But there is ‘hype’ around the gators, and though they may not have watched the games orbdug into the stats, they will have heard about the turnaround and this young hotshot Lagway that is undefeated as a starter. I always think the 20-25 spots are coin flips anyways. No one really cares about those spots, especially at the end of the year. I could see the gators slipping in on the noise alone.
I agree that we will not quite reach the Top 25. But, we did have the second biggest point differential game in the bowl season, so, I think we did fine against Tulane for the purpose of this discussion. We also beat fsu by three touchdowns. I think the issue is that the teams in front of us mostly won, vice what we did or didn't do.
I agree, both wins look great on paper but we all know we should have score 50 plus on both teams. FSU was never in a position to threaten us but I think at times, they were out playing us. Then they would shoot themselves in the foot. Tulane really had not shot against our defense so they were never a threat but our offense should have used this game as an exhibition to go deep a few times. The two INTs looked really bad. But, as I said before, these were learning games away from the Swamp, for our freshman QB. They will pay dividends next season.
I saw another way to early top 25 and Florida was #17. Top 10 is way to high. I really hope we start around 20 to make the team play harder.
The two INTs were just what you said... a true freshman QB with a half-dozen starts under his belt learning the ropes. They were ugly. But, other than that, I have no problem with our performance in those two games. Neither game was close. Big Des even found himself running for fun for a first down. Sure, everyone wants to lay 50 on their rival, but, we weren't seriously threatened in either game.
Yep, preseason somewhere in the teens to low 20's. Get some w's and move up. Must beat Miamuh. A road win at lsu would be nice too!
Maybe some votes for top 25 but below LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Bama, Georgia, …. Where would voters place TAM versus UF? Lot of Big 10 teams likely above us. Even Michigan could get consideration beating Ohio State and Bama at year end.
Slow start to the game for sure, and DJ definitely has a lot of polishing to do. I'm in total agreement with those thoughts. But, let me ask you this. If the roles were reversed and fsu had beaten us 31-11 with 8 of the 11 points coming on a late garbage-time score, would Gator fans have considered that a dominating win by fsu over us?
When you have a QB that everyone loves you tend to get a bump. And the media can’t stop gushing over DJ. I think we end up between 11-14 to start the season.
I’ll do you one better, with some of the additions (and of course of keys remain healthy) we’ll be ranked possibly top 15 but definitely in 20.
College Football News has us in the top 25 https://collegefootballnews.com/col...nal-rankings-2024-top-25-michigan-alabama-byu
Seems strange that they would drop us by 7 spots (17 to 24) after the bowl game... I wonder if that's a misprint. 24 Florida 8-5 End of Regular Season Rank: 17 CFN 2024 Preseason Ranking: 31 CFN Preseason Record Prediction: 6-6 Last Game: Gasparilla: Florida 33, Tulane 8 EDIT ... nope, I checked, they did drop UF 7 places for blowing out Tulane. Strange poll.
Nope, didn't crack the top 25... didn't move up at all either in the also receiving votes tally at #33 in the AP ...