll bounce back. He’ll be fine.

Q. Coach, you mentioned LIU maybe showed some things on defense you hadn’t seen and it did seem like DJ was under pressure a little bit at the beginning of the game. Did that have to do with that part of it?

BILLY NAPIER: Yeah, some real unique things in the first couple possessions of the game. So, yeah, it was definitely brand new, so I think it took a little time, some radar stuff. Yeah, unique stuff that really challenges your rules and protection, even in the run game from an identification standpoint, but that’s the beauty of the iPads, right? You go over to the bench and you get a couple possessions underneath your belt, you get it fixed and then you make the adjustments based off the coverages you’re getting and the fronts you’re getting and I thought the staff did a nice job once we got it ID’d. I think we settled in and much better going forward.