| #5 Florida Gators |
| #1 in SEC |
For all of the “Texas is back” or “Michigan is back” or “Notre Dame is back” talk we seem to get, Florida won 8 of 18 SEC titles from 1991-2008, including 3 national titles, playing in current New Years Six bowls in 13 of 18 years. Even the three Zook years resulted in New Years Day bowls and top 25 finishes. Then from 2010-2017 (8 seasons), Florida won no conference titles, finished unranked five times, missed bowls twice, and played in the Birmingham Bowl once. Yet in just two seasons Dan Mullen has gone 21-5, with a pair of top 7 finishes, and a pair of New Years Six bowl wins. By comparison, that’s as many top 7 finishes and New Years Six bowl wins as Texas has in the past 14 seasons, Michigan in the past 21 seasons, and Notre Dame in the last 29 seasons. Yet, I didn’t hear any “Florida is back” talk, they just were. That said, Florida hasn’t been to an SEC Championship Game since getting blasted 54-16 by Alabama in the 2016 game, marking their first three year gap in appearances in the three decades the game has existed. It’s no coincidence that it has coincided with a three game losing streak in the Cocktail Party. Getting back to Atlanta means winning that game, otherwise it will be their first four game losing streak in the series since losing six in a row from 1978-83. Dan Mullen is an offensive guy, and while the advanced metrics still really liked his first two Gator offenses (ranking both in the top 15 in SP+, despite being out of the top 25 in ypp), it will need to take the next step to elite for Florida to get past the Bulldogs. Kyle Trask, taking over as the starting quarterback once Franks got injured, got off to a bit of a slow start, being asked to do very little against Kentucky, but then taking off the following week against Tennessee. His low QBR the rest of the year was 59.4 against Auburn, finishing 10th in the nation in the metric. He might not have even been the best Kyle on the offense, with sophomore tight end Kyle Trask perhaps being the best tight end in the country. They just need to get a LOT more from their backs and receivers after finishing #85 nationally in ypc, and their leading receiver, the graduated Van Jefferson, barely edged out Pitts for the team lead in receiving yards. Miami transfer Lorenzo Lingard just learned his waiver was approved, so he likely immediately jumps to the top of the running back depth chart. If Penn State transfer receiver Justin Shorter gets the same news, that should help as well. Although Shorter, who was the #1 receiver prospect coming out of high school struggled to even get meaningful snaps in Happy Valley. The defense, which has been elite for the past two years, won’t be able to shoulder as much of the load this year, with the graduation of 5 seniors, plus the early departure of cornerback C.J. Henderson. David Reese II and Jonathan Greenard alone are nearly impossible to replace, which Reese finishing with 40 more tackles than anyone else on the roster, and Greenard with more than twice as many sacks. Georgia transfer Brenton Cox will be asked to immediately replace Greenard’s pass rushing ability, but the leadership of Reese, and the ability of Henderson to shut down half the field, will not be as easily replaced. The secondary is in slightly better shape, with the return of ballhawk safety Donovan Stiner, to pair with Shawn Davis, and Marco Wilson, who toyed with leaving early. True freshman cornerback Kaiir Elam came on strong late, but with Henderson’s departure, his assignments became a lot tougher.
| KEY PLAYERS |
| QB | Kyle Trask, Senior |
| TE | Kyle Pitts, Junior |
| K | Evan McPherson, Junior |
| . |
| LB | Ventrell Miller, Junior |
| S | Donovan Stiner, Senior |
| S | Shawn Davis, Senior |
