Billy Napier breaks down Florida's first fall scrimmage

Fall training camp is a chance for coaches and players to fine-tune things before taking on the grueling challenge of a 12 or 13-game season, and weekly scrimmages allow the team to simulate game action during that period.

Florida went through its first fall scrimmage over the weekend and Billy Napier offered his thoughts when speaking to the media on Monday.

“We had a really good scrimmage Saturday,” Napier said. “It was extremely competitive. It was back and forth. Overall, we got what we wanted to get accomplished. We were 122 plays of offense and defense; we were right on our number. We got really good work in the kicking game, too, in all six phases.”

Napier talks differences heading into Year 3

One of the major advantages for Napier entering his third year with the program is that the roster is almost entirely made up of players he recruited. The remaining Mullen-era players have all bought in as well.

Everyone knows what’s expected after going through camp for two years, which leads to more quality reps on the field.

“It was just much more intense, much faster, more physical, less loaves, the film’s cleaner,” he said. “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.”

Beyond the physical growth of this team, Napier likes the camaraderie he sees developing in the locker room.

“It’s about the human beings inside the jersey and the helmet and the shoulder pads. That’s why I really respect this team. There’s chemistry. There’s really good relationships. There’s good leadership. That’s where we made the most progress and I think that’s helped us play a little bit better ball.”

Napier breaks down each unit

Depth is a plus heading into Year 3 for Napier and Co. but each unit still has plenty to work on. Florida needs to be perfect to survive a schedule with eight preseason Top 25 teams.

“Offensively, we want to try to create more explosive plays,” he said. “We want to do a better job on conversion downs, and I think the tempo needs to pick up a little bit. We need to improve in our two-minute operation.

“Defensively, a lot of plays where we got 10 right and one wrong. The good teams that we play will expose that, so consistency is what we’re looking for. The tackling was good outside of a handful of plays, and I think those proved to be costly. If we want to have a good football team, we’ve got to be a really good tackling team, but the effort and the pursuit was good.”

Poor tackling is an issue that has plagued Florida over the past several years, but it’s something Napier has put an emphasis on heading into 2024. Unfortunately, Florida lost one of its best returning tacklers, defensive lineman Jamari Lyons, to injury during this scrimmage.

Another area Napier has keyed in on in recent years is creating “explosive plays.” Chunk plays win game, according to Florida’s data, and the Gators aren’t getting quite enough of them. Speeding up the pre-play process will help create more.

“Overall, the film was really clean on all parts of the team, and I think that between-play process — it’s one thing to practice; it’s another thing to play the game. I think special teams, our coverage units, need to improve, but overall, man, really good day.”

Tweaks will be made over the week to correct the biggest issues. Plenty of position battles remain in contention, things should clear up after Florida’s next scrimmage on Saturday.

“I think we come out of that scrimmage and we kind of reboot the computer and organize them in a way for this week,” he said. “Then, we’ll scrimmage again next week, and I think ultimately that’s when we’ll start paring it down. But even this week, we have to continue to work on contingency plans. If this guy goes down, how do we shuffle the deck?”

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