Florida, while having drawn plenty of ire for not playing any OOC games outside of the state, had intelligent and/or lucky schedule-making these past 30 years.
The "Big 3" opponents, in terms of quality, have been Tennessee, LSU, and FSU. Recently, Tennessee has been replaced by UGA as a tough out, but let's focus on those 3 from the recent past. They were spaced out well - Tennessee in Sept, LSU in late Oct, and FSU in late Nov.
Backloading a schedule seems odd to me, and while some or much of it is in the hands of the conference, a program like OSU could steer some games here or there.