Florida’s brief run in the AP Top 25 is over, and it ended in a hurry.
Two weeks ago, the Gators were sitting at No. 8 in the country. Now they’ve been pushed all the way down to the margins of the poll, landing 32nd with just nine votes after back-to-back blowout losses.
That puts Florida behind James Madison, which collected 29 votes. Not exactly the kind of comparison the Gators wanted to see after their early rise through the rankings.
The rest of the AP Top 25 after Week 6 was reshuffled at the top, with Georgia taking over the No. 1 spot. Notre Dame checked in at No. 2, followed by Miami, Ohio State and Indiana.
Alabama landed at No. 6, Texas fell to No. 7, and BYU rounded out the top eight.
Here’s how the full top 25 looked after Week 6:
- Georgia, 6-0 (66 first-place votes)
- Notre Dame, 6-0 (1)
- Miami, 5-0 (2)
- Ohio State, 5-1
- Indiana, 6-0 (1)
- Alabama, 5-1
- Texas, 4-1
- BYU, 5-0
- Ole Miss, 4-1
- Texas Tech, 5-0
- Utah, 5-0
- UCLA, 5-0
- Missouri, 5-1
- Tennessee, 5-1
- Kentucky, 5-1
- Mississippi State, 4-1
- Iowa, 5-1
- Oklahoma State, 4-1
- USC, 6-1
- Houston, 5-1
- Wake Forest, 5-1
- LSU, 4-2
- Boise State, 5-1
- SMU, 4-1
- Northwestern, 4-1
The teams still getting votes outside the top 25 were Wisconsin with 92, Oregon with 86, Arizona with 82, Nebraska with 65, Oklahoma with 44, James Madison with 29, Florida with 9, Duke with 5, New Mexico with 3 and Oregon State with 1.
Florida’s climb earlier this season had been quick. The Gators started unranked, then shot up to No. 8 after the first four weeks. That stretch included a road win at Auburn and a dominant showing against Ole Miss that, according to the source, effectively knocked Trinidad Chambliss out of the Heisman race.
Florida is hardly the only team to crater after an early surge. Oregon, Texas A&M and Oklahoma were all preseason top-10 teams and are now unranked.
Michigan, Washington, Penn State and Louisville also dropped out after spending time in the top 20. LSU, another highly ranked preseason team, is now No. 22 and faces Alabama and Texas in the coming week.
That churn is exactly why some coaches have long pushed back against preseason rankings and the early rush to elevate teams before the season has really settled in. Kentucky at No. 15 and Wake Forest at No. 21 are this week’s examples of teams moving up after being unranked a week ago, while Florida’s plunge serves as the sharpest reminder yet of how quickly the poll can swing the other way.
In Other News...
Gators Have A Bigger Problem Than One Ugly Home Loss
Floridas 38-19 home loss to South Carolina was ugly enough on its own, but the bigger concern is how quickly the game slipped away after a promising opening. The Gators defense forced early three-and-outs and looked capable of setting the tone, only to fade as the afternoon went on and allow 279 passing yards and 116 on the ground. For a team trying to establish itself under Jon Sumrall, it was the kind of performance that raises more questions than it answers.
The offense didnt offer much relief. Floridas run game was largely ineffective, leaving too much on Anthony Richardsons shoulders as the pocket tightened around him. Richardson finished with 227 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception, but the overall picture was a unit that never found a rhythm and a defense that couldnt sustain its early stops, which is a harder problem to ignore than one bad home loss. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas Problems Just Got Bigger For Jon Sumrall
Floridas rough patch deepened with a 38-19 loss to South Carolina, coming on the heels of the setback against Missouri and leaving the Gators searching for answers on both sides of the ball. The offense never found much rhythm, and the defense spent too much of the afternoon getting picked apart, a combination that has made this stretch feel less like a stumble and more like a broader regression.
Jon Sumrall did not sugarcoat the situation afterward, expressing frustration with the performance while stressing that this group is still very much a work in progress. The timing makes the next stretch especially unforgiving, with Texas and Georgia looming and little margin left for Florida to clean up the issues that have piled up over the past two weeks. [Read more 🡒]
Florida's Slide Just Made A Brutal Stretch Feel Even Bigger
Two straight losses have pushed Florida out of the rankings, turning an already difficult stretch into something that feels even more significant for Billy Napiers team. In the broader college football picture, the latest projection has reshuffled the top 25 after a busy run of results, with Georgia, Texas and Alabama still sitting near the top while Florida is left trying to regain footing rather than worry about where it landed.
For the Gators, the problem is less about one bad Saturday than the way the slide has changed the temperature around the season. Being unranked after consecutive defeats adds pressure to every upcoming game, especially with the rest of the sport continuing to sort itself out around them. Florida does not just need a response now. It needs one soon enough to keep this rough stretch from defining the rest of the year. [Read more 🡒]