For a night, at least, Florida football pushed a team around, playing with physicality and effort in a 24-13 win over UCF at The Swamp on Saturday.
Now, the Florida Gators (3-2, 1-1 SEC) enter the crux of their 2024 schedule with some confidence after back-to-back wins over Mississippi State and UCF. The original gauntlet of the schedule was thought to be the final five games, but with Florida State’s shocking fade into ineptitude (1-5, 1-4 SEC), the new gauntlet becomes UF’s final six conference games.
Of the six, five come against teams ranked in the top 10 of the US LBM Coaches Poll, beginning with Saturday’s matchup at No. 9 Tennessee, where UF could easily get Rocky Toppled if it doesn’t come with the right mindset. Per BetMGM, Florida enters the game as a 15.5-point underdog. A frenzied crowd of 101,195 at Neyland Stadium awaits in a rivalry game that during the 1990s often determined the SEC title.
“In this league, in the current dynamic, it’s one week,” Florida football coach Billy Napier said. “It’s like you got to get consumed with preparing. You got to prepare with some humility so that you can play with confidence.”
After dropping two of its first three by double digits to Miami and Texas A&M at The Swamp, UF’s two-game winning streak hasn’t done much to change the overall perception of the program. USA Today still rates Florida as 13th out of 16 SEC teams in its weekly power ratings, ahead of just South Carolina, Auburn and Mississippi State.
But Vanderbilt’s upset over Alabama shows that anything can happen in the SEC. No. 1 Texas (5-0) is the only unbeaten left in the SEC. The Vols lost at Arkansas last week. Kentucky upset Ole Miss 20-17 after losing at home to South Carolina. Ole Miss responded by pounding the same South Carolina team that beat Kentucky, 27-3.
Napier compared the parity that exists in the SEC to the NFL.
“The personnel, because of the portal, I think there is just the ability to put teams together, fix things on your roster,” Napier said. “Got two times a year where you can address through free agency. Got to go patch up some holes.
“I just think all the good players at the lower levels are moving up. There is a huge desire to play in this league, but also the teams in this league have the resources to put together really good teams and rosters.”
Florida football will find out if it can punch with SEC heavyweights
Napier is trying to sell that Florida wasn’t overmatched against Miami and Texas A&M, that the Gators simply didn’t play their best football on those two afternoons and that there’s room to grow during the course of the season. Coming off an open week, Florida did display defensive improvement against UCF. holding the Knights to 108 yards rushing on 2.7 yards per carry while recording 5 sacks.
But UCF, in just its second year in the Big 12, is still transitioning into becoming a power conference program. That showed when the Knights were drubbed 48-21 at home by Deion Sanders-led Colorado the week before.
Over the course of the next two months, Florida will find out how far it’s come since its September stumble to start the season.
“When you face adversity, I think you see the true character of your locker room,” Florida wide receiver Chimere Dike said. “But it’s just continuing to take steps forward.”
Florida could end up catching the Vols at the right time. Tennessee hasn’t clicked offensively since it began conference play, averaging just 19.5 points in its two conference games, including its 19-14 loss at Arkansas. Meanwhile, Florida quarterback Graham Mertz brings more experience into the matchup compared to talented but green Tennessee redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
“Last couple weeks we’ve had really good weeks of practice,” Dike said. “We continue to get better. I think it’s just doing the same exact thing going into this week, getting involved in our plan and going outside and playing free.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida football looking to continue upward trend at No. 9 Tennessee
