The Florida Gators dropped eight more spots in USA TODAY Sports’s post-regular season re-rank of all FBS college football teams. They come in at No. 56, over 35 spots behind their rival and final opponent of the regular season, Florida State.
The Gators had an up-and-down first half of the season. They came out of the gate swinging with an upset win over the defending Pac-12 champion Utah Utes in [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag]’s first game as Florida’s head coach. They went from unranked to No. 19 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll after the victory.
They then lost to Kentucky and barely got a win over in-state rival USF, leaving them out of the top 25 entirely. Their close loss to Tennessee paired with their win over Eastern Washington caused expectations to stabilize.
The Gators seemed to have found their form after a great month that saw the Gators play well in stretches of their losses to LSU and Georgia, and play very well in victories over Texas A&M and South Carolina. They then seemed to collapse in their loss against Vanderbilt. Injuries, penalties, and inconsistencies all played a part in their 31-24 loss to the Commodores. While a drastically better team this season, Vanderbilt just doesn’t have the players that Florida does, leaving most fans in shock over the result.
The Gators followed up the Vanderbilt loss with an instant classic edition of the Sunshine State Showdown against rival Florida State. After taking a 24-21 lead into the half, the Gators allowed Florida State to dominate the game in the third quarter. A back-and-forth fourth quarter ultimately saw the Seminoles win their first game in the series since 2017.
The Gators finish the season 6-6 and are awaiting their bowl assignment. The College Football Playoffs Selection Show will announce the four playoff teams on Sunday, followed by the New Year’s Six bowl game participants. After that, the individual bowl games will announce their participants throughout Sunday afternoon.
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