Florida football’s newly anointed interim head coach, Billy Gonzales, spoke at his first-ever SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday.
The wide receivers coach took over for Billy Napier after the program’s Week 8 victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the Swamp. However, that triumph was more or less Pyrrhic as the Gators nearly let another game slip away in the final minutes.
The Orange and Blue won the day, but they lost their fourth-year skipper.
This week, Florida has a bye, giving the Gators some time to prepare for their Week 10 rivalry matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville. Take a look below at everything Gonzales had to offer in his first SEC teleconference.
Billy Gonzales’ opening statement
“Good morning. After the last few days, we’re moving forward, and I’m very confident in our players and staff to make the most of our season, starting next week with Georgia. One of the first tasks for me was organizing our offensive staff moving forward.
“Coach Russ Callaway will continue to oversee the offense as offensive coordinator, as he has all season long, while Ryan O’Hara will call the plays from the booth, allowing him to be next to coach Callaway during the game. With that happening, coach Steve Spurrier Jr. will take more of an active role working on the field with the quarterbacks, and will also be involved with gameday management, while coach (Jabbar) Juluke and coach (Rob) Sale will spearhead our run game.
“As I move more to a managerial role for the program, coach Chad Lucas, David Doeker and Eric Kiesau will work collaboratively with the wide receivers. Defensively, coach (Ron) Roberts and his staff have done a fantastic job this season and the defensive staff will continue as it has all season long. As far as this week, we’ve begun preparation for a terrific Georgia team and we will get back to practice this afternoon.”
On bye week structure, attitude of the team
“We had the players in yesterday, we had an opportunity to see them back in the building. Get around them, lift, meet, put last week’s game to rest, and obviously get a chance to visit with them a little bit. Obviously, we’re in a different situation than most teams, we understand that right now. But they’re excited, one of the things they talked about was getting back on the football field today.
“We’ll be out there practicing today, we’ll be out there practicing again tomorrow, as well. But the biggest thing is they wanted to get out there on the football field amongst each other, and get back to doing what they love to do, and that’s playing football.”
On Ryan O’Hara in the booth, is he calling plays himself?
“I think it’s going to be a flow. I talked about Russ being our offensive coordinator, and Russ does an incredible job. He leads the offense. As I’m speaking to you now they’re in there game planning together as an offensive staff, so he’s going to be heavily involved with everything that we put on paper.
“Russ has got the OK, final OK, on it. And I think it’s just important, from my standpoint, where we are at right now. Again, we are in a different situation than most teams out there across the country. But Ryan O’Hara coaches DJ (Lagway) on a daily basis in the meeting room, and he has that voice and that relationship right now with him, with the ability to speak to the quarterback through a microphone.
“I want it to be familiar to DJ coming across as somebody that he’s heard the voice over and over, throughout meetings, throughout practice, and then on game day.”
Are there fundamental changes on the horizon?
“I think it’s a balance. I think Coach Napier did an incredible job. He’s an incredible man. He’s an incredible coach. The program that he’s built here, fundamentally it’s laid out, it’s fantastic and it’s going to, going to continue to run.
“What we’re trying to do right now is tweak a couple things so we can put our players in a better situation to go out and make plays and perform at a higher level. We all understand that’s what we need to do. So that’s the No. 1 goal for us as a coaching staff right now.”
On Steve Spurrier Jr.’s involvement this week
“First and foremost, Coach Spurrier has been with us all season long, and he’s been working with the quarterbacks, with Coach O’Hara. So, this has been something that allows us to move Coach O’Hara upstairs and then have somebody that’s been communicating, been in the locker room, been on the video iPad with DJ throughout the season anyways. They’ve got that relationship.
“And, again, when you start talking about communication with the quarterback, it’s all about, in my opinion, having that same voice over and over. And it’s going to be the same voice that Coach Spurrier is going to be relaying, and it’s going to be the same voice that he’s heard in the meetings with Coach O’Hara. It should be very fluid, and I think it’s going to help us.
“Coach Spurrier has got a wealth of knowledge. So, he’ll be on the ground, and in between series, he’ll be the voice that gets to talk, obviously, and gets to start and sit down with DJ and the quarterbacks and review the film.”
What Gonzales likes about how Spurrier Jr. sees the game
“Whenever you’re around one of the greatest offensive minds in history, it’s obviously going to run off on you, as well. I’ve known Coach for a long time. I know he’s a competitor. He’s active, actively involved in the pass game.
“He’s been actively involved in mentoring some great football players across his time. So, we’re just super excited. The one thing I want to say is he’s been involved with the quarterbacks over and over throughout the season. I think that’s the big point right now that we’re getting to is he’s been involved, but now, he’s gonna have more of a role because he’s going to be down there on the field, with the quarterback looking in his eyes and getting a chance to talk to him and review the film that’s being relayed through Russ and through Ryan.
“So, it gives us another opportunity to have a veteran coach working with a quarterback in a situation, like I said, we’re a little different right now. I think it’s going to put us in a great situation to help DJ and the quarterbacks perform on the football field.”
On how quickly he begins Georgia prep
“I think we’re spearheading that right now, to be honest with you. It’s a bye week, and you want to get players healthy, and you want to have them get an opportunity to get some rest. But at the same time, it always gives you an opportunity to get a head start. You’re talking about a football team that is extremely, extremely good.
“Obviously, coach (Kirby) Smart. He’s been there, it’s his 10th year. His record is 111-20. So they’ve done a really good job. They’ve got some really good players. They’ve got guys that are returning. They’re big, they’re strong, they’re fast.
“So, we’ve looked at the film. We’ve started looking at the film as an offensive and defensive staff already to try to put us in an advantageous position right now for the next couple of days as we get on the field. We’ll start to try to implement some of the game plan, not all of it, but just kind of give us a head start. And then we’ll start to grind again, just like we normally would to get a head start.”
On taking confidence from last year’s game
“Well, every year it’s a different team and it’s a different culture, a different vibe. This team here, I’ve talked to the team the other day, you know, they have no quit in their DNA. They’re an extremely talented group of players that are hungry to get back on the football field and that’s what we’re focusing on right now. ‘
“We’re focusing on us, we’re focusing on the team, we’re focusing on getting better and the opportunity. Every time we walk on the football field, it presents us an opportunity to do that, to get better, and that’s all we’re focusing on right now. We’ve gotta focus on ourselves.”
On the decision to move O’Hara upstairs
“Well, I think it’s twofold. As a coach, we had talked about it prior to, getting that visual confirmation of getting a chance to look at the quarterback face-to-face in between series. But he wanted to go upstairs and thought it would give him an advantageous opportunity to see what the defense is doing. And I think it’s actually going to play out pretty darn good.
“He’ll be sitting right next to our offensive coordinator, Russ Callaway. They’ll be sitting up there. They’ll have a chance to converse in between series and again, like I said, adding Coach Spurrier down below just gives us another opportunity to do that. So I think it’s a win-win situation for us.”
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida football’s Billy Gonzales speaks at first SEC head coach teleconference pre-Week 9
Reporting by Adam Dubbin, Gators Wire / Gators Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
