GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The season didn’t magically come to life the moment Billy Napier told his team to “come in here as close as we can get.”

The turbulence of Florida’s 2024 season continued until a late-season rush of success led by first-year quarterback DJ Lagway and an improved defense resulted in a four-game win streak to end Napier’s third season at UF. However, after the third game, Napier and the Gators appeared in trouble following a 33-20 home loss to Texas A&M that dropped Florida to 1-2.

“I think everyone was a little bit in shock,” Napier said Friday. “Sometimes you lose, and you’re disappointed with how you lost. I think that’s where I was at. Three weeks in and we’ve lost two games, and I’m disappointed with how we lost.”

Viewers of Netflix’s docuseries “SEC Football: Any Given Saturday” got a glimpse last week of how dazed the Gators truly were. As cameras panned the locker room following the defeat, quarterback Graham Mertz and defensive lineman Tyreak Sapp, two of the team’s top leaders, looked shaken at the sudden turn of events following a hopeful preseason.

The Gators had already taken a trip on Space Mountain by the time they pulled tight around Napier. Mertz suffered a concussion in the season-opening loss to Miami, Lagway started in the win over Samford and threw for 456 yards and three scores – igniting calls for Lagway to take over as the starter – and when Mertz was able to return against the Aggies, Napier used a two-quarterback system.

With that as a backdrop and another loss on the shelf, Napier dialed up a play as old as the game with the season unraveling. He called his number.

“Our football team, and this organization, is my responsibility,” Napier said that night. “When we don’t have success, it’s my fault. It’s critical that we stick together regardless of how we played the first three weeks. It will be hell on the outside. Do not allow them to divide us.”

With the Gators set to open Napier’s fourth season in less than three weeks at home against Long Island University, the mood is once again hopeful. The Gators have their deepest and most talented roster under Napier, and on Monday, they are likely to be ranked in the AP Top 25 preseason poll for the first time during his tenure.

In looking back at what transpired last season, a visitor asked Napier if that was the first time he used the “stick together” message so early in a season.

“Yes, absolutely,” he said. “I think there’s been a few other times in Year 1 and Year 2 where I felt like, as a leader, you are trying to get your group to peak. My biggest issues are when we are not controlling the things that we can control. There are some things you can’t control. As a football coach, a lot of times I want to take the narrative away, take the excuses away, and really feel that if we can control that, if we do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll get the result we want.”

The storylines continued to twist and turn in directions Napier would have preferred to avoid, most notably a season-ending knee injury to Mertz at Tennessee, and then as Lagway began to gain footing as the starter, his injury against Georgia and unavailability in a blowout loss at Texas.

Still, despite one of the most rollercoaster seasons in program history, the Gators stuck together and found a way to beat LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State before defeating Tulane in the Gasparilla Bowl.

Napier’s candid and earnest response after the Texas A&M loss played a role.

“Guys take it to heart,” said veteran center Jake Slaughter. “When Coach Napier speaks, we all listen. He’s a guy that we all respect, we all love, for the type of man he is, the type of coach he is. I think sticking together is the biggest thing you can do in football, especially when things aren’t going well. But as soon as you really put it out there, your head coach says, ‘We need to stick together.’ He’s on to something here.”

Defensive lineman Caleb Banks recalled Napier telling the team to remain united more than once over the season. He said that while he has not watched the Netflix show, he remembered the moment.

“It means a lot, honestly, seeing how much he loves the game, how much he cares for us,’ Banks said. “That’s why I love Coach Napier. He shows his feelings. He doesn’t hide it. He’s going to express it to his players. That makes us want to play harder for him.”

When reflecting on a moment that, until a few days ago, was not public, Napier shifts the conversation from himself to the rest of those in the locker room after that gloomy day at The Swamp.

He was doing his job as a leader. The players and staff are the ones who had to make change possible.

“We just weren’t ready to play competitively, and that’s my responsibility,’ Napier said. “Ultimately, I was just trying to hold the group together, knowing that we had to turn it around tomorrow. I just look at it that I didn’t do a great job of leading the team and the organization. We weren’t ready.

“I feel a strong obligation to the players more than anybody because I see how hard they work. You are just scratching and clawing one hour at a time. Your heart is convicted about doing better for the young men who really supply the work ethic and the attitude and the effort. The reality is that our players and staff did a phenomenal job. They didn’t point fingers, they didn’t splinter, there was no blame.”

The Gators’ turnaround a season ago is history and now part of a Netflix docuseries currently ranked in the top 10 among viewers on the streaming service. The final chapter was a winning one. What they seek in 2025 is for that part of the story to continue.

If the moment after the Texas A&M loss stands as the earliest Napier ever has to rally his team together that way, he will be okay with that.

“Look, during the season, I think having a mindset that you can erase the board and start over from a preparation standpoint from Sunday to Saturday was part of that as a whole, when you are backing up as a leader,” he said. “We had a great group of kids. There was not a bad apple in the bunch. The players did a nice job of taking ownership.”