Select comments from Billy Napier which I thought you might find interesting... That was a huge loss for Napier, who is now facing a lot of questions halfway through his second year when folks aren't as patient during the NIL/portal era where quick turnarounds will keep fans dreaming....
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BILLY NAPIER: Real quickly here, just to recap the game, there's no sugarcoating it. We started slow in the game. We took punches. We contributed to the issue by making mistakes, and the next thing you know, we're down three scores. We're on the road in the SEC, and we're in a dogfight. We can coach better. We can play better.
Ultimately we've turned the page, and that's exactly what we're focused on. We play Vanderbilt Saturday at 4:00. It's our next opportunity as a team. I think, after meeting with the leadership group, I think there is urgency. And certainly being with the staff all day yesterday, there's urgency to do everything better.
Ultimately, all these things are my responsibility, and that's what I think about. So I can do my job better for our players and for our staff. And I would say that's probably the consensus among all our players and all our staff members....
Q. You expressed a level of frustration over the loss the other day. Just overall where the program is 18 games in, .500, and the nature of some of the other losses, where is the level of frustration? There's a lot of outside questions. What's the path forward in your mind?
BILLY NAPIER: Look, reality is when you lose, there's always going to be issues that come with that. You lose as a result of not playing winning football. But you also, when you do win, you get a lot of pat on the backs, and you win as a result of playing winning football.
I think for me let's not make this any more complicated than it is, right? We lost the football game because they rushed for 9.2 a carry, we rushed for 3.41 a carry. We turned the ball over four times if you count the turnover on downs and the penalty and special teams. They turned it over zero. We lost the explosive battle. We lost the hidden yardage battle, and we lost the penalty battle.
We know what winning football looks like. Certainly Saturday was not that, wasn't it. So there's no sugarcoating this. There's no excuse. All we can do is evaluate it for what it is and do better the next time.
I'm not up here to make any excuses or talk about it. There's nobody that wants to have more success than this group of players, and ultimately I feel responsibility to do a better job for them. It's that simple.
Q. What are the signs that you're seeing that this program is heading in the right direction?
BILLY NAPIER: I'm on the inside. I have relationships with the staff, with the players. We're getting better at our process. I think that we have young players that are getting experience, that are growing and developing. I think we have veteran players that have improved as people and as leaders, and I think that we play good football at times.
Some of these questions you're asking, you weren't asking a couple of weeks ago. Ultimately it is what it is. We have to deal with the result. So when we lose, we've got to come in here every week and answer questions from the outside.
Nothing's changed here. When we play well, we do what we're supposed to do, we coach well, we're capable of winning games. There's an old Brad Stevens quote, you're really close to being a very average team, and you're really close to being a really good team, and I feel that way about our football team.
I think, if we're ready, we're capable, and we're executing and we're playing with good communication, good fundamentals and techniques, we have urgency, we have hunger about us, we play with discipline, we can be a very effective team. If we don't have those teams, we can be a very below average team as well.
Q. The offense right now, it's last in SEC in scoring points, last on third down conversions. Put your finger on anything, just evaluating five games in, where it is and what can be done to kind of spark something?
BILLY NAPIER: I think we're very inconsistent. I think we have individual players that play inconsistent, and ultimately offense is a precise game. It requires 11 players to execute.
And we need to coach better, and we need to play better. There are certain areas on our team where we can do better, and I think ultimately the back half of the year we're hopeful that we can improve.
Q. You played with such emotion and fire when you came out against Tennessee. Did you see that same thing there in Kentucky, or was there something that just fizzled and wasn't there?
BILLY NAPIER: I felt like we were lethargic early in the game, I do. So to answer your question, no, I don't think we quite had the same edge we had when we played at Tennessee.
Now, I think reality is, when you go play on the road in this league, starting fast is important every week, but when you're on the road, it's really important. All of a sudden, you take a few punches. You contribute by making your own self-inflicted mistakes. Then you look up here, and you play three, maybe four possessions in the game and you're down three scores.
Their crowd's into it, and ultimately all those things contributed to the result we got Saturday. So it's part of the things that we're trying to improve at.
Q. Oftentimes, the questions from the outside are also being contemplated inside or behind the scenes. Is there any conversation about giving up like calling duties for yourself and spreading that to somebody else and maybe you can focus more attention elsewhere?
BILLY NAPIER: I spoke about this briefly in preseason. Everything that we do is always being evaluated. I think one of the things that's challenging as a leader when you have a core responsibility, if there's things in that area that can be done better, you've got to be able to tell yourself the truth, if that makes sense.
And I would tell you I'm a lot more critical of myself than anybody on the outside is. And I said it, I've said it publicly, there's no sugarcoating this thing. We have no excuse. We can coach better, and we can play better. I'm hopeful we will do that.
Q. So you're still the play caller?
BILLY NAPIER: Yes, sir.
Q. You said after the game that you were going to take a look at just overall operationally. When you looked into those areas, what did you see? Ultimately have you determined these self-inflicted wounds are still easily fixed because of the operation that you believe in?
BILLY NAPIER: I think -- listen, the level of detail that we put into evaluating a football game every week, that process doesn't change. I know we all like to think that it does change according to the result or the outcome that we get, but that's not necessarily true. I think there's got to be some consistency and some continuity in how you do that. You've got to keep it objective to some degree.
So I think those things I talked about earlier are the things that we're evaluating, that we did evaluate. Look, your team continues to evolve, right? I think every individual player, your position group you have, your unit, all six parts of the kicking game, every part of that continues to evolve.
Look, you can play really well one week and play below average the next week. Look, not just individual players -- every one of those categories that I just talked about. They all contribute to the team.
You've got to remain objective in that part and keep it technical with the players because I do think this group that we have is working hard for us, and I think that they'll continue to get better.
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BILLY NAPIER: Real quickly here, just to recap the game, there's no sugarcoating it. We started slow in the game. We took punches. We contributed to the issue by making mistakes, and the next thing you know, we're down three scores. We're on the road in the SEC, and we're in a dogfight. We can coach better. We can play better.
Ultimately we've turned the page, and that's exactly what we're focused on. We play Vanderbilt Saturday at 4:00. It's our next opportunity as a team. I think, after meeting with the leadership group, I think there is urgency. And certainly being with the staff all day yesterday, there's urgency to do everything better.
Ultimately, all these things are my responsibility, and that's what I think about. So I can do my job better for our players and for our staff. And I would say that's probably the consensus among all our players and all our staff members....
Q. You expressed a level of frustration over the loss the other day. Just overall where the program is 18 games in, .500, and the nature of some of the other losses, where is the level of frustration? There's a lot of outside questions. What's the path forward in your mind?
BILLY NAPIER: Look, reality is when you lose, there's always going to be issues that come with that. You lose as a result of not playing winning football. But you also, when you do win, you get a lot of pat on the backs, and you win as a result of playing winning football.
I think for me let's not make this any more complicated than it is, right? We lost the football game because they rushed for 9.2 a carry, we rushed for 3.41 a carry. We turned the ball over four times if you count the turnover on downs and the penalty and special teams. They turned it over zero. We lost the explosive battle. We lost the hidden yardage battle, and we lost the penalty battle.
We know what winning football looks like. Certainly Saturday was not that, wasn't it. So there's no sugarcoating this. There's no excuse. All we can do is evaluate it for what it is and do better the next time.
I'm not up here to make any excuses or talk about it. There's nobody that wants to have more success than this group of players, and ultimately I feel responsibility to do a better job for them. It's that simple.
Q. What are the signs that you're seeing that this program is heading in the right direction?
BILLY NAPIER: I'm on the inside. I have relationships with the staff, with the players. We're getting better at our process. I think that we have young players that are getting experience, that are growing and developing. I think we have veteran players that have improved as people and as leaders, and I think that we play good football at times.
Some of these questions you're asking, you weren't asking a couple of weeks ago. Ultimately it is what it is. We have to deal with the result. So when we lose, we've got to come in here every week and answer questions from the outside.
Nothing's changed here. When we play well, we do what we're supposed to do, we coach well, we're capable of winning games. There's an old Brad Stevens quote, you're really close to being a very average team, and you're really close to being a really good team, and I feel that way about our football team.
I think, if we're ready, we're capable, and we're executing and we're playing with good communication, good fundamentals and techniques, we have urgency, we have hunger about us, we play with discipline, we can be a very effective team. If we don't have those teams, we can be a very below average team as well.
Q. The offense right now, it's last in SEC in scoring points, last on third down conversions. Put your finger on anything, just evaluating five games in, where it is and what can be done to kind of spark something?
BILLY NAPIER: I think we're very inconsistent. I think we have individual players that play inconsistent, and ultimately offense is a precise game. It requires 11 players to execute.
And we need to coach better, and we need to play better. There are certain areas on our team where we can do better, and I think ultimately the back half of the year we're hopeful that we can improve.
Q. You played with such emotion and fire when you came out against Tennessee. Did you see that same thing there in Kentucky, or was there something that just fizzled and wasn't there?
BILLY NAPIER: I felt like we were lethargic early in the game, I do. So to answer your question, no, I don't think we quite had the same edge we had when we played at Tennessee.
Now, I think reality is, when you go play on the road in this league, starting fast is important every week, but when you're on the road, it's really important. All of a sudden, you take a few punches. You contribute by making your own self-inflicted mistakes. Then you look up here, and you play three, maybe four possessions in the game and you're down three scores.
Their crowd's into it, and ultimately all those things contributed to the result we got Saturday. So it's part of the things that we're trying to improve at.
Q. Oftentimes, the questions from the outside are also being contemplated inside or behind the scenes. Is there any conversation about giving up like calling duties for yourself and spreading that to somebody else and maybe you can focus more attention elsewhere?
BILLY NAPIER: I spoke about this briefly in preseason. Everything that we do is always being evaluated. I think one of the things that's challenging as a leader when you have a core responsibility, if there's things in that area that can be done better, you've got to be able to tell yourself the truth, if that makes sense.
And I would tell you I'm a lot more critical of myself than anybody on the outside is. And I said it, I've said it publicly, there's no sugarcoating this thing. We have no excuse. We can coach better, and we can play better. I'm hopeful we will do that.
Q. So you're still the play caller?
BILLY NAPIER: Yes, sir.
Q. You said after the game that you were going to take a look at just overall operationally. When you looked into those areas, what did you see? Ultimately have you determined these self-inflicted wounds are still easily fixed because of the operation that you believe in?
BILLY NAPIER: I think -- listen, the level of detail that we put into evaluating a football game every week, that process doesn't change. I know we all like to think that it does change according to the result or the outcome that we get, but that's not necessarily true. I think there's got to be some consistency and some continuity in how you do that. You've got to keep it objective to some degree.
So I think those things I talked about earlier are the things that we're evaluating, that we did evaluate. Look, your team continues to evolve, right? I think every individual player, your position group you have, your unit, all six parts of the kicking game, every part of that continues to evolve.
Look, you can play really well one week and play below average the next week. Look, not just individual players -- every one of those categories that I just talked about. They all contribute to the team.
You've got to remain objective in that part and keep it technical with the players because I do think this group that we have is working hard for us, and I think that they'll continue to get better.
