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Florida head coach Billy Napier along with receiver Chimere Dike, and linebacker Shemar James met with the media on Saturday afternoon to discuss the Gators’ 49-17 loss to No. 5 Texas.
BILLY NAPIER
Opening statement
“We struggled to get anything going early. Obviously, the first half where they have 353 yards and about 10 yards a play, it just felt like the rushing and the coverage never married up and I don’t think we tackled very well. Just overall fundamentals in technique. Obviously, in the back end we struggled to keep up with them and tackle loose plays. And look, you’re not going to win turning the ball over four times against a team like that. We had two tipped interceptions, a fumble, short field, and we missed a field goal, any chance of momentum. We missed a field goal early. I do think the kids continued to play; we scored three times in the second half. Not good enough. I think overall it got out of hand in the first half and you look up and the game is over. We have to evaluate the effort; we have to evaluate point of attack issues that we had and we just flat out have to play better. I didn’t think we defended them very well. Obviously, Aidan [Warner] fought his tail off out there today, did some good things for a guy who is making his first start against a really good defense, one of the better defenses in the country. It was good to see him move the team a little bit in the second half. But again, we rushed the ball but in general we had no continuity, and you go into the game understanding you’re playing with your third quarterback, and you know you have to defend him and we did not do that. I think we lost a little bit of our stinger because of that but just in general, not good enough period.”
On DJ Lagway during the week and what it was like for him pregame
“I think that he got better each day, a little bit better with each opportunity. I do think that he probably felt as good as he’s felt since the injury today pregame. That’s kind of what he voiced to me, but not quite ready. I think you’re risking putting him out there with the soft tissue injury. With all the metrics, he’s not quite ready to do it. But we’re hopeful, he’s made some progress and we’ll have a good feel early in the week next week.”
On injuries with the secondary
“The guys that are playing are banged up. Let me tell you something: I appreciate the toughness, DD, Cormani [McClain], Trikweze [Bridges], they played today through some things and we just in general, I didn’t think we really covered them well and again the rush was not landing. The loose plays, the perimeter tackling, we didn’t really play the perimeter plays well at all. And obviously that’s the secondary.”
On evaluating the team’s effort
“We had some chances. We had third and 10, we had fourth and one. I thought they’d punt it to us there early. Just early in general, we didn’t do enough to slow them down. Here we go, fumble, you look up and it’s 14-0. And then here we go, we move it down there and have an opportunity to make it 14-3 and we missed a field goal.”
On if he feels the roster should have more depth at this point with the injuries
“I think some of these scenarios, we’re talking about the third team guy. The two areas that have been banged up are corner and secondary and obviously quarterback. I think outside of that, we’ve survived it to some degree. I do think the running backs have performed; we haven’t really had any injury depth issues in any of the positions…”
CHIMERE DIKE
On the team’s fight
“This team has obviously been through some adversity. I was proud of the guys for going out there to battle in the second half. A lot of teams would have given up. But at the same time, we have got to execute better. We got to improve. That’s at the end of the day. We didn’t take care of what we needed to. Like you said, we have self-inflicted wounds and against a really good team you can’t do that.”
On Aidan Warner getting experience
“Even speaking from my own experience, I think anytime you’re a young player and gain reps against a really good football team, those are things that you can learn from. [Warner] came out there and competed for four quarters. He’s going to continue to get better and take steps forward.”
On improving in the red zone
“I think we need better red zone trips, especially on the road, good team. Down some bodies, I think it’s important to capitalize and we didn’t. I think that kind of was the story of the first half. Those are things you need to cash in on.”
On Aidan Warner’s performance
“I think Aidan did a really good job. I think there are a lot of guys that could have done things better around him, myself included. When you have a young quarterback like that, you have to help him out as much as you can. I think that he competed for four quarters. I think he threw some really good balls. He never looked like he was going to give up or he was out of it. I’m proud of him, proud of the way he competed. We just have to continue to work.”
On the vote of confidence
“First of all, I’m thankful for our players. I think ultimately it’s a reflection of the players. We would not have made some of the progress that we’ve made over the last four, five, six weeks without a great group of players relative to what I’ve talked about before. The character there. The core of that group. Their leadership. Obviously, the staff has done a good job. And again, I do think that when you look at the roster as a whole, we have a ton of young talent that I think will continue to develop and their learning, and they’re going through this experience, and I think that will prove beneficial for the future.”
SHEMAR JAMES
On not capitalizing on early chances to get takeaways on defense
“Yeah, we definitely took a blow on the defensive side of the ball… you know, things weren’t going our way, kind of like self-inflicted wounds. We kind of preached on that saying, you give a good team an inch and they’ll take a mile so, we kind of just got to clean that up on our side of the ball…”
On the defensive struggles despite recent improvements
“Yeah, I mean it’s the game of football. You can get high and climb and before you know it you can. It’s a rollercoaster game so you know we just got to get back in the film room and get better.”
On not being able to play up to par with so many injuries defensively
“Well, that’s frustrating a little bit, but that’s the game of football. It’s a tough game, guys are going to get banged up, guys are going to get hurt. It just comes down to you know, capitalizing… We got the next man up mentality and we got some pretty good twos and threes that came in the game and played really well. It just came down to being ready for the moment and just going out and executing.”
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