Billy Gonzales, in his third tour of duty as a Florida football coach, connects to the Gators' championship past. "I love Florida." But his focus is on putting this team in an advantageous position to win the next five games.
Interim Florida football coach Billy Gonzales is no stranger to Gator Nation.
In his third tour at Gainesville, Gonzales is in Year 12 of service.
And as Florida struggles to return to relevance as a national college football power, Gonzales is a link to the Gators' glorious past: He was an assistant coach for Urban Meyer's two championship teams.
In his introductory press conference Monday as Florida's immediate replacement for the fired Billy Napier, Gonzales said:
- that quarterbacks coach Ryan O'Hara will be Florida's offensive play-caller;
- that offensive game plans will be a collaboration between O'Hara, offensive coordinator Russ Callaway, and Gonzales;
- that he spoke with Meyer, one of his mentors, about the task ahead with the Gators; and
- that his team will "play for the patch (the Gator logo)."
Here are the highlights from Gonzales' first Q&A with media.
The new play-caller
"Coach Callaway's gonna be the OC, but I'm gonna let Coach O'Hara call the plays. And I think the most important piece that is there's a rhythm piece between him (O'Hara) and DJ (Lagway, the quarterback). I think it's really important that the quarterback is an extension of his teacher. ... For the next five games, I think that's gonna be critical. DJ's got a great relationship with both (Callaway and O'Hara), but I think it's gonna be an opportunity ... to let DJ be familiar with that voice in the practice setting and in the game."
Reaching out to Urban Meyer
"I spoke with coach Meyer last night. ... He was my position coach in college. Obviously I had a chance to work with him at three different stops. I wanted to have a chance to talk to him about the team concept and one of the unique things he talked about is you're walking into a situation, it's not the perfect situation for you, Billy, but at the same time you gotta make sure you're here for the players.
"We started talking about the two national championships and I was very fortunate to be a part of those teams. We weren't perfect back then either. We had to fight. ... We had to change some things. ... We utilized the personnel that allowed us to be successful.
"It's not a perfect situation, but nothing in life is. The one thing I do know for sure is that these players are resilient, they're tough, they're competitors, and they don't have quit anywhere in their DNA."
On remaining at Florida
"I love Florida. This is a special place to me. My daughter was born here 20 years ago. I've been here with three different head coaches. I've won two national championships. Not just University of Florida football, but (athletic director Scott) Stricklin talked about the academics, talked about all the other athletic programs here (49 national titles), this is a special place.
"A goal of mine obviously would be to stay here, but my first goal is put a fantastic group of players on that football field."
"Play for the patch"
"I told these guys yesterday ... I always talk about you play for the patch, and that means a lot to me. It means a lot to our players. ... We play for the patch (he pointed to the Gators logo on his chest) and you represent the name on the back of your jersey. I think when you put them together, you get something special."
Audition for other coaching jobs?
"I wanna win. I wanna win here. ... I wanna take care of these guys over there (pointing to DJ Lagway, Myles Graham, and Jake Slaughter)."