"It’s unacceptable": Billy Napier blasts Florida DL for ugly spitting incident in shocking loss to South Florida

The final few minutes of the Florida Gators' clash with the South Florida Bulls were not a good advertisement for Billy Napier's program. One moment talked about after the game is a spitting incident on the final drive of the game.

During this drive, in which the Bulls had possession needing a field goal to win the game, Gators defensive lineman Brendon Brett spat in the face of South Florida's offensive lineman Cole Skinner. Brett was ejected, and the Bulls benefited from a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty. This helped them get into field goal range, and soon after, Nico Gramatica kicked the game-winning field goal for the Bulls.

After the game, the Gators coach said:

"Well I haven’t had that conversation with him yet. And we’ll take a good look at it, but it’s unacceptable. I think we have a lot of players in that room as well that have the same belief that it’s unacceptable. When a guy does something like that, he’s compromising the team, he’s putting himself before the team, and everything the game is about, you’re compromising it. So there will be lessons to be learned there. Yeah, it’s that simple.”

If the 15-yard penalty had not been called, the Bulls would not have been able to comfortably advance the ball into field goal range. This would have meant that the Gators narrowly won.

This defeat destroyed any momentum that the No. 13 Gators had coming into this week, and has only added more pressure onto Napier.

Billy Napier blames coaching for Florida's penalties

The spitting incident was not the only penalty the Gators were handed in the defeat. They lost 103 yards from 11 penalties against them. Billy Napier believes that most of these penalties were down to his coaching.

“(But) they’re under my leadership, (and) it’s ultimately my responsibility," the coach said. "We need to eliminate the false starts, we need to eliminate the personal fouls. We did have a substitution penalty as well. So those are the ones as coaches that we have to take responsibility for. … I think the players make mistakes as part of the game, but I do think that ultimately it is my responsibility, so I think it is coaching."

Next week, the Florida Gators face the LSU Tigers. This will be a tough challenge for Florida. They must not repeat their performance from this weekend if they want to be competitive.