Category: Florida Gators

Best nonconference matchups of the 2023 college football season

The best 20 nonconference games of the 2023 season.

We are under 100 days to the college football season but who is counting anyway? Well, just about everyone is. Teams are gearing up to make a run at the College Football Playoffs and end Georgia’s run of dominance. The Bulldogs are 29-1 over the last two seasons where they won the title in both.

Can anyone step up and prevent them from joining the Minnesota Golden Gophers in college football immortality? Minnesota won three straight titles in the early to mid-1930s. A feat that has seems impossible to repeat, until now. Almost a century later, we could be witnessing history.

Before we get to the CFP, there is plenty more that needs to be addressed. Teams have fall camps, nonconference games, and the run to their respective conference championship games.

In their 100 storylines to follow, CBS Sports ranked the best 20 nonconference matchups of the 2023 college football season. Plenty of eyes will be on the likes of Alabama, Colorado, Texas, and Texas A&M, but who else should we be paying attention to ahead of conference play?

One notable matchup missing is the opening game of the season in Dublin, Ireland, where Notre Dame and Navy are set to meet on the gridiron. That game was among our must-see games in each week of the 2023 college football season.

Check out the list from CBS Sports:

Top 3 finalists for 2023 USA Softball Collegiate Player of Year revealed

Surprisingly, despite having three players in the Top 10 list, softball powerhouse Oklahoma players were not among the Top 3.

Initially, the field was narrowed down to just ten Division 1 players for the prestigious 2023 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. And now, the field was again narrowed to the Top 3 finalists. The award “aims to recognize outstanding athletic achievement by Division I softball players over the course of the entire season.”

Surprisingly, despite having three players in the Top 10 list, softball powerhouse Oklahoma players were not among the Top 3.

The finalists include Clemson’s Valerie Cagle (ACC), UCLA’s Maya Brady (Pac-12), and Florida’s Skylar Wallace (SEC). Each of these players will be in regional play this weekend.

Clemson’s Valerie Cagle

Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

Cagle was named a USA Softball Top 10 Finalist in 2021 and is a two-time ACC player of the year. She was also named the freshman of the year in 2021. Cagle is a two-way player and has shined on and off the mound. She has a .457 batting average, .889 slugging percentage and 23 wins in the circle which places her at No. 11 on the NCAA leaderboard.

UCLA’s Maya Brady

Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports

There have only been two UCLA players to win the award. With Rachel Garcia (2017-21) winning the award twice, in 2019 and 2018, and Stacey Nuveman in 2002. Brady won the 2023 Pac-12 batting title with a .456 average following all conference regular-season games and was named the 2023 Pac-12 Player of the Year.

Florida’s Skylar Wallace

Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun

Rounding out the finalists is Florida’s Skylar Wallace. She is the 2023 SEC Player of the Year and a three-time SEC Player of the Week. She has a 1.036 slugging percentage which ranks first in the nation. Additionally, her .460 batting average is fifth in the nation.

The player of the year will be announced on May 30 at the athlete banquet prior to the NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS).

Top 10 finalists for 2023 USA Softball collegiate player of the year award

Which ten players made the list for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year?

The field has been narrowed down to just ten Division 1 players for the prestigious 2023 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. The award “aims to recognize outstanding athletic achievement by Division I softball players over the course of the entire season.”

The University of Oklahoma, a powerhouse in the sport, has three players on the list while UCLA and Tennessee have two players each. The other schools represented are Clemson, Wichita, and Florida.

Three finalists will be revealed May 17 and the recipient of the award will be announced prior to the NCAA Women’s College World Series slated for Jun. 1-9 at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex.

Player School Position
Jordy Bahl Oklahoma Pitcher
Maya Brady UCLA Utility
Valerie Cagle Clemson Pitcher/Utility
Jayda Coleman Oklahoma Outfield
Megan Faraimo UCLA Pitcher
Tiare Jennings Oklahoma Infield
Sydney McKinney Wichita Infield
Kiki Milloy Tennessee Outfield
Ashley Rogers Tennessee Pitcher
Skylar Wallace Florida Infield

Don’t miss a single game of the 2023 Women’s College World Series. Read more about the broadcasting schedule here.

Lane Kiffin, Twitter trolls Florida for low-scoring spring game affair

We must protect Lane Kiffin at all costs.

Lane Kiffin is no stranger to trolling fans and teams on Twitter. You might even say he is the king of trolls.

On Thursday night, Kiffin decided to take a shot at the Florida Gators during their low-scoring spring game. He took a picture of the score in the fourth quarter where the Orange and Blue were tied at seven with 8:59 remaining.

Of course, the Ole Miss Rebels head coach had to throw some emojis on that tweet to throw gasoline on the fire. It sparked a flurry of quote tweets and responses to his initial take.

Leave it to Lane to give some excitement to an overall boring spring game scrimmage.

Check out the best responses via Twitter.

2023 NFL draft: Best situations for former Florida Gators

Checking in on top Florida draft prospects with Gators Wire editor Adam Dubbin.

We are just weeks away from the 2023 NFL draft. Right now the hot topics involve any one of four quarterbacks and we will feed right into the trend.

Anthony Richardson of the Florida Gators is among three passers who could be selected with the No. 1 overall pick. The selection was recently secured by the Carolina Panthers from the Chicago Bears. But is going to a desperately quarterback-needy team the best situation for the dual threat?

College Sports Wire discussed Richardson’s best situation in the NFL with Gators Wire editor Adam Dubbin.

“The best-case scenario for Richardson is to land with a franchise that has the patience to spend the two or three years it will take to develop him into a successful NFL quarterback,” Dubbin said. “If he gets picked by a hasty team that needs him to perform now, he either realizes his potential with a different squad or ends up a bust. My biggest concern in the draft for him is that the latter occurs.”

I don’t exactly have the same opinion as Dubbin on the subject of Richardson’s projection at the next level. I think he could come in and contribute immediately. However, I doubt he will have to unless taken at the very top of the draft. A team such as Las Vegas might give him the luxury of sitting and learning in the first year.

Another top prospect to consider is offensive guard O’Cyrus Torrence, who followed Billy Napier from Lafayette to Gainesville. The offensive mauler could be the top interior lineman drafted on the offensive side of the ball in the 2023 draft.

“Honestly, Torrence strikes me as the kind of guy who can fit in anywhere his services are needed,” Dubbin said of O’Cyrus Torrence. “We saw how seamless his transition from the Sun Belt to the SEC was (albeit with the same coach) so really, it is more about who needs him than where he needs to go. Best-case scenario is that he lands with a team with an already established frontline that he can hit the ground running with, rather than filling in a gap on a weak corps and having to carry too heavy of a load early on.”

Torrence is as plug and play as they come for me. I think his best situation might be with a team like the Dallas Cowboys. They have reworked their offensive line and just need a guard to play opposite of All-Pro guard Zack Martin.

For more on Florida check out our colleague’s work at Gators Wire. For more draft coverage check out Draft Wire, part of the USA TODAY SMG network.

2023 NCAA women’s gymnastics championships: Everything you need to know

See which eight teams are fighting for the 2023 NCAA women’s gymnastics championship

The 2023 NCAA women’s gymnastics championships will be held at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, from Apr. 13-15. The women’s gymnastics championships consist of eight teams, four all-around competitors, and 16 event specialists who were not members of a qualifying team.

The eight teams competing are the California Golden Bears, Oklahoma Sooners, Utah Utes, UCLA Bruins, Denver Pioneers, Kentucky Wildcats, Florida Gators, and LSU Tigers. The Golden Bears finished the regular season at the top of the rankings amongst all schools with a 198.075 regional final score.

Denver is the lowest-ranked seed at No. 14 while the Sooners are the highest-ranked at No. 1. LSU advanced via a tiebreaker against Michigan, after a season full of injuries. Oklahoma is looking to defend its 2022 title and win its sixth national title in women’s gymnastics.

Team semifinal and individual competition will be conducted in two sessions on April 13 at 2 and 8 p.m. CT. The top two teams from each semifinal advance to the championship on April 15 at 3 p.m. CT. The semifinals will be broadcast live on ESPN 2 and the championship final will be live on ABC.

Florida outside the top 100 in SP+ returning production rankings for 2023

ESPN’s Bill Connelly has released his 2023 returning production rankings, with the Gators outside the top 100.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly released his 2023 returning production rankings which utilizes his SP+ model, with the Florida Gators returning 54% of their production and landing outside the top 100.

Connelly developed the SP+ ranking system in 2008 and, in his own words, is “a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” and “intended to be predictive and forward-facing.”

The returning production rankings use a slightly different formula than Connelly’s traditional SP+ rankings. They take into account a team’s previous season’s statistics for players that will be returning in the upcoming season.

Coming in at No. 107 in the country, the Florida Gators are expected to have a lot of new faces on both sides of the ball. The offensive returning production comes in at No. 103 with 55% returning production, while the defensive returning production comes in at No. 91 with 53% returning production.

Both the offensive and defensive numbers make perfect sense. The Gators saw massive roster turnover on both sides of the ball, as [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] is continuing the process of crafting the roster in his image. According to On3, of the 30 players in Florida’s 2023 recruiting class, only 20 came from high school.

Of those 20, 16 are blue-chip recruits, meaning they are considered a four- or five-star prospects. The other 10 players are transfers, as Napier has been active in using the transfer portal to turn over the roster.

The Gators still have work to do to compete for championships at the highest level, but recrafting the roster is a necessary, albeit long, process. For 2023, they’ll have to compete against teams like Florida State, who return 87% of their production from a 10-3 team, good for the most returning production in the nation.

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This Gator named a top-25 player of the 2022 season, per ESPN

An NFL-bound former Florida Gators player was included in ESPN’s list of the top 100 players of the 2022 college football season.

After being named the 34th consensus All-American in Florida Gators history, O’Cyrus Torrence has been named to ESPN’s “Top 100 Players of the 2022 Season” list. The offensive guard came in at No. 23. He is the 4th highest offensive lineman on the list and the highest-ranked offensive guard on the list.

Torrence was a vital part of the Florida run game. He transferred to Florida from Louisiana, joining [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] in the move from Lafayette to Gainesville. He brought stability and familiarity in a run game that became the Gators’ offensive identity.

The offensive line was a position of need before Napier was hired and brought Torrence with him to the SEC. Once Torrence was brought in, the unit flourished. They finished the season No. 1 in SEC yards per carry (5.8), and second in the SEC in sacks allowed (12) and tackles for loss allowed per game (4). Torrence was also named to the First-Team All-SEC team for his role in one of the best offensive lines in the conference.

Here is what the ESPN staff had to say about Torrence:

Billy Napier’s first season as head coach at Florida was rocky. But no one is questioning his decision to bring Torrence with him from Louisiana during the offseason. The junior wound up anchoring a better-than-expected offensive line and played his way into being a high-level NFL draft pick.

Torrence opted to sit out the Gators’ 30-3 Las Vegas Bowl defeat to Oregon State to prepare for the upcoming NFL draft. He is currently projected to go to the Buffalo Bills with the No. 29 pick of the 1st round, according to USA TODAY Sports’ Draft Wire publication’s latest mock draft. He joins teammate [autotag]Anthony Richardson[/autotag] as the two Florida Gators players projected to go in the first round.

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The 10 best Cyber Monday deals for the Florida Gators fan in your life

The best holiday gift ideas for any Florida Gators fan in your life.

Happy holidays, Florida fans!

Football season is coming down the home stretch, basketball season has started, and for NCAA fans it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

It’s been an up-and-down football season for Florida, but Gators Wire is giving you a reason to celebrate this holiday season.

Whether you’re an alumni, a current “Gainesvillain”, or just really love to reminisce about the days of Tim Tebow, Emmitt Smith and Joakim Noah, we’ve got you covered with our list of best Gators gifts for the holiday season.

Fanatics is offering 30% off all orders on Cyber Monday, so take at least 30% off the prices in the list below and get the perfect gift for the Florida fan in your life.

If you need another gift for the sports fan in your life, consider a USA Today Subscription which includes Sports +, exclusive access to our Sports + app and the best content from across the entire USA Today Sports network.

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Social media’s reactions to Florida’s 31-24 loss vs Vanderbilt

Twitter reacts to the Florida Gators’ 31-24 loss vs Vanderbilt, giving them a 6-5 record ahead of their rivalry game vs Florida State

The Florida Gators lost to the Vanderbilt Commodores, 31-24, Saturday in their final SEC game of the season. It was the first Florida loss in Nashville since 1988. The Gators now move to 6-5 as they look towards their rivalry game against Florida State.

The first half was a stark difference from what we’ve seen from this Florida team over the last month or so. After going up 3-0 and extending the defense’s takeaway streak to 11 games, the Gators’ defense committed multiple penalties on third down stops that would have given the offense the ball back. Instead, a third down unsportsmanlike conduct penalty extended Vanderbilt’s drive, which was then extended again when a third down facemask penalty negated a sack that would have put the Commodores out of field goal range.

Early in the second quarter, Vandy would score and end the Gators’ seven-quarter streak of not allowing a defensive touchdown. To make things worse, a muffed put inside the Gators’ 10-yard line resulted in Vanderbilt recovering in the end zone, making it 14-6 at the half.

The second half was up and down in nature. The Gators came out and immediately scored a touchdown to make it a one-possession game. After that, it was all Vanderbilt. The Commodores ran the ball down Florida’s throats, and the offense did not seem to be together for most of the half. Not even a Jason Marshall Jr. interception in the red zone was enough for the Gators. A late run came up short, with Vanderbilt’s defense stopping the Gators’ last-second attempt to send the game into overtime.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to Florida’s 31-24 defeat to Vanderbilt.