The 2020 college football season’s first weekend is officially in the books after a dozen schools took to the gridiron on Saturday to play ball amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Memphis Tigers — the only ranked team that played — defeated Arkansas State at home to open the year with a win.
Despite sitting out until their Sept. 26 matchup on the road with the Ole Miss Rebels, the Florida Gators are ranked fourth in the nation in ESPN’s college football power rankings for Week 1. Southeastern Conference colleague the Alabama Crimson Tide leads off the list in the top spot, with the Clemson Tigers in second and cross-border rival the Georgia Bulldogs just ahead of the Gators ranked third.
Here is what ESPN senior writer Chris Low had to say about Florida’s position in the rankings.
Georgia isn’t the only SEC Eastern Division team with big aspirations this season. Florida has a chance to be just as good, maybe even better, especially if redshirt junior quarterback Kyle Trask makes the kind of jump those in and around the Gators’ program expect him to. This will be his third season under Dan Mullen, who knows a thing or two about developing quarterbacks. Todd Grantham is one of college football’s best defensive coordinators, and the Gators have been masterful at playing pressure defense on his watch.
While these rankings excluded teams from conferences currently sitting out, i.e. the Big Ten and Pac-12, it is worth noting that six of the top-10 teams in this week’s rankings are from the SEC, with the LSU Tigers, Texas A&M Aggies and Auburn Tigers rounding out the list at seventh, eighth and tenth, respectively.
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