Florida coach Napier searches for peace in a stormy season

Billy Napier hears it. So does Damieon George Jr. and Aaron Chiles, who all addressed the media Wednesday evening, pouring out tales of resilience.

The current Gators football era is reaching an ear-piercing crescendo.

With Mississippi State looming this weekend, USA Today reported Wednesday that boosters met with Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin and informed him that their financial support hinges on the Gators’ football program making a change. Needless to say, a fog of pressure remains across the Heavener Football Center.

“Any time you have a tough performance,” Napier said, “there’s always going to be a little bit of noise.”

The way, though, that you approach dealing with such weight is multifaceted. One option includes a brief connection to a sixth-century school of thought and a lot of reading.

Napier spends his mornings with the written word, and his most recent novel of choice is Phil Jackson’s “Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.” The writer, Hugh Delehanty, outlined how the piece is set on the underlying principles of Zen Buddhism.

“We develop a way of being that haunts us for the rest of our lives,” Delehanty writes, almost as if teaching a class. “The inner critic. … The ego is constantly trying to protect itself.”

In college athletics, social media makes coaches and athletes celebrities, adding to the mental toll. With Florida’s season shifting, “Fire Billy Napier” protests have begun, and media discusses a possible change to team leadership. To stay focused on the next game, daily checkpoints and mind-set are crucial.

Napier outlined how his daily reading has taught him about “how to move on to the next game.” But Delehanty thinks there’s much more that applies to UF’s current situation.

Away from personal criticism, maintaining an even emotional state in times of concern — a central piece of Zen — can go a long way for players who are embroiled by repeated errors. Florida was 1 of 10 on third down and didn’t cross Texas A&M’s 40-yard line in the second half last week.

“I just try to just approach everything the same,” said George, a Florida offensive lineman. “Get back to work. Come in, win or lose. I know it’s a lot of things I’m going to have to correct, win or loss.”

While Florida’s issues have hit a national scale, the burden is carried by each player and coach singularly.

In the novel, Jackson preached practicing in the dark and silent meetings, forcing teams to connect with one another when struggling, and Delehanty outlined the supporting principles. Napier’s squad almost definitely isn’t turning off the lights, but the importance of player leadership, which was also a focus of Jackson’s, has reverberated through Napier’s most recent conversations.

So maybe Napier’s reading is actually sinking in a little more than he thinks. He’s even starting to sound like Jackson.

“There’s no happiness without disappointment, right?” Napier said Wednesday, hours after USA Today’s report. “There’s no growth without struggle. There’s no good days without bad days.”

But the bad days have been plentiful, and the boiling point was predictable.

When Florida opened Napier’s third season uninspired and struggled to pull above .500 for most of last fall, similar pleas from boosters were widely reported. And then there were the injuries during the offseason, with UF’s prospective football savior, quarterbackDJ Lagway, missing the majority of spring practices and fall camp with an ink-sprawled doctor’s note. He’s looked nothing like himself this season, despite stringing together his two strongest performances of the season during the past two weeks (each with over 240 yards and two touchdowns).

This conclusion to Napier’s story in Gainesville — stark, unshifting — was spelled out. Nevertheless, it’s jarring in its full glory. And any hope depends on immediate adjustments.

“We just got to go back to work every week,” George said. “They’re gonna talk about you when you do good, talk about you when you do bad. Just knowing who we are as a group and knowing who you are as a person. Just focus on your own self.”

Florida’s “own self” might be the problem, though, no matter a win Saturday.

The Gators are favored by 9.5 points, and remain 20-5 in Homecoming contests this century. Not to mention, Mississippi State’s leading rusher, Fluff Bothwell (sixth in the SEC with 495 yards), is out with a leg injury. But this might be it, especially as Florida’s tied for the worst record in the conference, which it hasn’t finished a season holding since 1979.

And Napier, while all the noise echoes, well, he’s going to keep reading.