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Now that the 2020 season is well behind us, of course, it is time to begin looking ahead to the 2021 college football landscape. For the Florida Gators, the future has been looking pretty grim so far with the departure of several key players in addition to a team collapse over the last three games of the season.
While many prognostications so far have been bearish on Florida’s follow-up to this past year’s promising, yet ultimately underwhelming campaign, CBS Sports has one of the highest outlooks so far — albeit, the Gators still sit outside of the top 10.
In his latest way-too-early college football rankings for 2021, senior sportswriter Dennis Dodd puts the Gators at No. 12 behind fellow Southeastern Conference schools Georgia (No. 3), Alabama (No. 4), LSU (No. 8) and Texas A&M (No. 10). Yeah, it is not just you, these picks do not really make a whole lot of sense, but here is Dodd’s explanation for Florida anyways.
No. 12 Florida Gators
The Gators are the second-best team in the SEC East, but what does that mean with the loss of Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes? Emory Jones has shown flashes at quarterback, and coach Dan Mullen is expected to put a stronger emphasis on the run with five-star transfer Demarkcus Bowman coming in from Clemson. Mullen’s erratic behavior at times has to be a concern, but how do you criticize a guy who has won 29 games in three years? Usually that would mean an automatic contract extension.
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