The 2023 season was a disappointing one for Florida football, finishing under .500 for the third straight year while failing to earn a bowl bid for the first time since 2017.
Sure, expectations were tempered coming into the fall given the brutal schedule Billy Napier and Co. had, but the Gator Nation was not prepared for some of the blunders witnessed on the field. That team could have been 7-5 in the regular season — or even better — if not for some key mistakes and overall bad mojo.
Nonetheless, results are results and the product Florida put out on the field was simply insufficient to keep up with the modern game — especially in the Southeastern Conference. As such, USA TODAY Sports’ Paul Myerberg gave the Gators the lowest mark in his final letter grades for all 133 college football teams: a D-minus.
Florida was the only team in its tier with more than three wins.
The grades were assigned on a relative curve based on preseason expectations weighed against in-season performance, with attention to special circumstances such as injuries or marquee wins. With that in mind, it is pretty easy to see how the Orange and Blue fell to the bottom of this list.
The next-lowest SEC school was the Texas A&M Aggies, who received a D grade after their immensely disappointing 7-6 campaign in 2023.
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