The Florida Gators have dropped out of the AP Poll Top 25 after falling to the Tennessee Volunteers in a 38-33 defeat on the road. The Gators received 56 votes despite the loss.
The Orange and Blue started the season unranked but jumped to No. 12 after beating then No. 7 Utah Utes in a thrilling 29-26 victory in [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag]’s first game as Florida head coach. They then dropped to No. 18 after losing to Kentucky in their SEC opener 26-16.
The Gator’s offense put up a vastly different performance than they did in last week’s win over USF. [autotag]Anthony Richardson[/autotag] had the best outing of his short career passing, with 515 all-purpose yards and four total touchdowns. Napier continued to roll the dice on fourth down, with Florida going five-for-six on those conversion attempts. The running game wasn’t as strong as it was in previous weeks, but the consequences weren’t felt as much since the passing game was operating on full cylinders.
Defensively, the secondary looked lost. Josh Heupel’s up-tempo offense took full advantage of a Gators secondary that has struggled this season. The pass rush had some bright spots and [autotag]Ventrell Miller[/autotag] put in a fantastic performance given he was playing on an injured ankle.
Other notable AP rankings include Georgia and Alabama maintaining their No. 1 & No. 2 respective rankings, Oklahoma dropping twelve spots to No. 18 after losing to Kansas State, Arkansas dropping ten spots to No. 20 after losing to Texas A&M, Tennessee jumping to No. 8, and Miami dropping out of the Top 25 after their upset loss to Middle Tennessee State.
The Florida Gators will host Eastern Washington in a non-conference matchup next week. The game will be broadcast on SECN+/ESPN+ with kick-off scheduled for 12:00 p.m. EDT.
New @AP_Top25 poll
1-Georgia
2-Bama
3-Ohio State
4-Michigan
5-Clemson
6-USC
7-Kentucky
8-Tennessee
9-Okla State
10-NC St
11-Penn St
12-Utah
13-Oregon
14-Ole Miss
15-Washington
16-Baylor
17-A&M
18-OU
19-BYU
20-Arkansas
21-Minnesota
22-Wake
23-Florida St
24-Pitt
25-Kansas St— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 25, 2022
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