The upcoming college football season looks to be a tough one for Billy Napier and the Florida Gators, who face one of the most difficult schedules in the nation this fall — on top of being a member of the most competitive conference in the sport.
The main goal for the program this fall is to get back on the right side of the .500 mark after finishing the last two seasons at 6-7. Anything the Orange and Blue can get above and beyond that will be gravy.
One thing that could put a tasty topping on this fall’s campaign is if Florida can play spoilers in the College Football Playoff race — particularly against its most fierce rivals, the defending two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs. But UGA is not the only team that the Gators could potentially trip up.
CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli took a look at five potential chaos teams ready to wreak havoc on the College Football Playoff race in the 2023 season, including UF. Here is what he had to offer.
Billy Napier’s first season at Florida did not go as well as hoped, and to be blunt, I don’t know that 2023 will be much better from a win-loss standpoint. However, while the Gators might have a long, arduous journey ahead to catch Georgia in the SEC East (as well as newly-ascendant Tennessee), they’ll get plenty of bites at the upset apple.
Of the 20 teams with the best odds of winning a title, Florida appears on the schedule of five. That’s a quarter of them, and it’s the most of any team in the country. The Gators open the year with Utah (everybody is playing Utah this year, apparently) and get Tennessee at home in Week 3. They’re then in Jacksonville after a bye in late October to face Georgia before hitting the road to throw down with LSU two weeks later. They’ll finish the regular season back in Gainesville against Florida State. So, as you can see, there are plenty of reasons to think Florida’s record won’t improve much this season that have nothing to do with the roster. It’s the schedule. It’s mean.
Other teams on the list were the Auburn Tigers, Baylor Bears, Colorado Buffaloes and Michigan State Spartans.
Florida opens its 2023 schedule on the road against the Utah Utes on Aug. 31, with a kickoff time of 8 p.m. EDT.
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