After the Gators’ 41-24 road win over Texas A&M, the Florida Gators sit at No. 37 in ESPN’s latest SP+ rankings, per Bill Connelly.
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 offensive metric is much kinder to the Orange and Blue than the defensive metric. Offensively, the Gators are the 21st-best team in SP+, with a rating of 37.0. Defensively, Florida is the 74th-best team in SP+, with a rating of 28.3.
The stark difference in the rating properly explains the Orange and Blue’s season thus far. There are moments when the Florida offense clicks. Saturday’s victory was the third consecutive game where the offense was effective throughout most of the contest, lending to the belief that offensive consistency has arrived in the Billy Napier era.
Florida’s defense, however, is dealing with significant issues in personnel. Those issues were worsened by last week’s dismissal of [autotag]Brenton Cox Jr[/autotag]. from the team. There are positive signs of life, however. The defense has made effective changes in the second half of the last two games. Unfortunately, the sluggish starts have had an effect on Florida’s defensive SP+ metrics.
Of the Gators’ remaining three games, only Florida State (No. 27) is ranked higher in SP+. Both South Carolina (No. 39) and Vanderbilt (No. 93) are ranked below them.
Florida’s next game will be Saturday when they end the home portion of their schedule against South Carolina. Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. EST and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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