What they said following the Gators' 31-28 win over USF
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The No. 18 Florida Gators bounced back following a loss to Kentucky to improve to 2-1 on the season. The Gators had to sweat out a 31-28 win over unranked USF watching a long field goal attempt miss with less than a minute left in regulation.
A win is a win, whether it was clean or dirty. There wasn’t much clean about the way the Gators played on Saturday night but it’s better to be 2-1 than 1-2 heading to Knoxville.
Billy Napier on USF
“Hats off to South Florida. Jeff’s [Scott] got a good football team. They had a great plan tonight. I thought offensively they played well. They blocked us well. They gave us some unique concepts. A ton on respect for what Jeff’s building. Obviously, a good friend of mine. We made it hard, but a lot of that had to do with South Florida and their execution.”
Anthony Richardson on his confidence
“I’d say it definitely got back up. Feel like I’m getting back to myself, just focusing on football not focusing on the outside noise. Despite the two interceptions, you know, I feel like I keep growing as a player, as a person, put that in the past. Nobody wants to see two interceptions, zero touchdowns after the game but it is football and I got to get better.”
Jeff Scott on the game
“At the end of the day, it is about winning the game and we did not win the game. There were a lot of plays in there that I felt like we won the matchup as far as running the ball. Defensively, one of the best defensive performances we have had in a long time. If you look across the board they are a little bit taller and bigger and our guys were not phased one bit. Credit Coach Shoop and the defensive staff and defensive players. It comes down to just a couple plays that they made that we did not.”
Despite loss, Bulls leave Gainesville confident
“We came here to win the game and I have no doubt In my mind that our team believed we could win the game before it started. I really told them I wanted to see two things. I wanted to see us play hard four quarters because we haven’t done that all year, and I wanted to see us have fun. We did both of those things. Obviously, it is a heart breaker because of how well we played for the majority of the game. I told our players after the game, three games into my third season and this is the first time I have really seen our team play at the level that I feel we are capable of playing. I know we have some other big games but that is a talent team in a big-time venue right there.”
