Coach Dan Mullen has certainly brought UF back to national relevance during his three years in Gainesville. He inherited a program that went 4-7 in 2017, the second losing season in five years after the Gators hadn’t had one since 1979.
Mullen’s squads have appeared in three-straight New Year’s Six Bowls (winning the first two) and has two top-10 finishes.
But where does that body of work stack up against the entire college football landscape? ESPN has an answer.
It grouped all 130 FBS teams into different tiers. The top tier, which contains Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and Oklahoma, is considered the “championship favorites.”
Florida lands just below in Tier 2, along with North Carolina, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State, Texas and Texas A&M. This tier is considered “knocking on the door.” Here’s the description of the tier.
If talent and opportunity are the ultimate arbiters of who wins a national championship, these teams meet the criteria, but they also come with a few more significant question marks than those in Tier 1. All have at least three top-20 recruiting classes over the past four seasons. All have had at least one New Year’s Six appearance in the past two years. All but Penn State and Oregon won at least seven games in 2020 (though the Ducks won the Pac-12 and the Nittany Lions finished on a four-game winning streak).
Florida has had more consistent success than perhaps any team in this tier other than Notre Dame, but as ESPN points out later in the article, the Gators have quarterback questions and must replace a litany of talent, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
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