The Sunshine State has long been a college football powerhouse, be it the Miami Hurricanes, Florida State Seminoles or Florida Gators ruling over the prized peninsula. The last few years have been a bit of a doldrums for these schools — as well as some of the others such as the Central Florida Knights and South Florida Bulls — but the 2022 campaign saw a bit of a bounce-back.
CBS Sport’s Barrett Sallee recently put together his list of best college football teams according to state, in which FSU came out on top thanks to a 10-3 season last fall. Here is what he had to offer on the topic.
Coach Mike Norvell has built the Seminoles back to a place where the CFP is within sight. After hitting 10 wins last season, two of which came over Florida and Miami, the stability of the program has been furthered by the return of several stars who could have jumped to the NFL. The Gators and Hurricanes (and even UCF) enter 2023 with some ground to make up as the ‘Noles likely secure their first preseason top 10 spot since 2017 — Jimbo Fisher’s final year before taking the Texas A&M job.
Of course, the Gators had their second-straight losing season last year, finishing 6-7, while the Hurricanes finished 5-7 — both in their new head coach’s first season at the helm. UCF finished 9-5 to place second among the state’s major programs while USF suffered an abysmal 1-11 finish.
Florida State kicks off the 2023 campaign on Sept. 3 against the LSU Tigers inside Doak Campbell Stadium, with a start time of 7:30 p.m. EDT slated. Florida opens its 2023 schedule on the road against the Utah Utes on Aug. 31, with a kickoff time of 8 p.m. EDT.
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