The Gators open their first preseason training camp under head coach Billy Napier on Wednesday afternoon. (File photo)
It all starts with the 'D-word' ... and needs to
Wednesday, August 3, 2022 | Football, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Gervon Dexter Sr. was the first player at the podium Tuesday to speak about the start of Coach Billy Napier's debut training on the eve of the Florida Gators' opening 2022 practice. Three times in answering his first two questions, Dexter mentioned the D-word.
"Discipline," Dexter explained, has become an ongoing theme for the Gators since Napier took over last winter.
"Everybody doing the right way, doing the same thing," said the 6-foot-6, 312-pound sophomore defensive lineman from Lake Wales, Fla. "That's been a huge change for us, in my opinion. That was an issue that we had: just discipline. I think that was one of the biggest things that needed to be changed. Changing that has made a huge difference on us already."
That intangible and oh-so-pivotal element — yes, discipline — became an oft-asked, oft-spoken topic over the course of the next couple hours as players and coaches strolled into the interview area. Now, it needs to become a calling card for a program that too often over the last decade (some would say longer) has demonstrated a lack of self-control that tends to undermine a team on Saturdays, be it through penalties, mental errors, indecisiveness or, frankly, selfishness.
It was fitting that the last of the Gators to enter the room, Napier, referenced discipline three times before taking his first question.
"It's a critical time of the year," Napier said. "We want to work really hard, but we're going to work smart. How we execute the plan is the most important part. Everybody is going through training camp. It's going to be our diligence when it comes to the discipline and the detail."
So how does one define "discipline?" Depends on whom you ask.
"We probably could talk discipline for an hour, but I'm going to spare you," strength and conditioning coordinator Mark Hocke said. "I think the best quote that I have on discipline is [from] Mike Tyson. He said, 'You got to do things you hate to do like you love doing them.' "
And this from co-defensive coordinator/defensive line coach Sean Spencer: "When you first come into a program, you got to establish the discipline. … You have to be consistent with what you talk about and what you're expecting them to do. And then you got to hold them to a standard, right? You got to hold them to a standard, and if they don't do it, if they don't do what you ask them to do, there's got to be a consequence. The consequence has got to be one such that they don't want to mess it up."
Such as?
"We can't share that right there," Spencer shot back with a laugh. "Push-ups, push-ups, push-ups, chaos. We just say 'chaos' and it's all good."
Defensive lineman Gervon Dexter (9) welcomes the program's new-found commitment to discipline.
For UF fans who are used to seeing flags (and shoes) fly at the most inopportune times — anyone remember 15 penalties, including eight false starts (at least one from each starting lineman) in the 20-13 loss at Kentucky last season? — hearing from a new head coach who's a stickler for the details should warm the soul.
Under Dan Mullen last season, Florida averaged nearly nine penalties and 71 penalty yards per game, which ranked 119th out of the nation's 130 FBS teams. Over Mullen's four seasons, the Gators were the 79th-most penalized program in the country.
In Napier's four seasons the University of Louisiana, the Ragin' Cajuns averaged 5.9 penalties and checked in 63rd over that same span. Last season, on the way to going 13-1, winning the Sun Belt Conference title and finishing 16th in final The Associated Press poll, U-L was 42nd in the country in penalty yards per game. Those numbers probably didn't sit particularly well with Napier, whose team in 2018 (with a team that went 7-5) ranked 23rd with just 4.8 penalties per game.
But if the 2021 Gators had ranked 63rd (rather than 56 spots worse), they likely would not have gone 6-7, either.
Sean Spencer
There isn't a coach in history that stated at his introductory news conference a goal of fielding a less disciplined team, and when Napier first stood at a UF dais last Dec. 5, discipline was one of his many talking points. There's no arguing the fact recent UF teams, especially last season, at times did not look ready for the moment; on both sides of the ball. That traces to preparation, which goes to discipline.
"Any person that's had success in life, discipline is a direct part of that," Napier said Tuesday.
Fair enough, but to achieve great discipline there must be equally great accountability. That takes oversight not just from the coaches, but players policing the locker room, the meeting room, the practice field and especially on Saturdays in the heat of the moment.
Spencer mentioned an instance he saw as a breakthrough late in spring practice. He was about to jump on a player over a miscue when Justus Boone, a redshirt freshman defensive lineman, beat Spencer to it.
"He turned around and said, 'That's not what we do! We expect more!' " Spencer recalled. "When you start to get that, you start to get them talking like that, man, it can be special."
But there's so much more to it than that.
The pregame scenes of the past, when UF players warmed up wearing basically anything they wanted out of the equipment room, ended with the first workout last spring.
"It all matters," Napier said. "I think the key is that you provide structure and routine, that you define expectations for the players."
"When we're all outside in white socks, you won't see a blue sock," Dexter said. "Some guys were like, 'Man, we didn't do that already,' so coming in it was a little … you know, what I'm saying? That's what it is when you get something new and you're not used it, but he stuck his foot down, wasn't changing and we just had to get on the same boat as him."
The boat is crowded, which is a good thing. Come Wednesday afternoon, the collective UF oars hit the water, which is an even better thing.
Football '22 will be here. A more disciplined version, they vow.
"If you see somebody doing it the right way, it helps us be able to do the right way," said junior offensive lineman O'Cyrus Torrence, who followed Napier and his rigid ways from U-L. "Stay disciplined and play the game like we're supposed to play it."
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