The Florida Gators caught a breather in their schedule last weekend, but there was no rest in sight. With a well-timed bye week, UF head football coach Billy Napier took the time to gear up for UF’s annual rivalry match against the No.1 Georgia Bulldogs.
Napier made the most of the brief time to clean up the Gators' performance across the board, addressing issues on offense, defense and tackling the persistent penalty problem.
“One of the things the open date exposed is we’ve had issues everywhere we played, truth be known,” Napier said Monday.
On the defensive front, Napier focused on creating takeaways and more tackles. His vision includes improved gap integrity, and strengthened fundamentals at the line of scrimmage and on the edges, he said.
The Gators recorded two sacks in their last matchup against South Carolina. While they held off the Gamecocks successfully, UF’s current defense will be challenged with Georgia’s top-ranked offense.
“I think they do a fantastic job,” he said about Georgia's lineup. “[We’re] going to have to earn everything.”
Penalties continue to be problematic for the Gators as they fall prey to false starts, offsides and holding calls, especially on the road. Napier prioritized more precision in his players this week to address the issue.
“I don’t care who you play, where you play them, I think you can’t afford to give the opponent anything,” he said. “Certainly undisciplined penalties are in that category.”
Offensively, Napier emphasized the team’s success goes beyond UF redshirt junior quarterback Graham Mertz’s performance and relies on a high-performing support system.
“I think the key is going to be that we play well around the quarterback,” he said. “If you're going to move the ball in this league, every position's got to do their part.”
Mertz took the opportunity during the bye week to revisit the basics. He focused on footwork and timing to grasp his approach to the position.
“You [have] got to really dive back into the fundamentals of what you're doing,” he said. “How you're doing it because you can lose that in the season because it's just constantly going.”
The team worked on rectifying lingering issues from the season’s past games in off week. They assessed what worked and didn’t work, fixing mistakes to avoid new ones.
“Whether that's routes on air, indy, team period, seven-on-seven, it's guys taking everything that's happened in the game, good, bad or ugly, and applying it in the practice,” Mertz said.
Senior wide receiver Ricky Pearsall used the mid-season break as an opportunity to focus on his individual recovery. His personal emphasis was on self-care, taking care of his body and sleeping better, he said.
On his side, the offense worked on solving internal issues to improve cohesiveness and collaboration as a group.
“We had two really big practices that I think we got better at within each other,” he said. “It was sort of, like, a focus on Florida kind of practice.”
Pearsall is optimistic about their progress and looks forward to seeing the refined offense in action this weekend.
“They're a really good team — tough team,” he said. “I'm excited to go out there and compete with them.”
The Florida Gators will take on the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Jacksonville. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
Contact Krisha Sanghavi at ksanghavi@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @krishasang.
Krisha Sanghavi is a third-year public relations and economics major. In her free time, she loves cheering on Miami sports teams and spending time with her friends.
