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Florida head coach Billy Napier, along with quarterback DJ Lagway, and linebacker Myles Graham met with the media on Saturday evening to discuss the Gators’ 20-10 loss to No. 3 LSU.
BILLY NAPIER
Opening statement…
“I want to compliment the players. The leadership of the team. I thought it was obviously a tough early part of the week, but I do think the staff and leadership towards the players did a great job of creating momentum towards tonight and having those players ready to compete and ready to play. I thought they played with effort and toughness; the passion was there. I think we did a lot of good things on defense, 10 first downs and really just held them to 316 yards and got a takeaway late. I thought we did a nice job in the kicking game, controlled their returners. In general, that part of the plan worked. Offensively, just not able to generate enough. I felt like when we had momentum, we had a critical penalty or turned the ball over. So, right before half obviously was a big one, then the one to make it two scores, and then you’re down two and you kind of play one dimensional at that point. This is a team game. I know there will be a lot of dialogue and narrative about DJ, and he’ll take complete ownership if he thinks he can do better and we all understand that. I do think that it’s important for everyone to understand that at the end of the day he is still a young player. It’s important for everybody. He’s an incredible teammate and an incredible young man. He works as hard as any player I’ve been around and I think that tonight is not indicative of who he is as a teammate, as a football player and as a leader on this team. He made mistakes, much like we’ve all made mistakes in the past. One thing I know about him is he’ll take complete ownership of the things he can do better. I would say that is my responsibility. I think being a leader on offense, helping him, trying to help the players around him to play better to try to put him in a position where he has better options and can make better positions. That’s part of coaching, so any time a team makes mistakes it’s a direct reflection of the coaching and we need to do better in that regard. We got a group in that locker room who put it on the line and did what we asked them to do in that regard. They showed up to compete and we made too many mistakes to win the football game, it’s that simple. I think parts of our team did enough to win and other parts didn’t. Hats off to LSU. They made some plays, they have a good football team, a good veteran quarterback, a good, stingy defense and some unique returners.”
On the penalties charged to the offensive line…
“A lot of our holding penalties tonight and in the past have been when the pocket is clean early in the down and then the quarterback extends, or escapes or begins to scramble, and then we get our hands outside the framework. I think a majority of the ones that were called tonight were that way, and the one that was called last week was the same, the one that was called on Jake [Slaughter]. Those are the tough ones on the OL because they’re protecting the launch point and all of a sudden that launch point changes and I think if you feel that happen, then your hands get outside the framework and you have to cut them loose.”
On the offseason struggles DJ Lagway has faced…
“Look, I think we all understand the dynamic here. This was his fourth week of practice. He’s had a very unique offseason. He’s missed quite a bit of time, but I would say that what he’s going to say to you is that he’s not going to use that as a crutch. This is not a young man that’s looking for excuses. He’s going to evaluate it objectively, independent of what’s happened in the past and he was cleared and available. Ready to play, had a full week to prepare, and I think it’s a young player that is going to learn from his experiences. We all understand that that contributes to it, but he nor our staff is going to lean on that to allow that to be a crutch or an excuse.”
On giving Trammell Jones Jr. a look…
“No, I don’t really, I don’t subscribe to that theory. Yeah, DJ’s our quarterback. He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country. He’s made some tough throws, made good decisions tonight but he also made some bad decisions tonight. And you’re talking about a guy who was a rookie himself.”
On Lagway’s issues on his interceptions…
“You guys watched the same game I watched, and I think we’ve got to continue to, we have to continue to work through progressions. I think that’s part of it. Ultimately, I’d say if you get all of them, that was probably the primary deal, was we got to continue to work our way through progression and get on the next receiver. I’ll be able to answer that in depth Monday. Look, you guys will have a chance to speak with him, but I think ultimately, there is lots to contribute to what happened.”
On the conversation he had with Lagway on the sideline…
“You know, we are right on the kick line, right on the 36. It’s a 10-point game and that’s a situation where you would kick the field goal and try to get it to a touchdown game. So, we are going into that series of downs first, second and third down understanding that, knowing that and then obviously to turn it over would not be you know what we were looking to do in that situation. So, that’s what we were talking about.”
DJ LAGWAY
On the game and his performance…
“I didn’t play well at all, and got to do better. Didn’t play turnover-free ball. Anytime you have five turnovers in a game, you can’t expect to win a game.”
On if there were any common themes with his interceptions…
“Just bad ball placement, bad misread throws, and I got to play better. And like Coach Napier always says, this is a practice sport. You’ve got to practice, you’ve got to play it, you’ve got to get through it and I’ll continue to work and I’ll get better.”
On if his lack of offseason practice has contributed to his struggles…
“I would say it’s definitely been hard, but God does everything for a reason. I missed that time period for a reason to assess some things and set back things and fix some things that I needed to fix, on and off the field. I can’t never say that was a big problem, but I’ll just keep my head down, work hard and continue to get better.”
On how he processes his performance against LSU…
“I’ve never had a performance like that in my life, so it’s kind of hard to process it, but at the end of the day it’s all about how do you bounce back and how do you respond, and I’m planning on doing so.”
On if it’s disappointing not seeing his film study translating to the field…
“There’s definitely always ways to improve the process, but like I said I’m just excited to get back to work, just got to get this taste out of my mouth. I played horrible football today and I got to do better.”
On what he and Coach Napier talked about after his fourth interception…
“We just talked about the situation of the game and what we were trying to accomplish there and I kind of left it a little high on the receiver on the post route and I missed the throw. He just tells me, I see what you were thinking there, but we got to play a little smarter in that area, trying to get three points.”
On which interception bothered him the most…
“I’d say all of them bothered me, there wasn’t really one that stuck out to me. I feel like the one before halftime really hurt, giving them three points before going into halftime. But like I said, all of them were really painful, but I just got to play better.”
On the keys to bouncing back from this loss…
“We just got to rally troops. That’s all we can really do at this point. We’ve got to rally the troops and bring confidence into guys. We’ve got to come around having swag, playing our game, we’ve got to do better and improve our process and results will come.”
On if tonight’s performance impacted his self-belief and self-confidence…
“Not at all. I don’t put my confidence on how I feel into a game. My confidence comes from The Lord. Of course I want to play better, but I’m not going to let this defeat my confidence, I know who I am and I know what I can bring to the table, it’s just a matter of doing it.”
MYLES GRAHAM
On the defensive performance on the night…
“I feel like we played well. We’re still not perfect, still not perfect football. It’s closer to the standard, but it’s still not perfect. It wasn’t good enough for the win, so it wasn’t good enough. It’s not just on the offense, it’s on us, too. We could have made some plays, capitalized on some more opportunities to make more plays and get off the field, give the offense more time with the ball. So, it was a good performance but not good enough.”
On any adjustments LSU made from last year to limit defensive pressure on the QB…
“I think it has something to do with scheme, but it’s not because of our rush hasn’t gotten any worse or anything, they were getting the ball out pretty quickly so we have to play to try and cover so our rush can try to get there quicker. So, that’s partly on me too.”
On the impact of the offensive turnovers on the defense…
“No, our defense is built to respond. Our defense is built to respond off of turnovers. What happens over there has nothing to do with us. So, we have to play to our standard and just keep playing football no matter what happens.”
On if they felt they were close to winning the game…
“I feel like it was a dog fight all game. I feel like they’re a great team, we’re a great team. We beat ourselves, honestly, on offense, defense. We got to play better on both sides of the ball. It’s a team game. It’s not just on DJ. It’s not just on the defense. It’s not just on one person. It’s on all of us and we got to all around play better. The game slipped out of our hands two weeks in a row, so that’s a problem that we’re gonna fix. We’re gonna get back to working. We’re gonna fix it.”
On rebounding from a loss like this and whether it gets any easier…
“We’ve seen how hard we work together the whole year, the whole offseason. I’ve seen how hard DJ’s worked, first person in the facility, last one to leave, so I still believe in him. I still believe in all the guys in the facility and the coaches and everybody. I’ve seen how hard we work. We bled together all year, so this is not gonna phase us. We bounced back last year. We’re gonna do it again this year.”
Transcripts courtesy ASAP | Videos courtesy GatorVision & TigerBait YouTube
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