Florida head coach Billy Napier met with the press today at the SEC Media Days event in Nashville this afternoon. Here is some of what the Gators' second-year head coach had to say about his team and the 2023 football season.
Napier did not talk as much about individual players, position groups or opponents at Brian Kelly did.
On moving into his second season at Florida:
I think in January, we went through an extensive detailed review of year one at Florida. As an entire organization, each individual, each department, you know, what worked, what didn't work, how do we adjust; how do we adapt; how do we evolve. We started the process of getting our 2023 team ready to go.
This is a new group of players and we have a few new staff dynamics but one of the things that I'm encouraged about is we have 97 percent of our team was with us in January. We had 27 midyear players. We have a great group of veterans that have experience and have wisdom from the past. We have brought in an influx of young talent and I feel really good about what we did in the portal. We added 10,000 stats and 123 starts with that group.
I'm excited about the compound effect of year two, the consistency of process, the consistency in our systems. I think we have defined the expectations and renewed the accountability and there is a different level of discipline and a different level of detail as we work today.
On Wisconsin QB Graham Mertz and the QB battle entering fall camp:
I've been very impressed with Graham. Graham is a 32-start player. He's played over 2000 snaps at a really established program in Wisconsin. We went through an extensive process to make that decision. I think gram is an accomplished player but more importantly, I've been impressed with the person, the leader. This guy has an incredible motor and work ethic. He is in the building and he is fanatical about his preparation. That's helped the competition. I think that's caused Jack to respond. Jack has had an incredible off-season and he's in position for great camp. And we have been really pleased with a young player, Max Brown. He's had a good summer. He's impressed the staff and he's impressed his teammates.. We are excited about that competition. We'll go into training camp and we'll make a decision when we see fit for the team.
On being a head coach the calls plays and will he continue to do that:
I think it's a relevant question. I think it was part of our evaluation this off-season. You know, I think like most part of our organization and our process, we will improve in year two. I think it's something that we'll continue to evaluate. I like having my hand on the scripts, the installation, that process. I think I can help establish our identity and personality as a team through that process. And I'm always -- I think if you get too far away from that, I think there could be some things from a sustainable, repeatable part. So I want to continue to do it, and I think each year, much like all parts of what we do, we'll continue to evaluate.
On the impact of the portal on team chemistry:
You know, much like I described earlier, I think one of the things that we benefitted from is that, you know, 90-plus percent of our team has been there since January. We had 27 mid-year players. We did minimal work in the spring portal. But you know, I think it's a reality in college football right now. Especially in the earlier stages of building a program. You're going to have to do work in the portal. Again we want to continue to recruit the best high school players in the country and establish some stability from a roster management standpoint and do less work in the portal in the future. But there's no question, it's an avenue to acquire a player. There is a chemistry dynamic, and I think you've got to be intentional about all parts of building the team, and that connection that togetherness that required become even more important. So I think you've got to be intentional in terms of the off-season program, the things you do throughout the spring semester, the summer, training camp, and even in-season to create those relationships, some of which can be in a short window of time.
Napier did not talk as much about individual players, position groups or opponents at Brian Kelly did.
On moving into his second season at Florida:
I think in January, we went through an extensive detailed review of year one at Florida. As an entire organization, each individual, each department, you know, what worked, what didn't work, how do we adjust; how do we adapt; how do we evolve. We started the process of getting our 2023 team ready to go.
This is a new group of players and we have a few new staff dynamics but one of the things that I'm encouraged about is we have 97 percent of our team was with us in January. We had 27 midyear players. We have a great group of veterans that have experience and have wisdom from the past. We have brought in an influx of young talent and I feel really good about what we did in the portal. We added 10,000 stats and 123 starts with that group.
I'm excited about the compound effect of year two, the consistency of process, the consistency in our systems. I think we have defined the expectations and renewed the accountability and there is a different level of discipline and a different level of detail as we work today.
On Wisconsin QB Graham Mertz and the QB battle entering fall camp:
I've been very impressed with Graham. Graham is a 32-start player. He's played over 2000 snaps at a really established program in Wisconsin. We went through an extensive process to make that decision. I think gram is an accomplished player but more importantly, I've been impressed with the person, the leader. This guy has an incredible motor and work ethic. He is in the building and he is fanatical about his preparation. That's helped the competition. I think that's caused Jack to respond. Jack has had an incredible off-season and he's in position for great camp. And we have been really pleased with a young player, Max Brown. He's had a good summer. He's impressed the staff and he's impressed his teammates.. We are excited about that competition. We'll go into training camp and we'll make a decision when we see fit for the team.
On being a head coach the calls plays and will he continue to do that:
I think it's a relevant question. I think it was part of our evaluation this off-season. You know, I think like most part of our organization and our process, we will improve in year two. I think it's something that we'll continue to evaluate. I like having my hand on the scripts, the installation, that process. I think I can help establish our identity and personality as a team through that process. And I'm always -- I think if you get too far away from that, I think there could be some things from a sustainable, repeatable part. So I want to continue to do it, and I think each year, much like all parts of what we do, we'll continue to evaluate.
On the impact of the portal on team chemistry:
You know, much like I described earlier, I think one of the things that we benefitted from is that, you know, 90-plus percent of our team has been there since January. We had 27 mid-year players. We did minimal work in the spring portal. But you know, I think it's a reality in college football right now. Especially in the earlier stages of building a program. You're going to have to do work in the portal. Again we want to continue to recruit the best high school players in the country and establish some stability from a roster management standpoint and do less work in the portal in the future. But there's no question, it's an avenue to acquire a player. There is a chemistry dynamic, and I think you've got to be intentional about all parts of building the team, and that connection that togetherness that required become even more important. So I think you've got to be intentional in terms of the off-season program, the things you do throughout the spring semester, the summer, training camp, and even in-season to create those relationships, some of which can be in a short window of time.
