Billy Napier and the Florida Gators earned their third-straight win last Saturday night against the visiting Charlotte 49ers inside the Swamp. Now 3-1 a third of the way through the regular season, it appears that the Orange and Blue has shaken off what plagued it in the opener against the Utah Utes.
Still, the Week 4 win was anything but encouraging as Florida seemingly played down to the level of its opponent. Nonetheless, CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson believes the Gators are a top-25 team despite what was seen against the ‘Niners.
In fact, Patterson has Napier and Co. moving up three spots from No. 25 to No. 22 in the next AP Poll update.
“Voters will likely see a check-mark win for the Gators and not pay much mind to what happened in the game itself (22-7 over Charlotte),” he offered. “Florida went 1 of 9 on third down and scored its fewest touchdowns against a non-Power Five opponent (one) since 1988. Trey Smack stepped in as a new starting kicker to hit all five of his field goals, including a 54-yarder.”
Florida travels to Lexington this coming weekend for a Week 5 Southeastern Conference matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats. The action starts at noon EDT and can be watched on either ESPN or SEC Network — which is still to be determined.
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