Florida Gators Welcome an Emphasis on Discipline Within Program

A new era of Florida Gators football will feature a renewed interest in discipline at the forefront.

Out with the old, and in with the new.

The Florida Gators have set up shop for their first fall camp under new head coach Billy Napier. It isn't just Napier and an army of new staff members that will be leading the change in Gainesville, though, it's also the philosophies that Napier will impart to the program and athletes. 

Those philosophies include the wholesale changes that will come in the form of preaching and practicing more discipline, instilling it within the program.

That work began during the spring, the first opportunity Napier and his staff could see the players in action, and it will continue throughout the fall as the team prepares for their first game of the season.

Multiple players, including defensive lineman Gervon Dexter, offensive lineman O'Cyrus Torrence and punter Jeremy Crawshaw have spoken at length this fall about the ongoings of the program as they pertain to discipline.

Numerous coaches, including Napier, associate head coach and director of strength and conditioning Mark Hocke, safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney, defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator Sean Spencer and offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Rob Sale, have chimed in similarly.

"I think the best quote that I have on discipline is Mike Tyson said it. 'You got to do things you hate to do like you love doing it,'" Hocke said when asked about discipline last week. 

The players have had to buy into it, and they understand the differences in philosophy.

Gators DL Gervon Dexter meets with the media to open fall camp / Zach Goodall

"Of course, at first it was new stuff, but it's been a whole switch. As far as everything we do, coach Napier said we're all outside in white socks, you won't see a blue sock out there," Dexter explained on the same note.

"That's been the main thing, just big on discipline, doing what he says, and that's been a huge change in the switch so far."

Dexter went on to explain that the team's new approach is uniformity, coming together as one and doing everything the same. That helps with little things such as jumping offside or any extra activity on a play: Doing the small things incorrectly can lead to losses.

Florida has fallen victim to that, even recently. Last year, in the program's 20-13 loss against Kentucky, the Gators accounted for a staggering 15 penalties for 115 yards. That included a pitiful eight false starts on key drives that ultimately ended in one field goal, four punts and a turnover on downs.

That has got to be a thing of the past, and Napier is determined to make it so. When fall camp began, Napier handed players papers with each penalty assessed, highlighted to show the penalties that lost yardage that they already had - such as a false start foul.

The discourse continued as camp has gone on, with more players, including tight end Dante Zanders, running back Nay'Quan Wright and linebacker Amari Burney each talking about the discipline being instilled within the program.

“[The issue] wasn’t consistency, it was the discipline. We had a lot of offsides and everything. Coach Napier came in and [preached[ discipline," Zanders said on Saturday.

"He showed us the other day before we went out to practice all of the penalties that we had last season. He was just showing us that it wasn’t big penalties that hurt us. It was just all undisciplined penalties — offsides, holding, things that we can learn not to do.”

Zanders admitted that it was "shocking and embarrassing" to see the penalties on paper the way Napier showed it, but that's what has to happen in order for the program to get back to doing what it needs to.

"They went by game. The first game, FAU, he had which penalties we had and then the second game, USF, which penalties those were. He just highlighted all the undisciplined penalties. That way we can tell which ones were undisciplined and which ones were, I don’t want to say OK, but like actual penalties or flags.”

The need for discipline isn't just a way for Napier and his staff to control the team, though. It translates directly to the field with players holding each other accountable.

"We all have to wear the same gear to practice. Everybody has to have white cleats, white socks. It’s kind of like who cares about cleats? But that’s just the little things you focus on that’s building up to this and having everybody on the same page,” Wright said on Saturday.

"It’s easy to do the little things, and it’s even easier not to do the little things," noted Burney. 

Spencer, who spent the past two years at the NFL level, coaching the New York Giants defensive line, said that the peer pressure of not letting your teammate down works when establishing discipline.

"What you want to try to do is you want to make them try to not want to let their teammate down by failing discipline," he said last week. "I think the peer pressure is one of the tougher things that we can do. I [saw] it in the NFL. I [saw] it at other levels. So that's how we try to stay consistent with that."

The changes are intentional, and it's something the program will be better off for in the long run. Though the white socks appear to be silly at first glance, it all matters, Napier said on Tuesday when asked about the changes.

"I think the key is that you provide structure and routine, that you define expectations for the players. And there are some detailed things we ask them to do, and they do matter, but the most important part of those little detailed things that we ask them to do is they have to make a decision to do it."

Now, the Gators will enter a new era of Florida football, but this time they hope the little things are not forgotten as often as they were in the past.

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