Could UF crack the top 25 final poll?

Love the question. Anybody know which teams we should be rooting against? And wouldn’t it be something for Napier, having been much maligned early in the season and having lost his starting QB, to pull such a rabbit out of his hat?

 

We should be top 25 preseason

 

Before last year, ESPN had us a #20 in the Power ranking index. I expect us to be preseason ranked in the top 25 for the 2025 football season.

 

Lessee where we are now:

Locks:

Texas
Georgia
Alabama
Tennessee

Close To The Edge (of the top 25):

South Carolina (with a loss to Illinois, but will probably beat the Illini)
Mizzou (with a loss to Iowa)
Ole Miss (with a loss to Duke)
LSU (with a win over Baylor)

Generally, the SEC places 5-6 teams in the final top 25 team. Generally, it is rare that a team with 5 losses gets ranked in the AP. The last Florida team to do it was in 2003, and it was based in large part to a schedule that was tougher than even this year's schedule. Florida also had bigger wins that year, and our QB was also a true freshman who went 7-2 (on the field) as a starter...

 

I remember when there was just a top 10. Back then being down at 25 was nothing to brag about.

But times change. I remember Your Hit Parade on TV. Snooky Lanson and Giselle McKenzie (I think there was one other singer) would sing the top 10 popular songs each week. The show finally went off the air in the late 50s after they had to start singing songs like "You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog."

 

There are more legit programs than there use to be for sure but im with you, being barely ranked doesnt do much for me. Im only concerned about next year and making the playoffs and beating teams on our schedule not named kentucky and miss st. Even making tge pkayiffs and losing to someone like asu is not enough to be proud of. Sure that would be improvement and looking good going into DJ's most promising year but still just meh.

 

They "could" but I doubt they will. And TBH it doesn't really matter.

 

We should at least finish above colorado, we would beat them easily.

 

CO (#20) getting its doors blown out by BYU might help. If IL loses to SC, that might help. Mizzou or UNLV losing could help. None of those teams would have 5 losses, but they would all have 4.

 

Army lost a game but won their bowl game against a 5-7 LA Tech.
The Deions lost.
Syracuse, UNLV and Memphis all won.
A&M lost
Kansas State won
Marshall quit

It would be a huge leap for us to go up 7 spots. I don't think we played very well enough against FSU or Tulane to jump that much.

 

We have five losses. Doubtful we make the top twenty five. More interested in 2025. Need to be better on both lines of scrimmage. Hire a OC and special teams coach. Having to burn a timeout because of a man short on the punt team is inexcusable.

 

You think the voters actually watch the games? They just see the score so Tulane game was a blowout from their perspective

 

The voters don't watch but they also just look at records. They see 5 losses vs 2 or 3 and that just means the two or three loss team is better, they don't care who they play either. These polls are typically garbage just based on that.

 

Essentially the same standard for picking playoff teams used by folks who run college football.