Florida football is a game past the midpoint of its 2023 regular-season schedule and the Gators are looking pretty decent so far. The campaign opened with a disappointing loss on the road, but Billy Napier’s boys won three in a row for the first time since 2020.
Of course, the loss at Kentucky was a gut punch, but the Orange and Blue seem to be putting things together for the second half of the season.
Among the many members of the media dropping their midpoint reviews are The Athletic’s Ari Wasserman and David Ubben, who checked on their college football preseason hot takes. For the Gators, the take was, “Florida finishes the season as the second-best team in the SEC East.”
Ubben responded with a sharp rebuke back before the season started.
“No. What are we doing here?” he rhetorically asks. “The Gators won’t be much better than last year, but almost everyone in the SEC East will be improved from a year ago. If I was ranking the team most likely to finish in the SEC East, I believe in South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky way more than I believe in Florida. Zero percent chance this happens. Florida might not even finish third.”
On the other hand, Wasserman was not as reactionary to the suggestion ahead of the 2023 schedule but still was still skeptical of Florida’s football program.
“It’s not a zero percent chance,” he points out. “This is a slow build. And the Gators have a major quarterback problem. But it’s implausible.”
However, with seven games now under Napier and Co.’s belt, they have been forced to change their tune.
“Anyone who watched Florida’s season-opening 24-11 loss to Utah probably saw a team that was going to be one of the worst in the SEC,” the verdict begins. “There was chatter after that game about Billy Napier potentially already being on the hot seat and the entire Florida world crashing down.
“In the time since Florida has rattled five wins in its past six games and sits at 5-2 with an open week before the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” it continues. “Maybe Florida is just going to get pummeled by Georgia, but the Gators have been nothing if not resilient.
“And they rank, gulp, second in the SEC East behind only Georgia.”
The Gators have a bye this week ahead of the biggest game on the schedule, which will take place at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, on Oct. 28, with a kickoff time of 3:30 p.m. EDT set. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports.
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