Billy Napier stressed the human element to football Sunday on the eve of his second preseason camp.
There’s a sign in the Florida Gators’ war room that speaks to the state of the program entering Billy Napier’s second season.
We’re building a team, not collecting talent.
It’s not an either/or, of course, and the teams Florida aspires to be — Georgia and Alabama — build a team while collecting talent.
But if you listened to players and coaches Sunday on the eve of preseason camp, it’s clear the Gators are emphasizing the first part. For better or worse.
“Building a team is building the football part, but more importantly I think it’s building that human element,” Napier said. “You’re sitting in that locker room before those games, you’re looking around the room, there is absolute trust with every person in that room. That’s what we’re in the process of building.”
They’re building it deliberately, through things like the know-your-teammates quiz. In one-on-one meetings, a coach will flash a face on a screen and give a player a few seconds to identify that person and his or her hometown. Players are graded on their answers, and one poorly performing group had to redo the exercise.
The faces aren’t just of players; there are support staffers, too. Napier challenges his team to know everyone, including student trainers and custodial workers.
“You want a place where everybody’s role is appreciated and everyone feels like they can make an impact,” Napier said, “and they might just be the difference.”
It’s fair to wonder how knowing the name of a janitor will be the difference in a third-down stop at Kentucky or a red-zone conversion against Tennessee. When the Gators reported to preseason camp last year, they praised Napier’s attention to detail, down to making sure every player’s socks were the same color. That uniform uniformity couldn’t prevent Florida’s second consecutive losing season.
But defensive back Jaydon Hill sees signs that Napier’s team-building approach is working.
“I feel like it just makes the team closer, and you play better just because like the person beside you, you really know him …” Hill said. “I feel like this year like in the locker room, everybody is just getting along, everybody is talking.”
Napier makes sure of it. The Gators randomly arranged roommate groupings at Tolbert Hall for the first week of camp to force players to interact with someone they might not know well. If the team becomes stronger as a result, maybe the improved camaraderie can be the difference between victory and defeat against Utah in Week 1 or Tennessee in Week 3.
Florida, to some degree, is counting on it.
Though Napier praised some of the physical transformations his players made this offseason — King High product Tony Livingston has gained 28 pounds of muscle since January — he and the Gators mostly talked up their improved chemistry and culture Sunday.
“To me, it’s night and day,” offensive coordinator Rob Sale said.
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Source : Tampa Bay Times