GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In his brief time as a familiar face around town,
Billy Napier has shared how he overcame difficult setbacks in his personal journey, most notably getting fired as Clemson's offensive coordinator after the 2010 season and dealing with the loss of his father to ALS five years ago.
Napier turned each time to his most-trusted allies: his faith, his family and his work ethic.
A loss to Kentucky in his Southeastern Conference debut as Florida's head coach pales compared to those life experiences. When Napier stepped to the podium on Monday for his weekly press conference, he opened in an unsurprising temperate fashion.
"When you're presented with challenges and adversity in life, I think that there's opportunity, and it's important that we operate in truth, that we keep it technical,'' Napier said. "You try to help the players maintain perspective. I think that it's very important that you take full advantage of the things that come with an experience like this. It gives you a chance to recenter and certainly evaluate where you're at as a team."
A week after a pulsating victory over then-No. 7 Utah in his UF debut, Napier suffered his first loss in more than a year, snapping a personal 13-game win streak dating to Louisiana's loss at Texas to open the 2021 season. Florida's 26-16 defeat to Kentucky dampened the enthusiasm after Week 1 and raised questions about third-year sophomore quarterback
Anthony Richardson.
Richardson was dynamic in the win over the Utes, totaling 274 yards from scrimmage and rushing for three touchdowns. He struggled against the Wildcats, finishing 14 of 35 for 143 yards and two interceptions. He rushed for only four yards and Kentucky's defense limited Richardson to 4.1 yards per pass attempt.
Napier is working to ensure Richardson is prepared and in a healthy frame of mind with USF visiting The Swamp on Saturday night.
"It's part of being a young player. It's part of being a guy who's not very experienced,'' Napier said. "That's reality here. Anthony's a young player. He's getting his first opportunity to be the guy. I just think this is part of the story. This is part of his growth.
"And he'll use that. This guy's a competitor. He's motivated, and I think he's going to take full advantage of the experience he's had, both good and bad so far."
The No. 18-ranked Gators welcome USF to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for only the second time. Florida defeated the Bulls 38-14 in 2010, the inaugural meeting between the in-state schools. They met again last season, with the Gators winning 42-20 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
Richardson flashed his enormous potential in that victory, coming off the bench to throw two touchdowns and run for an 80-yard touchdown. That is the Richardson so many Gators fans want to see show up Saturday night.
His teammates don't want Richardson to take all the heat for the Kentucky loss. It was a team effort, in their view.
"I know last week, it was pretty rough for everybody," offensive lineman
Richard Gouraige said. "It's part of life you've got to learn. You've got to lose in order to win. I know it sucks that we didn't win last week. We have a new week for this week to keep getting better."
Receiver
Justin Shorter was targeted eight times against Kentucky, but Richardson was only able to complete two of the passes for 26 yards. Shorter expects the learning experience to pay off for Richardson as the season progresses. He said the key is to get back to practice and work on what went wrong.
Meanwhile, Richardson accepting most of the blame following the loss did not surprise Shorter.
"That's the kind of guy he is," Shorter said. "He's a leader, a hard worker, and he's obviously a special talent, as you guys have seen. He's a very impressive quarterback. I'd definitely say he's a very smart, very humble, humble kid for the spot that he's in now.
"I feel like it just wasn't him. We win as a team and we lose as a team. It's just one loss. There's a lot of championship teams with one loss, so we're just going to come back next week and try to put up huge numbers and really win."
USF opened the season with a loss at BYU and defeated Howard, coached by former Gators tight ends coach Larry Scott, 42-20 on Saturday at home. The Bulls started slowly before pulling away in the second half.
Bulls quarterback Gerry Bohanon, a transfer from Baylor, finished 17 of 28 for 219 yards. Brian Battie rushed for 107 yards and added a 60-yard touchdown run, and Michel Dukes and Jaren Mengham each rushed for two scores as USF put away the FCS-classified Bison after halftime.
The victory was only the fourth in 23 games for third-year USF coach Jeff Scott, a former colleague of Napier's at Clemson. Scott was the receiving coach when Napier was the Tigers' offensive coordinator for two seasons. Chad Morris, now a senior offensive analyst for the Bulls, replaced Napier. Scott later became co-offensive coordinator at Clemson when Morris left to become head coach at SMU.
Napier's focus Monday was on the future, not the past.
"It's important to adjust, to adapt, to evolve, and certainly I've seen just in the few days here this group is sticking together," Napier said. "There's a certain loyalty that comes with this game, and I love how this group wants to do their job for the team. They want to do it better for the team.
"So, I think the big focus for our team is to get consumed with improvement."
