By: Nick Marcinko -- August 12, 2024 Head coach Billy Napier met with the media on Monday afternoon to break down Florida’s first fall scrimmage, which took place on Saturday. Gator Country reported big games from Tank Hawkins and Florida’s running back room. You can watch clips from the scrimmage here. Gator Country provides you with everything Billy Napier said during Monday’s press conference. Billy Napier details Florida’s first fall scrimmage | GatorCountry.com
"On the first scrimmages from previous years compared to now: “I think overall it was just much more intense, much faster, more physical, less loafs, the film’s cleaner, we’re just deeper. You put the first and second group out there, it’s a good football play, even the threes I thought played pretty clean in the scrimmage. " In my personal opinion, I believe the above quote is a product of having a team that has at least two years (now going on three) of practicing, working out, and playing together. Also, have the coaches, trainers, and specialists on the same page too. It appears that the team as a whole, has (or is) caught onto the jargon, the hand signals, the routines, and the expectations. Looking back during Napier's first summer as a Gator, I can recall Napier saying that there was a problem with having to do a reorientation almost every day. This does not seem to be the problem this summer.
Very interesting how DJ is aided so much by helmet comms... Big change on offense and defense he talked about.
When it comes to tackling, I get a little leary when CBN says something is "very correctable." It seems that phrase has been used over the last several years and the correctable part doesn't seem to materialize. I get it that this was just the first scrimmage but I hope that CBN doesn't have to use phrase the entire season.
I have been reading everything I can all year long and have exhausted all my preseason mojo... What I just read was music to my ears. I like what I'm hearing, and all I can do with wait for the whole band to get back together, on stage, to perform live and in color... in front of 90,000+ streaming Gator fans. This first game will be the concert I've been waiting to hear all year long... but in a way, I know it'll feel like I've been waiting for a lifetime to see Gator football played at the level of what we fans are used to seeing.
I edited it. I took that band out because that song is what other schools use for their entrance... sucks, but I did that on my own accord. We need that video of the drone... sweeping though the stadium right before the game, video. But here's a familiar tune that I know you will like.
This year feels different from the past few years. The changes to the roster and the coaching staff is huge. The defense seems better and deeper than we've been in a long time, and we finally got some real coaches to teach strength & conditioning and nutrition. But two major things I hope got we fixed. Getting to the QB in a timely fashion... and missed tackles. We have to fix that to take the next step to the top rungs of college football.
I agree about tackling. Pressuring the opposing QB seems to me a lot about playing your position. Filling your role. Setting the edge, for example, so your teammate can get to the QB. That's just one example though. Then DBs playing off WRs by 10 yards and backpedaling so there's always an easy pitch-and-catch if pressure does start getting close doesn't help either. What I mean is it's more than just having a great pass rusher alone (although I think we have several from several different positions now). It seems our DBs can play tighter man coverage this year and that will help the pass rush too . . . if neither the QB's 1st look, nor 2nd look, nor 3rd look are open, and he can't get outside to scramble, good things will start happening.
I posted a clip of a bull rush our D-line made against Tennessee that forced an INT. We need more of that, but sometimes we get held and our D-line can't seem to find a way to extricate themselves from these holds. I call it slow-dancing the O-lineman... where our guys get held tight... and forget about that illusive holding call. We get dragged down to the ground and held, still no calls come for the Gators, so... bull rush. We need to find that jailbreak style of getting to the QB like we did just a few years ago. We've had some intermitten success of that recently on the D-line and getting to the QB, but we need to get more consitent pressure on opposing QBs. Ron Roberts addressed this in the last presser I saw him hold. He point blank said that we need to find players on the line that can get to the QB, or we need to find other means to get to him.. in so many words, paraphrasing. That means he will not stand by and do nothing to stop QBs from taking all day long to pick our defense apart. But missed tackles were his pet peeve... and one site illustrated that by pointing out just how feckless our linebackers have been. In missed tackles, the Gators were near the very bottom of the entire country... in that category. He's working directly with them, and he loves the talent mix of young and experienced in that room. I believe Gatorgrowl posted a podcast link of someone that said that our linebackers have been our weakest room on defense these last few years, and I thought he was wrong until I started reading the college football stats on missed tackles in articles posted on other sites. I was shocked to see just how bad we were at missing tackles. I knew our open field tackles were bad, but that was just one small all part of it. Like I said, get those two things fixed, that will not happen overnight, and we are on far better footing as a team. Fundamentals 101... that the last group of position coaches were not teaching.
Another short coming that Billy has addressed during the off season. The hiring of CRR was IMO an excellent move. Along with addressing the special teams issues with Houston and being ahead of the curve with the new on field coaches rule change has me believing CBN is gonna flip the script on Gator football this year. Coach is educated on the inner workings of college football and is planning and working with a future-minded outlook. It’s year three and maybe it’s the O&B glasses but I’m seeing real reason to be excited for this season and especially next season. I do believe this train is starting to roll! It’s gonna be a wild ride this year, let’s stand up and cheer!!! GO GATORS!!!!
