Gators’ HC Billy Napier Praises Running Backs, Other Highlights from SEC Coaches’ Teleconference.
With the Florida Gators on a bye, Wednesday’s SEC Coaches’ Teleconference provided the only media availability with head coach Billy Napier for this week, and he spoke highly of his team’s running back room.
Wednesday’s appearance on the SEC Coaches’ Teleconference provided the only media availability of the week for Florida Gators’ head coach Billy Napier, and he used part of that time to praise his running back room following a strong showing against Mississippi State.
Johnson Jr. received the bulk of the carries on Saturday with 15 attempts for 68 yards but is still trying to get in a rhythm after suffering a preseason knee injury, Napier said.
The three running backs have been the constant receivers of praise dating back to the offseason, especially after Johnson Jr.’s knee injury knocked him out for the bulk of fall camp.
The running backs will have their work cut out for them after the bye week as they face the nation’s No. 5 rushing defense in UCF (64 yards per game) and No. 2 rushing defense in Tennessee (50.8 yards per game) in back-to-back weeks.
Napier opened up his portion of Wednesday’s teleconference by giving a brief insight into the Gators’ bye-week plans.
“We’ve had a chance to evaluate the first four weeks,” Napier said. “Really good practice yesterday. I think it’s important that we take a good look in the mirror and build plans for improvement this week for not only individual players, position groups, units, the entire team.”
“I think we protected him well. I thought we got really good play and execution and detail from the tight end, receiver and running back rooms,” Napier said. “I thought the staff had a really good plan. And I think ultimately he played about as good as you can play.”
A major thorn in the Gators’ side, once again, has been missed tackles, which plagued the team on Saturday. Florida earned a season-low 39.9 Pro Football Focus tackling grade against the Bulldogs. With no game this week, Napier is “self-scouting” the unit by evaluating the root causes.
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