The Florida Gators have dropped four spots in USA TODAY Sports’ final re-rank of the 2022 college football season. They come in at No. 62, 13 spots behind the next closest SEC program, the Arkansas Razorbacks.
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.
Florida seemed to have found its 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 in 2022 compared to years prior, 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.
After the regular season, the Gators played in the Las Vegas Bowl against Oregon State. Unfortunately for them, over two dozen players left the program before the game via the transfer portal or to prepare for the upcoming NFL draft. The three points scored in the 30-3 loss preserved Gators’ 436-game scoring streak, the longest in NCAA history and 56 games longer than the next closest team. The program now shifts to the offseason, where they will reconstruct the roster in Billy Napier’s image.
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