Tag: re-rank

The 2021 college football season is now in the rearview mirror after an epic all-SEC national championship game that saw the Georgia Bulldogs triumph over the Alabama Crimson Tide for the title. With every game now in the books, the sports media looks back and gives its final assessment of the past fall’s performances.

USA TODAY Sports published its final NCAA Re-Rank 1-130 on Tuesday, with the Florida Gators landing way down the list after a season to forget in Gainesville. After all was said and done, UF found itself nestled in between the Liberty Flames and Florida State Seminoles, respectively, ranked at No. 69 — a not-so-nice number following a season with much higher aspirations than a middle-of-the-pack finish. This actually pairs well with CBS Sports’ final assessment, in which it ranked the Gators No. 70 in the nation.

Much like in those rankings, USA TODAY Sports had UGA and ‘Bama finished ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and only fellow SEC school Vanderbilt came in lower than Florida at No. 116. It was an embarrassing finish for a program that had played in three-straight New Year’s Six bowls; but instead, this season, dropped its Gasparilla Bowl matchup with the Central Florida Knights to lose the in-state college football crown.

The good news is that the old regime is gone as Dan Mullen and his staff were given their ultimately walking papers. Now, new head coach Billy Napier and his veritable army of staff bring in a fresh breath of air along with a level of confidence from the fanbase that had not been seen under Mullen in quite some time. While the bar is currently set low after a tumultuous run this past year and change, the expectations of the Gator Nation always run high, and it will be up to Napier to restore the glory of the Orange and Blue.

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Florida’s 2021 season was so disappointing that it fired a coach who entered the year with almost complete job security, as far as we know. After an overtime loss to Missouri that dropped the team to 5-6, coach Dan Mullen was fired.

UF has already hired his replacement in Billy Napier, but it was the interim coach Greg Knox who got the job done on Saturday, beating rival Florida State as home underdogs. The game wasn’t pretty, but the Gators became bowl eligible in a 24-21 win that had the added bonus of ending the Seminoles’ season.

After that performance, Florida rose in the USA TODAY Sports weekly re-rank, though it’s still far below where this program needs to be. The Gators moved up six spots but still sit at No. 65. That’s one spot below Marshall and one spot above MAC East champion Kent State.

It also makes the Gators the lowest-ranked team in the SEC other than 2-10 Vanderbilt, which is practically unprecedented for this program but also understandable considering the fact that this team was the first in school history to go 2-6 in SEC play.

UF will hope to get things turned around sooner rather than later under Napier, but for now, this team enters a bowl game despite ranking in the middle of the FBS pack.

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Florida’s 70-52 win over Samford on Saturday didn’t go a long way toward reestablishing confidence in the current coaching staff. The team had one of its worst performances all season and needed to come from behind to beat a 4-5 FCS team. Still, for a team that hadn’t won a game since a 42-0 beatdown of Vanderbilt more than a month ago, it was at least a slight step in the right direction.

That’s the way USA TODAY Sports’ Paul Myerburg is looking at it. In his re-rank of the college football teams from 1-130, the Gators actually saw a two-spot rise after the Samford win, though they still rank just 58th in the nation. That puts Florida one spot ahead of Miami, who fell after a loss to Florida State on Saturday, and two spots ahead of Missouri, who UF plays on Saturday. The Tigers are up 12 spots after a win over South Carolina last week.

For a team that began the season with at least fringe College Football Playoff hopes, this has been quite a collapse, and it could get even worse. The Gators are fairly heavy favorites against the Tigers on Saturday, but a loss in that game would give them their first 2-6 record in SEC play ever. After that, the Seminoles, who are playing much better football than they were when they lost to Jacksonville State earlier in the season, come to town for what should be a difficult rivalry contest.

It has been a tough season in Gainesville, and coach Dan Mullen could be on an increasingly hot seat. It’s unclear if a move will be made this season, but losses in either of the final two games could expedite the process, considering how quickly this team collapsed.

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Florida was idle this week after an embarrassing road loss to LSU in which it let one of the worst rushing games in the nation have a record-setting afternoon in Death Valley. The Gators were double-digit favorites in that game, and they now prepare to face No. 1 Georgia sitting at just 4-3.

UF ranked No. 35 in the USA TODAY Sports re-rank of the teams from 1-130 after last week, and despite not playing this week, it dropped another spot to No. 36. In addition to the Bulldogs, that ranks behind No. 3 Alabama, No. 10 Ole Miss, No. 13 Kentucky, No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 22 Auburn and No. 31 Arkansas in the SEC.

Florida is in the midst of a disappointing 2021 season, and it seems like the ceiling is 8-4 right now. Short of a stunning upset against Georgia, there may not be a route back into the top 25 this season. After UF didn’t miss a New Year’s Six Bowl in the first three seasons under Dan Mullen, this year’s team is shaping up for the worst finish of Mullen’s tenure.

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After a two-point loss to Alabama in September, this looked like it could be the Florida team that finally breaks through and competes for a spot in the College Football Playoff. But after losses against Kentucky and LSU in two of the last three games, those hopes are long gone.

The Gators may not even finish in the top three of the division, and with the next game being against No. 1 Georgia, Florida is likely to fall to .500 on the season after that.

While analytics metrics still like this team, USA TODAY Sports’ Paul Myerburg does not. On his rankings of the FBS teams from 1-130, the Gators fell 14 spots to just No. 35.

UF now ranks behind teams like Boston College, Pittsburgh and Arizona State, and it’s hard to believe that the same team that was once a two-point conversion away from forcing overtime against Alabama is now not even among the top 30.

It’s been a rough season in Gainesville, and it could get even rougher in Jacksonville after the bye. But coach Dan Mullen and Co. will look to salvage whatever they can from what is otherwise a lost season.

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Florida football celebrated its homecoming last weekend with a shutout win over the Vanderbilt Commodores, a common foe when it comes to the annual alumni event. Despite the numbers on the scoreboard, the Gators still showed some struggles that had plagued them in previous weeks, and this time against a lesser opponent.

As a result, the Orange and Blue remained at No. 21 on Paul Myerberg’s weekly USA TODAY Sports NCAA Re-Rank 1-130, which, thanks to the Arkansas Razorback‘s last-second loss to the Ole Miss Rebels, makes Florida the fifth-highest ranked Southeastern Conference school — up one from last week. Incidentally, the Hogs now sit right behind the Gators at No. 22.

A total of seven SEC teams made the top 25, with the Georgia Bulldogs remaining in the top perch while the Alabama Crimson Tide dropped three spots to No. 4. The Kentucky Wildcats crept up a notch to No. 7 while the Rebels hopped seven spots into the No. 12 slot. The Texas A&M Aggies sit behind Florida and Arkansas at No. 24 to round things out after moving up a whopping 19 spots.

Here is a look at USA TODAY Sports’ complete re-rank of the top 25 schools for Week 6 of college football.

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It was a disappointing weekend for Florida football as it dropped its second Southeastern Conference matchup in three tries so far this season, this time on the road against the Kentucky Wildcats. As expected, the national polls have turned quite bearish on the Gators as a result of the upset loss.

The Orange and Blue dropped nine spots in Week 5 of the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll to No. 18, making it the fifth-highest ranking SEC school in the poll. However, Paul Meyerberg submitted his re-rank of the entire list of 130 FBS teams on Monday and decided to punish Florida even further.

Ranked seventh in last week’s update, the Gators tumbled 14 spots all the way to No. 21 this week, threatening their position among the top 25 teams. The re-rank has UF the sixth-place team among SEC foes, with the Auburn Tigers right behind them at No. 22 to round out the seven conference schools in the top 25.

Here is a look at USA TODAY Sports’ complete re-rank of the top 25 schools for Week 5 of college football.

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