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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday, embattled Florida coach Billy Napier got a vote of confidence from athletic director Scott Stricklin, who announced that Napier “will continue as head football coach of the Florida Gators,” citing the progress the team has made this season.
On Saturday, a banged-up Florida team got a reminder of just how far it needs to go, losing to No. 5 Texas 49-17 in a game the Gators trailed 42-0. Florida fell to 4-5 and 2-4 in the SEC.
“Overall, [it] got out of hand in the first half,” Napier said. “You look up and the game is over. We have to evaluate the effort. We have to evaluate point-of-attack issues we had, and just flat-out have to play better.”
He spoke for the first time since Stricklin’s letter to fans, where he said he wanted to take a “disciplined, stable approach,” asking fans to “continue standing behind Billy and his dedicated team while we work together to build a championship program.”
Napier said after Saturday’s loss he was appreciative of the chance to continue trying to straighten out the program’s woes.
“Well first of all, I’m thankful for our 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, the character there at the core of that group, their leadership. I do think that when you look at the roster as a whole, we have a ton of young talent, and I think they’ll continue to develop and they’re learning. They’re going through this experience, and I think that’ll prove beneficial in the future.”
Stricklin’s statement cited close losses to No. 7 Tennessee and No. 3 Georgia as reasons for optimism for the future of Napier’s young team. But this was not a close loss. The Gators’ halftime deficit was the largest in a Florida conference game over the past 20 years.
Freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, who was carted off the field after a hamstring injury against Georgia last week, warmed up but was unable to play, after the Gators already lost starter Graham Mertz for the season with a knee injury. The Gators’ starter, Aidan Warner, is a former walk-on, who transferred from Yale. He went 12 of 25 for 132 yards and two interceptions.
“Aidan fought his tail off out there today, did some good things for a guy who’s making his first start against a really good defense, one of the better defenses in the country,” Napier said. “It was good to see him move the team a little bit in the second half.”
Napier said Lagway said he felt as good as he has all week during pregame, but the coach decided he wasn’t quite ready to go.
“I think you risk putting him out there with the soft tissue injury. He’s not quite ready to do it, but we’re hopeful he’s made some progress.”
Meanwhile, the Texas offense scorched the Gators’ defense for 562 yards, as Quinn Ewers completed 19 of 27 attempts for 333 yards and a career-high five touchdowns, with two other likely touchdown passes bouncing off the hands of receiver DeAndre Moore.
At halftime, the Longhorns had 353 yards on 35 plays, averaged 5.6 yards per carry and a Texas offense that had struggled to break off big plays of late had 297 yards passing as Ewers had one of his best games of the season.
“We didn’t affect the quarterback,” Napier said. “You look up and it’s 10 yards a play in the first half.”
Napier, in his third season at Florida, fell to 15-19 with the Gators, with home games remaining against LSU and Ole Miss and a road trip to Florida State.
“You go into the game, understand you’re playing with your third quarterback and have to defend them, and we did not do that,” Napier said. “So we lost a little bit of our stinger because of that.”
Despite the result, in the postgame news conference, wide receiver Chimere Dike and linebacker Shemar James expressed what James called the “relief” of Stricklin’s letter in support of Napier.
“I have full belief in him,” Dike said. “I think that today was obviously tough for our team, but we’re going in the right direction. We’ve got a lot of young guys who continue to improve and I’m excited to see him in the future of this program.”
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