Florida football took a disappointing loss to South Florida, as they were defeated 18-16. With the loss, it was their first defeat at home against a school from Florida that wasn't Florida State or Miami since 1938 when they lost to Stetson.
Nobody probably feels it more than head coach Billy Napier, and he spoke about the loss after the game.
“It's not good enough,” Napier said via ESPN's Mark Schlabach. “We've got work to do. You guys know it. I know it. Anybody that watched it knows it. We got to take ownership of it, and we got to go back to work. That's it.”
Since Napier has coached the past four seasons, his record is 20-20. This is the fourth straight season that they've started with a 1-1 record, and things are not going to get any easier with their next four games against No. 3 LSU, at No. 5 Miami, home against No. 7 Texas, and at No. 19 Texas A&M.
Napier knows that the team deserves any criticism that comes their way, and the hope is that they can bounce back and get into the winning column again. If not, there could be a chance that Florida goes in a different direction without Napier, but they'd owe him a $20.4 million buyout if he's fired.
“We created it. We deserve it,” Napier said. “If you play football like that, you're going to be criticized. It comes with the territory, right? Only thing you can do is go get it fixed, and that's what we'll start working on tomorrow.”
As for South Florida, they came into the game a 18.5 point underdog, and pulled off their second upset in back-to-back weeks, and they became the fourth team in the AP poll era to win their first two games against ranked opponents while being unranked.
Next week, they'll try to do the same thing against No. 5 Miami.
