New Gators head coach Billy Napier was in Tampa on Thursday night to watch the Gators play in the Gasparilla Bowl. (Photo: Leslie White/UAA Communications)
Napier Offers Hope Following End To Disheartening Season
Friday, December 24, 2021 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
TAMPA — There is plenty to say about what transpired here at Raymond James Stadium on Thursday night in the Gasparilla Bowl.
We'll get to some of that later.
But in the wake of Florida's 29-17 loss to UCF, nothing said in the postgame press conference matters much for the Orange & Blue crowd. The Gators lost, played erratically the way they have for most of the season, and headed into the night with a 6-7 record, the program's second losing record in the past five seasons.
Sure, the loss to the Knights stung, the first time in three all-time meetings against the upstart program from Orlando that UCF even had a chance. The Knights will milk the victory for all it's worth as they should. They made the big plays, played smarter under pressure and took control when the opportunity was there.
The Gators deserved to lose. That's the naked truth.
Now, for what really matters. New head coach Billy Napier attended the game and spoke to a group of UF boosters prior to kickoff. He also did an interview with ESPN during the game.
In his third week on the job, Napier has said it before and he said it again Thursday. These 14 words are what Gators fans should rest on as the offseason begins following the holiday break.
"We've got an incredible challenge in front of us, but we're excited about it,'' Napier said.
Napier knows.
He knows this Florida team is nowhere close to residing in the same zip code as where the program's best teams have called home. He knows that if he lined up his 2021 Louisiana team Thursday night against the Gators, the Ragin' Cajuns could have easily done exactly what the Knights did. He knows that this is a rebuild, not a reboot.
Napier is eager to get to work, and once he does, there's no doubt some of these Gators won't make the cut. The ones who do, those who buy into his program and are willing to put in the work, have a chance to find the success they thought this season offered. We now know it was nothing more than fool's gold.
I'll be the first to admit I didn't see the program's swift downfall coming. Former coach Dan Mullen took over a program coming off a losing record in 2017. In retrospect, he pressed a reboot button and it solved the problem for a while. The Gators cranked up and won 29 of Mullen's first 35 games.
Nothing has been the same since. Despite a promising start to this season, the Gators never recovered from the error-filled loss at Kentucky. Turns out, that is who they were.
Take what happened in the Gasparilla Bowl. With the game hanging in the balance in the third quarter, the Gators came unglued. Linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper got booted from the game for throwing a punch. An onside kick that should have been recovered squirted away from a pair of UF players and into the arms UCF. On the ensuing go-ahead drive for the Knights, Gervon Dexter and Brenton Cox Jr. both received 15-yard penalties.
The game turned in a flash, sort of like the season. The Gators never recovered.
"A lot of you guys in here have covered us this year, and you've seen us make mistakes," interim coach Greg Knox said. "You can't make those mistakes and expect to win games."
Knox and the Gators deserve credit for rallying after Mullen's dismissal to defeat Florida State in the regular-season finale and earn a bowl berth. However, they didn't have a second act.
UCF became the first in-state school to defeat the Gators other than FSU or Miami since Stetson in 1938. Afterward, UCF fans and players celebrated as if they had won the Super Bowl, not the Gasparilla Bowl.
The Gators showed their lack of discipline once again during a brief scuffle as the teams converged after the game. Meanwhile, UCF coach Gus Malzahn reveled in the victory, capping his first season with one of the Knights' signature wins.
He didn't care that it came against a less-than-vintage Gators team.
"That was just icing on the cake,'' Malzahn said. "The best is yet to come. I really believe that."
As for some of those details that headlined Florida's second consecutive bowl loss, the most important concerns the health of Gators receiver Justin Shorter. With less than three minutes remaining, Shorter was knocked cold from a hit in the head/neck area as he went up to catch a pass from quarterback Emory Jones.
Shorter lay motionless on the field for several minutes until he was carted off. Initial reports offered promise that Shorter will recover from the scary incident.
In one of the most memorable scenes of the season, Gators running back Dameon Pierce jumped into the stands to thank the UF Band after Thursday's loss in the Gasparilla Bowl. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
And then there is the fate of Jones, who like the Gators, took a roller-coaster ride in his first season as the team's starter. Jones connected on just 14 of 36 passes for 171 yards against the Knights. He missed Trent Whittemore in the first half and Shorter in the second half when they were wide open for potential long touchdowns.
Jones announced last week that he planned to transfer following the season. He declined to elaborate on his future plans after the game.
"I wanted to send those guys out the right way and we didn't get that done," he said. "So, I'm kind of dealing with that right now. I'm not really thinking about [my future] right now. I'm just trying to bottle up my emotions from this game."
The emotions were everywhere on this night.
Gators fans will remember senior running back Dameon Pierce jumping into the stands to thank the UF band after the game. They will remember fifth-year senior Malik Davis leading the team in rushing in his hometown, including a 19-yard touchdown run that gave the Gators their final lead (17-16). They will remember receivers coach Billy Gonzales leaving the field with tears in his eyes.
And, yes, they will remember the costly penalties and the missed throws and the sight of joyous UCF fans celebrating the victory at their expense.
What they should remember most, though, are those 14 words from Napier. They offer hope that the next time the Gators and Knights play in 2024, the Orange & Blue will be the ones celebrating a big win and Thursday's loss will seem like a distant memory.
