Recharged Gators Ready for Border Battle Under Billy Gonzales

After a much-needed bye week recharged and, ideally, reset Florida football following the firing of Billy Napier, the Gators are back on the field this week, getting ready for their annual border clash against Georgia on Saturday. The contest will mark Gators interim coach Billy Gonzales’ first of five games to close the season.

In the wake of everything, Gonzales, Napier and athletic director Scott Stricklin met with the team the Sunday Florida fired Napier and decided to give the group the following Monday off to decompress and figure out the direction of the program. Later in the week, Gonzales met with the members of the leadership team, asking if they wanted any changes to the daily or weekly practice schedule.

Different ideas were tossed around, but the overall consensus was to put the off-the-field distractions behind them.

“I asked if there’s any things that they would like to do as far as practice-schedule-wise. And they gave me some thoughts and ideas, but the fundamental thing that I got out of that conversation with the leadership committee was the number one thing is we want to get back out of the grass,” Gonzales said. “We want to get going. We want to start doing what we’re here to do, and that’s to play football.”

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With the adjustment week in the books, the Gators set their sights on prepping for Georgia, who they have not beaten since 2020. With EverBank Stadium beginning  renovations next year, the annual Georgia-Florida game will not return to Jacksonville until 2028. With that, Gonzales expressed his emotions entering the game and how he wants his players to embrace playing in such a unique environment.

“I’ve always remembered hearing about it when I first got to Florida many moons ago, just about when you come over the bridge and come over the river, all of a sudden you kind of just see the fans. They’ve got their tailgates set up, they’ve got the boats set up. It’s a really cool atmosphere, I’m getting chills thinking about it right now,” Gonzales said. “It’s something that you want the players to have an opportunity to experience, and … this will be the last one until it happens again.”

For many Gators, this is their last chance at getting a win against the Bulldogs. Offensive lineman Austin Barber turned down the NFL to return for his senior year to play in big games. As a Jacksonville native, he grew up going to this event with the hopes of one day walking off the field victorious. 

“Being from Jacksonville. Growing up watching these games and being my last one in the Florida uniform,” Barber said, “I think it’s going to be special.”

Despite most of Florida’s preseason goals out the window, the Gators are not lacking motivation heading into this week, and are certainly not going to quit on their season. But to get over the Georgia hump, the Gators will need to play a complete game, something Barber believes Gonzales and his coaching staff will get done.

Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Gators Football, SEC