Tag: The Athletic

Florida remains at bottom of The Athletic’s SEC ‘vibe check’ after Week 3

Another ugly loss for Florida means the Gators remain ranked 16th among SEC teams in the latest vibe check from The Athletic.

Florida is ranked 16th out of 16 SEC teams in the latest conference vibe check from The Athletic.

The Gators’ most recent loss, a 13-point defeat at the hand of Texas A&M Aggies, has Billy Napier hanging onto his job by a thread, and there’s little to no optimism surrounding the program after just three weeks of play.

“Well, what more can you say? We all know where this is going, it’s just a matter of when and who is making the decisions, since the AD probably won’t get a third bite at the apple,” Seth Emerson wrote.

“The school has to find buyout money, much of it having been spent by the former president. It may be a tear-down situation in Gainesville, but that means building back up, and building is exciting. In the meantime, yeah, the vibes are rough.”

Emerson is a senior writer covering Georgia and the SEC for The Athletic. Naturally, there’s some animosity toward the Orange and Blue from the Bulldogs guy, and why wouldn’t there be? Florida would be the laughing stock of college football if it weren’t for its ACC counterpart up in Tallahassee.

Still, there is a chance Florida will pull itself out of the gutter over the next week.

The Gators travel to Mississippi State to face a 15th-ranked Bulldogs team next week, and a win should cause the two programs to switch positions. Beating UCF and Kentucky would also go a long way, but let’s take things one week at a time.

The Athletic’s SEC vibe check — Week 3

  1. Texas Longhorns (3-0, 0-0 SEC)
  2. Tennessee Volunteers (3-0, 0-0)
  3. Alabama Crimson Tide (3-0, 0-0)
  4. Ole Miss Rebels (3-0, 0-0)
  5. Missouri Tiger (3-0, 0-0)
  6. Georgia Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0)
  7. Texas A&M Aggies (2-1, 1-1)
  8. Oklahoma Sooners (3-0, 0-0)
  9. LSU Tigers (2-1, 1-0)
  10. Auburn Tigers (2-1, 0-0)
  11. South Carolina Gamecocks (2-1, 1-1)
  12. Kentucky Wildcats (1-2, 0-2)
  13. Vanderbilt Commodores (2-1, 0-0)
  14. Arkansas Razorbacks (2-1, 0-0)
  15. Mississippi State Bulldogs (1-2, 0-0)
  16. Florida Gators (1-2, 0-1)

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Florida football takes huge tumble in The Athletic’s Week 3 re-rank

The Athletic did not like what it saw from Florida on Saturday, and in turn, sent the Gators downward in its re-rank after Week 3.

Florida football suffered a heartbreaking 33-20 defeat on Saturday to the Texas A&M Aggies in the Swamp — a loss that could lead to the dismissal of head coach [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] but has also demoralized the Gator Nation.

In a season where hope sprung eternal coming into the opener against the Miami Hurricanes back in August, reality has crashed down hard on the Orange and Blue, leaving very few believers where once there was vociferous support for the program.

As one might imagine, a 1-2 start with only a victory over an FCS school — and even that game did not look great other than DJ Lagway‘s breakout performance — has Florida sitting well outside the major polls and sinking in many of the rankings.

On the topic of ranking, The Athletic’s Chris Vannini updated his weekly re-ranking of college football’s 134 FBS schools and sent Napier and Co. tumbling in his standings.

Florida’s re-rank after Week 3

Following the home loss to the Aggies, the Gators find themselves ranked No. 67 in the nation on Vannini’s re-rank, bookended by the No. 66 Wisconsin Badgers and No. 68 Colorado Buffaloes. Florida was previously ranked No. 48, representing a precipitous 19-spot fall after Week 3.

The Athletic’s Week 2 Top 10 re-rank

The Texas Longhorns take over the top spot, followed by the Georgia Bulldogs, Ohio State Buckeyes, Ole Miss Rebels and Tennessee Volunteers, respectively, to round out the post-Week 3 top five. 

The Miami Hurricanes, Alabama Crimson Tide, Oregon Ducks, Missouri Tigers and Penn State Nittany Lions round out the top 10, respectively.

Up next for the Gators

Florida will play their first road game of the season as they travel up to Starkville to play against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday, Sept. 21. Kickoff is set for noon ET and will be broadcast on ESPN.

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The Athletic’s thoughts on Billy Napier after Florida’s Week 3 loss to TAMU

The sports media firmly believes that Billy Napier is a dead man walking after the Week 3 loss to TAMU.

Florida football’s second loss of the 2024 campaign was not a pretty one — both weather-wise and what was seen on the field. The Gators once again were embarrassed at home in a game that most believed would be a close one, falling to 1-2 on the season.

Following the defeat, The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel published his final thoughts from Week 3’s gridiron action, including [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] and the Orange and Blue in his column.

“(A) Texas A&M team that hadn’t won a true road game in nearly three years trounced Napier’s Gators 33-20 in the rain. It was 33-7 late in the third quarter, by which point it looked like a spring game in the stands,” Mandel begins.

“This, on top of Florida’s season-opening 41-17 loss to Miami in the same stadium, all but assures Napier won’t make it to Year 4. The only question is whether athletic director Scott Stricklin will keep his own job long enough to pull the plug,” he continues.

“Florida is a puzzling place. It has reached two extreme highs, under Steve Spurrier in the 1990s and Urban Meyer in the 2000s, and been mediocre in nearly every other era,” Mandel notes.

“Whoever replaces Napier will become the Gators’ fifth head coach since Meyer stepped down after the 2010 season. He better be a heck of a recruiter, because that program desperately needs a talent infusion.”

Up next for the Gators

Florida will play their first road game of the season as they travel up to Starkville to play against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday, Sept. 21. Kickoff is set for noon ET and will be broadcast on ESPN.

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The Athletic doesn’t have much hope for Vikings against the 49ers

Minnesota is coming off of an excellent week against the Giants. But the Vikings aren’t getting much of a chance this weekend.

The Giants may be a bad football team, but the Vikings shocked some people with their play last weekend. Sam Darnold was great, Aaron Jones played well, and the Vikings’ defense was flying all around the field.

But the Vikings have a serious challenge this weekend. When San Francisco comes to town, Minnesota will host one of the better teams in the NFL.

Vic Tafur with The Athletic is giving Minnesota zero chance against the 49ers.

“All of the 49ers targets will expose the Vikings secondary, and one of them, Brandon Aiyuk, will knock off some more rust and won’t be dropping touchdowns like he did against the Jets. Plus, we have another double-down opportunity. Sam Darnold looked good last week against the shellshocked Giants, but the Niners know their former backup well and will expose all his flaws. Darnold was 5-for-5 for 81 yards and two touchdowns when the Giants blitzed him, but the 49ers can apply pressure without exposing themselves. I don’t care if the 49ers travel halfway across the country in a short week; the Vikings are just too outclassed.”

Time will tell how the Vikings do against the 49ers’ potent offensive attack. But if Christian McCaffrey doesn’t suit up for the 49ers, that bodes well for Minnesota — of course, Jordan Mason was excellent in his place last week.

Florida still in basement of SEC ‘vibe check’ after Week 2 win

DJ Lagway looked GOOD against FCS Samford, but it wasn’t enough to pull Florida out of the basement in the latest SEC vibe check from The Athletic.

Florida’s 45-7 win over FCS Samford on Saturday was not enough to pull the Gators out of the cellar in the SEC.

The Athletic’s latest “vibe check” ranks the Orange and Blue 16th out of 16 in the SEC after two weeks of play.

“Billy Napier was hoping for a better Saturday with an FCS team in town to kick around,” said Seth Emerson, a senior writer covering Georgia and the SEC for The Athletic. “Then the day started with Nick Saban going on GameDay and saying that while Napier inherited a culture lacking toughness, he had yet to turn it around. So much for Saban taking it easy on his former staff members. (And good for Saban, by the way.)”

It might sound like Florida is being held in the mud for off-the-field comments, but Emerson was not impressed with the Gators’ play on Saturday either.

“Florida then puttered around with Samford and was up only 14-0 at halftime before pulling away. Far from what was needed to take the pressure meter down. The Gators stay in the bottom spot for a second straight week.”

What The Athletic missed

While Emerson’s assessment is narrowly based on fact, it had to have been difficult to write two whole paragraphs recapping Florida’s win over Samford without mentioning DJ Lagway.

It’s nearly impossible to define the criteria for a list named the “vibe check,” but Lagway delivered future Heisman vibes in his very first start. Sure, Graham Mertz is likely to take over the starting job again once healthy, but there’s no doubt that the “vibe” in Gainesville is significantly better than last week.

Meanwhile, Emerson ranks Texas A&M 10th on his vibe-o-meter. Keep in mind that the Aggies entered Week 2 coming off a 10-point loss to a Notre Dame team that was upset by Northern Illinois. Following that up with a 52-10 win over McNeese is somehow worth a two-spot jump for TAMU, though.

Opinions can’t be wrong, but something seems off here.

It’s easy to make Florida the punching bag after that ugly loss to Miami, but the reality is that the Hurricanes are playing like a top-10 team right now. At least that’s what the US LBM Coaches Poll voters think. So do the AP Top 25 folks…

If Florida keeps things competitive with Texas A&M, the two need to trade places on this list. If the Gators win, there needs to be an even bigger jump.

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Damien Harris explains why expanded College Football Playoff is bad for Notre Dame

Do you agree with this?

In losing to Northern Illinois, Notre Dame has forced everyone to reopen the conversations that were being had about them.

One angle that has to be looked at is how the loss pertains to the Irish’s current standing for the [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag].

By any Notre Dame season standard, a loss like this is an awful one. Under the old four-team playoff, this certainly would have disqualified the Irish from consideration.

But with the playoff now at 12 teams, that very issue has come back to the forefront. Damien Harris discussed why this is in the latest episode “Until Saturday”, a podcast hosted by The Athletic:

While Harris makes some good points, most college football fans seemed tired of too few teams getting the chance to play for a national championship. And for all we know, the Irish will steamroll over everyone else to the point where this loss will be irrelevant to the committee’s final decision. So let’s just see what happens from here.

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Florida slips a spot in The Athletic’s re-rank after Week 2 win

The Florida Gators remain in The Athletic’s college football re-rank top 50 after the Week 2 win over Samford.

It took a couple of tries but the Florida football program earned its first victory of the 2024 campaign last Saturday in the Swamp against the Samford Bulldogs, 45-7. While a blowout win over an FCS opponent is hardly a grand achievement, it was a much-needed boost for the Orange and Blue.

However, the effort on the field was far from perfect despite a record-setting day from true freshman quarterback DJ Lagway in his first-ever collegiate start. The discipline issues that have plagued the program for years once again reared its ugly head along with a few other weaknesses that remain exposed.

Florida’s re-rank after Week 2

Fortunately, the results have not changed much in the eyes of the sports media. The Athletic’s Chris Vaninni published his college football Week 2 re-rank after the dust settled and docked the Orange and Blue a spot from last week’s standings, dropping it from No. 47 to No. 48.

That puts Billy Napier and Co. between the 47th-ranked Auburn Tigers and the 49th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers.

The Athletic’s Week 2 Top 10 re-rank

The Georgia Bulldogs remain in the top spot followed by the Texas Longhorns, Ohio State Buckeyes, Ole Miss Rebels and Miami Hurricanes — who beat Florida in Gainesville to open the season — representing the top five teams, respectively.

The Tennessee Volunteers, Alabama Crimson Tide and Penn State Nittany Lions, Oregon Ducks and Missouri Tigers wrap up the top 10 programs in the re-rank.

Next up for the Gators

Florida will host the Texas A&M Aggies — who landed at No. 33 in the re-rank — inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 14. Kickoff is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on ABC.

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The Athletic has optimism regarding Vikings 2024 season

The NFL season and expectations can be shifted due to variables and circumstances that no one has any control over.

The NFL season and expectations can be shifted due to variables and circumstances that no one has any control over. One of those is the various sportsbooks around the country. Just as a player can be an extra motivating factor for a team, so can Sportsbooks.

One of those instances surrounds the Minnesota Vikings and their expected wins in 2024.

Peter Keating of The Athletic discussed the Vikings’ expected win total and how it doesn’t fairly project the way the team’s season could go.

“This isn’t likely to be a pretty season for the Vikings. But an over/under of 6.5 wins is lowballing a team that’s considerably better now than they looked at the end of last year.”

Various analysts and programs have predicted the Vikings to have a rough 2024 season. ESPN and their FPI predict the team to win only four games and secure the number one pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Then you have The Athletic here predicting them to be closer to .500 than most expect.

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the team, but by tomorrow, we should have a better idea of how the season may go.

Vikings QB Sam Darnold toward the bottom of The Athletic’s Week 1 rankings

At The Athletic, they are not letting up on how they view the quarterback position for the Minnesota Vikings heading into Week 1.

The Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback position will be volatile in 2024. J.J. McCarthy’s injury has definitely dampened their plans for the upcoming season, and the media coverage of the position hasn’t helped matters either.

At The Athletic, they are not letting up on how they view the quarterback position for the Minnesota Vikings heading into Week 1.

Jeff Howe released his quarterback power rankings heading into Week 1 of the NFL season. He ranked Sam Darnold towards the bottom of the rankings, coming in at 28 out of 32 overall.

Sam Darnold is heading into a pivotal year in 2024, where he may play for his last chance to start in the league if things don’t pan out. The former third overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft has rapidly hopped around the league.

Now, at the Vikings, Darnold will be playing with the best offensive line and set of skill players in his career. The excuses are gone, and he will have a chance to prove many people wrong.

Among college football reactions, The Athletic thinks Florida’s are just right

While there have been plenty of over- and under-reactions to college football’s Week 1 results, The Athletic thinks Billy Napier’s hot seat takes are just right.

Billy Napier came into his third campaign as the head coach of the Florida Gators on one of the hottest seats in college football and his program’s season-opening defeat to the Miami Hurricanes only further fanned those flames.

The Gators lost their first home opener since 1989 and surrendered the most points ever in that same scenario to their in-state rivals. With 11 games remaining and the toughest schedule among FBS schools, the possibility of a fourth-straight losing season ominously hangs overhead.

The cautious confidence that was built behind Napier and Co. during the offseason was quickly shattered on Saturday, as the results on the field echoed many of the same issues that have plagued the Orange and Blue dating back before the current skipper’s arrival.

The Athletic’s staff writer Kennington Smith III summary of what he learned from college football’s Week 1 action and included Napier and the Gators, focusing particularly on the HC’s seemingly inevitable demise.

Summarizing Billy Napier’s hot seat

“Week 1 in the Swamp was essentially the ‘Hot Seat Bowl,’ with Florida and Miami needing the win to validate offseason progress,” Smith begins. “Florida lost in a fashion that can send a fan base into a dark place: apathy.”

“It’s technically not over for Napier, who took a jab at Florida fans during his Monday news conference, citing that his team needs to focus on improving and not on what ‘some guy in his basement in rural Central Florida is saying on social media,’ but it certainly feels like things are trending in a direction,” he continues.

“Florida’s schedule has been much discussed, and now Napier needs to find a way to pull off some upsets to preserve his job status.”

The problem is that the compounding factors the program is facing like the schedule are not unknown. The issue is that the Gator Nation demands positive results and Napier and Co. are simply not providing that crucial detail.

“The goodwill built through offseason optimism evaporated in one Saturday afternoon. It was a moment for Florida to show it was on the right trajectory, and it did the opposite. The fan base is disappointed and uneasy about what’s to come. The Gators can turn it around, but the hot-seat conversations feel justified.”

Next up for the Gators

The Gators will get a chance to even up their 2024 regular season record against the Samford Bulldogs next Saturday inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the SEC Network+.

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