Florida’s preseason FPI ranking comes with a built-in warning label.
Yes, the Gators land at No. 18, which is a respectable early nod for Jon Sumrall’s first year in charge. But the number also tells the other side of the story: Florida is staring at a brutal run of opponents, with six teams in the preseason FPI Top 25.
Those opponents are stacked high in the rankings, too. Florida will see No.
2 Texas, No. 5 Georgia, No.
12 Oklahoma, No. 14 Ole Miss, No.
22 Auburn and No. 23 South Carolina.
That means the Gators have four teams sitting inside the top 14 alone.
The FPI is hardly a perfect crystal ball. In a college football world shaped by the Transfer Portal and constant roster turnover, it can be a shaky guide at best.
Still, some things are easy to trust. Texas and Georgia are usually excellent.
Oklahoma and Ole Miss are getting plenty of belief from the college football crowd. Auburn is harder to figure out, and South Carolina is its own kind of mystery.
There are also rankings that raise eyebrows for other reasons. Texas Tech checks in at No. 10 even though the source material points to major questions around the departure of Brendan Sorsby, the loss of its two best defensive players to the NFL draft and a quarterback it spent a ridiculous amount of money on who won’t play this year.
For Florida, though, the main issue is the calendar. The Gators open SEC play against Auburn on September 19, then turn around and host Ole Miss.
After that, four of the next five games come against teams in the preseason FPI Top 25. The lone exception in that stretch is Missouri, which might have the best running back in the nation.
None of that is exactly unfamiliar territory for Florida fans. The schedule has been unforgiving for years, and the only comfort is that it could have been even nastier. The SEC schedule makers could have added LSU and Texas A&M, and Arkansas’ yearly draw was held up as another example of how uneven things can get.
In Other News...
Former Florida GM Just Reignited The Billy Napier Blame Debate
Billy Napiers Florida tenure is back in the conversation, and this time the pushback is coming from inside the same orbit that once helped build it. Jason LaFrance, who served as Floridas general manager and is now an associate athletic director at James Madison, said the Gators roster in Napiers fourth year had enough talent to stack up with just about anyone in the country, a pointed assessment for a program that never turned that promise into a run at the national level.
Napier has since moved on to James Madison, where he is taking over after Bob Chesney left for UCLA, but the Florida debate he left behind is still very much alive. The Gators did not produce the kind of breakthrough season their roster suggested was possible, and LaFrances comments only sharpen the question of how much of that failure belonged to the talent on hand and how much belonged to the coaching. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Just Missed On A Priority QB Sumrall Really Needed
Florida spent real time on the trail of one of the nations most coveted young quarterbacks, and Kingston Preyear had given the Gators enough reason to stay involved. The four-star from Alabama has been on the radar as a top-tier 2028 signal-caller, and Floridas staff, under Jon Sumrall, worked to keep the conversation moving after he visited Gainesville in March and returned for the programs camp in June.
Alabama ultimately won out in the end, landing the in-state standout and leaving Florida to regroup after missing on a priority target it badly wanted in the class. For the Gators, it is another reminder that early quarterback recruiting can turn quickly, especially when a player ranked among the best at his position nationally starts narrowing the field. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Fans Are Watching Keldrid Ben For One Reason
Keldrid Ben has become a familiar name on Floridas recruiting radar, even if the path here has always pointed elsewhere. The four-star running back has been committed to Oklahoma since December, but the Gators still made a push with an offer in March and campus visits in April and May, enough to keep his name in the conversation as he heads toward a scheduled announcement about his recruitment.
For Florida fans, the interest is obvious because Ben is the type of back any staff would want to at least keep tracking. Still, the expectation around the announcement is that it will be more of a closing moment than a surprise twist, with the focus on family, friends and community as he wraps up the process and puts a final bow on the decision he has been building toward for months. [Read more 🡒]