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Florida head coach Billy Napier along with quarterback Graham Mertz and offensive lineman Austin Barber met with the media after Saturday’s 45-28 win over Mississippi State.
BILLY NAPIER
Opening statement
“It feels good to win a game. I think we did enough to win today. I was really impressed, offensively, we had some tempo, thought we played well around the quarterback and I thought the quarterbacks did a really good job of being the point guard of the offense and distributing the ball. We had some balance. Outside of the three-and-out early and then we fumbled, I thought we did a lot of good. We started both halves a little slow, but as we settled in I thought we really did well. Defensively, at times, we did a lot of good things. I thought we did a good job off getting off the field on third down in the first half, but there’s just three or four or five possessions there where we disappear. We were a little more consistent across the board today, but we know that there’s going to be more consistency required. The rush and the coverage got to work together. Overall, the rush defense has got to get shored up. We have to eliminate some of these penalties that we had. We got away with a couple on offense. We overcame them. Defensively, we had a few that were costly. Another good day in the kicking game. Thought we did a lot of good there. The specialists were sharp. Gave up one kickoff return that I think maybe got out to the 35. Outside of that, had a punt return that turned into points and then a big field goal there at the end to make it three scores.”
On what went into the revised quarterback rotation and their performances
“Really, we just evaluate how the week went. In terms of Graham being back healthy, really was impressive this week in practice. I thought he had a great week, just really sharp. The ball was jumping out of his hand. And then DJ obviously got some great experience last week. We just kind of went with our gut there, what we thought was best for the team. We’re still committed to playing DJ. I think, today, he showed that he’ll get a little better the more experience that he gets. He’ll improve. So, I think we’re getting the best of both worlds there. Both guys make our team better. And we used DJ’s legs a little bit today, not knowing that Graham was really healthy. Again, I think this is the best thing for our team and both guys played really well.”
On the number of different skill players who got involved today
“In a perfect world, that’s who we are. The quarterback is making good decisions. We’re distributing the ball based off the defense. And I think that’s what we did well today. We took what the defense gave us, and we were spot on. The decision making was really good. Handful of incompletions, but outside of that, I thought we were on point.”
On Aidan Mizell’s performance despite having a couple big plays erased
“I predicted, I told Aidan pregame I thought it was going to be a great day for him. And look, he still made that play. Still got a chance to see him. He did a lot of good things, run after catch today, his speed shows up, and he’s another young player that’s gaining confidence. With Tre Wilson out, he’s kind of the third guy that we’re pushing to the forefront there, and he made the most of his opportunities.”
On the importance of Grayson Howard’s fumble recovery with MSU in the red zone
“Big, big momentum play, and really great to see our defense stand up there. Again, we know that there’s multiple opportunities to prevent even getting into that position, but a big stop. I thought we called it well right there. Not just fourth down, but first, second and third to get it to fourth. I thought Jack Pyburn was phenomenal today. I just thought he made a bunch of plays. Disruptive. Played more snaps today and deservingly so. I think he was right in the middle of that fourth-down stop.”
On what gives confidence that the defense can turn it around and not force the offense to win in shootout fashion
“Look, we are what we are. I don’t have any other answer for you other than we’re capable of better and I think we can play better. I think we can coach better. And look, we’ve got an open date here. We need to take a good look in the mirror on both sides of the spectrum, players and coaches. And maybe we need to adjust who plays and who doesn’t play. I still think that we need to handle the tempo better. Ultimately, a lot of their success was built around the tempo. We know we’re going to play teams that do that in the future. We got to get ready for it. It’s good to win a game like that and go into the open date. I told them in the locker room, we’re going to rest and recover and we’re going to take care of guys and all that, but you show up Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week, we’re working. We have work to do to improve. We got to put all of our heads together to try to get it shored up. I do think we played well around the quarterback. When we protect the quarterback, we’re capable of distributing the ball. We have skill. We played really efficiently today, we need to do that. And we called it aggressively, because I think that’s who we got to be. We need to use tempo. We need to be more aggressive. And certainly, we got a capable group.”
On the message to the defensive backs with some bang-bang calls against them
“Secondary, I think is a position where confidence is key. Much like the offensive line, you’ve got five players that are working together and they got to be on the same page. It’s alignment. It’s leverage. It’s knowing where your help is at. It’s eye discipline. It’s fundamentals. Ultimately, we’ll be able to look at the tape and coach some of these guys relative to some of the things they can do better in those areas. But, we did play tighter coverage. I thought there were times out there where we played legal and were able to break up some passes and get off the field. And some of those are bang-bang. Without taking the aggression away, just coaching the technical part in terms of what they can do better.”
GRAHAM MERTZ
On the two QB system doing pretty well today
“Yeah, yeah it did. I was talking to DJ, I thought we were just really efficient. I was proud of him. We had a great plan going into the game. I thought we did a good job of seeing the field today. Kind of a lot of plays for RPO answers and stuff like that, so when you get in that mode where you can move fast and have answers to what they’re doing, it’s always on attack mode, so I thought we did a good job.”
On skill players stepping up in the absence of Tre Wilson
“I think that’s the biggest thing, to me, is the amount of guys we had out there. Think about it, you had Marcus Burke, Aidan Mizell, [Chimere Dike], [Tank Hawkins], you had all these guys out there… Hayden Hansen. Guys just stepped. They did their job and that’s what we’ve been harping on the whole time, is if you just go out there and do your job, it’s going to work.”
On starting 14-for-15 and if it reminded him of his five TD game vs. Illinois in 2020
“Ugh… not really. I mean, honestly, I thought our scout team during the week did a great job of giving us a mixed bag of looks, so I felt extremely prepared. And I go out there every game and it’s my job to see the defense, read the defense and put the ball where it’s supposed to go… They were flying around this week and I think if you want to have a successful team, your offensive, defensive scouts and special teams scouts are a big part of that.”
On how big it was for the offense to string together consecutive TD drives today
“Yeah, I think it was big. I think football is a game of momentum and momentum shifts the entire time. So, I think for us, there were a few drives we could have done a better job of just getting a first down and getting the thing rolling. When you go three-and-out it puts the defense in a tough spot and it just makes the score a little bit different. I think for us, we look back at the game there’s opportunities we had that we didn’t take advantage of that we’re going to need to take advantage of, for sure.”
On Napier putting in Lagway after Mertz led two-consecutive TD drives
“I think he did a great job. Like I said earlier, we have… our coaches, the way that they prep us through the week, if you just trust the plan and you execute it, good things happen. I just told DJ, I was like, you went out there and you executed, you did a great job. What was he, 7-for-7? That’s good football. That’s what it leads to, so it’s our job to move the sticks. I was proud of him… The communication was great, we were talking to each other about what we saw out there, different looks, stuff like that. So, it was really good.”
AUSTIN BARBER
On the last time he scored a touchdown
“Probably Pop Warner when I was nine years old… just a little overdue.”
On how important it was to be heads up on a touchdown play like that
“My coach always told us to chase the ball. You see the ball, get on the ball. We rep it a lot. I saw it on the ground and did my best to just get on it as fast as I can.”
On what the fight was like in the pile to grab the ball for touchdown
“I had it the whole time… the whole entire time.”
On what it is like to block for both Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway
“They bring two elements to the game and we definitely saw it today. They both do a great job with communication and seeing the field and telling us different points and checks and stuff like that, which is really good. I have full confidence in Graham and DJ. I trust them… whoever is on the field, I think will be really good. It’s really fun blocking for both these guys.”
GRAYSON HOWARD
On the defensive performance
“We did good. We did better. We have a lot of things to fix and that is what practice is for. We have a bye week next week, so that will be good for us. We can watch everything and break it down.”
On Jack Pyburn’s road back and performance in today’s game
“Me and Jack’s relationship goes way back. He’s from Jacksonville as well, so me and Jack were close in high school. I have always known how hard he’s worked. Coming to Florida, he was big influence on why I came here as well. To see how hard he worked in high school, to see how hard he worked to get back, his process was just perfect. He was in there every day, in the training room every day, running every day just make sure he could get back with his brothers. Hard work pays off and he showed it. He’s a great player and he’s a great teammate.”
On the defense’s emphasis on starting fast and getting off the field early in the game
“That’s what you want a defense to do. The offense came out and balled. When they give you that comfortable feeling, when they’re scoring, scoring, scoring, they gave us 28 in the first half, you can’t ask for better than that. Just having their back and making sure that we keep feeding them the ball, that’s what we’re going for.”
On managing tempo being a struggle at the end of second quarter
“Tempo is tempo. They go really fast and they’re not the only team that we will play this year that is going to go really fast, so we will practice throughout the week with tempo and everything like that. The drive got the best of us but I feel like we handled tempo really well throughout the game.”
Transcripts courtesy Florida Sports Information | Videos courtesy GatorVision
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