Florida’s embarrassing loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday predictably led to the Gators losing all support gained over the past two weeks in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.
After beating Texas A&M and South Carolina in convincing fashion, Florida gained enough support to warrant eight points in last week’s poll, but now the Gators are nowhere to be seen with one game left to play in the season. It’s an unfortunate bump in the road for Billy Napier and Co., one that the first-year Florida coach called “a reality check,” and it all but guarantees that UF will finish the season unranked.
There was hope that finishing the regular season on a four-game win streak, assuming a win over now No. 16 Florida State on Friday, would be enough to get Florida a decent bowl game and ranking, but those dreams faded away with the loss. Florida still has several quality losses on the year, but this was not one of them and those won’t matter much when the final votes are cast.
The Gators weren’t the only team to falter in Week 12, though. Tennessee fell to South Carolina (the team Florida beat by 30+ points a week ago), and UCF dropped out of the top 25 following a loss to Navy.
Here’s a look at the poll in its entirety.