I agree Auburn is very beatable but in Jordan-Hare strange things happen to Florida.....pass interferences, phantom fumbles.......you name it. But let's say this team overcomes that.......last year's team would not have done so. In any event SouCar will be very tough to beat in Columbia ( did you see Lattimore chew up the Gators last year......I did.....in person ). FSU is winnable because it's in the Swamp but UF lost three last year in the Swamp.....which brings us to Tenn whose fans all think they can beat UF this year in Gainesville. Worry I will.
That well known expert Beno Cook has Georgia in the BCS Championship game. Right now the Gators have very good players on the rooster but only 71 scholarship players heading into the season and likely to lose a couple more. Depth could be our biggest opponent.
Oh....and on playing at Auburn....I left out field goals kicked from 59 yards against hurricane force winds with no time left..... :cry: ....and in Emmitt Smith's last season at Florida the Auburn Qb throwing for a winning TD on 4th and forever. :cry: The list goes on and on at Jordan-Hare for UF......oh forget it....write that one off as an unexpected loss.....
Georgia in the BCS Championship game? They didn't have a good season last year, have they got a ton of starters returning or something to bump them all the way up to that level?
Georgia? BCS Champion? That's Beano's looniest prediction since......well.....you Domers know where I am going.... It does however underscore why Georgia belongs in the "Gauntlet" of 4 in a row that Florida must face in October.
Beno didn't pick them to win it all, but to be in the game. One thing for sure is that they always have talent and have won a couple of SEC Championships under Richt but never gone all the way. One year they had one loss, won the SEC and would have been in the Championship game instead of Ohio State except that ...................... ...................................................................................................... The Gators gave them their one loss!! And I think Zook was the coach.
You are correct Bill......Zook zooked em! One of the top 5 sweetest victories ever over Georgia imho.
Georgia in the title game? Didn't anyone tell Beano that Georgia will have to run through the Charmin Gauntlet of the SEC East?
While the West may be stronger this coming season I think Tn and Ga will be improved and SC looks like the favorite to win the East Title again. Notice in UF's 4 game "gauntlet" 3 of the 4 teams I list are West teams.
re: Gauntlet If Georgia is the toughest in the SEC as some experts are saying, then what happens on September 3rd if Boise State beats them? The game is in Georgia and the Broncos are just a lowly Mountain West team... BTW- how good is Georgia's pass defense? I think we're about to find out...
You avoided the question. Georgia is part of your 'Gauntlet" and you play them on a neutral field in your own state. How does your gauntlet stack up if Boise State...without a single 4 or 5 star recruit on their roster...beats them between the hedges? If I were the Bulldogs, I'd be worried. Boise State returns Kellen Moore at QB. He led the nation in passing efficiency last year and finished 4th in the Heisman race. With 8 more wins, he will sail past Colt McCoy as the winningest QB in college football history. Furthermore, his line gave up only 8 sacks all of last year and he's still protected by LT Nate Potter who will be a first round draft choice. This is all bad news for a Georgia secondary that gave up bomb after bomb last season: especially on third down...
Hey Dave, Phil Steele doesn't even rate the Gators schedule in the top 20!! He puts them at #23! Irish at #14. If you look at the NCAA method Irish are at #6 and Gators down at #36. Gauntlet? What Gauntlet!! Top Schedules
We will see by the end of the year. However historically by the end of the season Florida's schedule is typically top 10. So our not so strong schedule includes 3 of the last 4 National Champions. We can't play 4 out of 4 because we own one of them. Put another way we play as many of the last 5 National Champions as it is possible to put on our schedule. LSU, Alabama and Auburn. The NCAA method is fatally flawed. I have pointed this out before, but at the end of the season the cumulative record of any Conference against Conference opponents is .500, half wins and half losses. So that means that if you play a round robin against your conference that everyone is basically starting from the same base. And we know that is not true. That means that you would get the same amount of credit for playing every team in Conference USA as playing every team in the SEC. What rational person believes that. Dismiss the NCAA version completely. Phil Steele puts a lot of thought into what he says and I give him credit for that and take his serious. However even though I am not a big fan of computer polls they do a pretty good job of schedule strength because they take into consideration the actual strength of the opponent and not just their record. I'll check out now and you all can needle MCG to your hearts content and I can live with the fact that year in and year out the Gator schedule at the end of the year is almost always in the top 5 - 10.
Just to clarify, THIS is a gauntlet: • In 2012, the Irish travel all the way to Ireland for the opener against Navy, and also trek to Michigan State, Oklahoma, USC, Boston College, with an off-site game versus Miami — and, oh, Michigan, Stanford, BYU and Pitt are also on there. Play the opener in another country. Coast to coast travel against top programs. Its not just who you play. Its where you play. The Gators won't travel that much in the next 50 sseasons.
Gators play a good tough schedule overall, they are heavier on the patsies than most but SEC schedule plus a apparently revived FSU will mean that will play a very good schedule overall and SOS will not hurt them in any way. I know Bill and a lot of gators wouldn't mind playing out of the SEC region, but realize it's not happening.
I respect your opinion and your right to your opinion George, but that's all it is, your opinion. Year in and year out the Gators end the season with a schedule as tough or even tougher than Notre Dame. Like it or not that is the truth. Just my opinion.