Florida may be sitting outside the preseason polls, but CBS Sports thinks the Gators have a real path to the College Football Playoff conversation.
Brad Crawford included Florida among eight unranked teams he believes could take preseason skepticism personally and turn it into something bigger this season. The Gators were the first team on his list, a nod to both the talent on hand and the possibility that Jon Sumrall’s first team in Gainesville could get moving fast enough to matter.
There’s plenty to sort out before that becomes anything more than a theory. Florida still has no settled starter at quarterback, with redshirt sophomore Aaron Philo and redshirt freshman Tramell Jones Jr. battling for the job. The offensive line also remains a work in progress as UF tries to identify its best starting five, and there are open competitions in the secondary as well.
Even with those questions hanging over fall camp, Sumrall doesn’t sound interested in chasing outside opinions. When asked on Aug. 4 about the rankings, he brushed them off.
"I don't even look at it. I don't know," Sumrall said on Aug.
- "They out?"
His defensive coordinator, Brad White, took the same line. He warned that leaning too hard into bulletin-board chatter can pull a team away from what actually matters once the season starts.
"As soon as you start weaving into that lane, then you lose track of what you're actually trying to do. The bulletin board material, the this, the that, like, those are fleeting.
You can use it to run out of the locker room, right? You might get it in the first series, but as soon as you catch the first pop to the face or it's the first tag, all of that goes away.
Now you're just playing ball," White said. "So whatever you need to do to keep them focused during the week, okay, maybe that helps focus.
But the reality is, it's 60 minutes on a Saturday, or Friday after Thanksgiving, and that's all that matters. Forget the noise.
Forget who's ranked what. Forget what the records are.
Forget that. The person across from you doesn't respect you, and you shouldn't respect that person across from you.
The goal is to take everything that they have and they want. That's it, and if we can get to the point that teams don't want to line up against you, or at least they have doubt about it, now we've accomplished what we want to do on defense."
Crawford’s case for Florida starts with Sumrall himself. He described the coach’s blueprint as one that “travels,” pointing to teams that play fast, hit hard and avoid beating themselves. That kind of formula, he wrote, can swing close games in a demanding SEC schedule.
The optimism also comes with some roster logic. Florida kept a core intact and added portal help where it needed it most.
Wide receiver stands out as one of the stronger spots on the roster, and Crawford noted that Sumrall has won right away at every previous stop. In Gainesville, he’ll have more resources than he did at Troy or Tulane.
If the Gators establish an identity quickly and make it through September, Crawford believes they have enough coaching, talent and home-field advantage to push into the playoff picture.
The schedule, though, is no joke. Florida has to deal with Georgia in Atlanta, plus Texas, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Missouri all away from Gainesville. That kind of road-heavy slate is the main reason the climb looks so steep.
Still, there is a clear early marker to watch. If Florida can find rhythm on offense and go to Auburn in Week 3 and come out 3-0, the Sept. 26 meeting with Ole Miss at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium would suddenly carry real national weight. Crawford called Ole Miss and Missouri the only ranked opponents Florida faces in the first half of the season, and he believes both are games the Gators can win.
For a team that wasn’t included in the AP preseason top 25 and didn’t crack USA Today’s coaches poll, the idea of a playoff run is still very much in the “prove it” stage. But that hasn’t stopped Florida fans from hoping Crawford’s read is the right one: that the Gators can emerge as an under-the-radar contender for a first-ever CFP berth.
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