Florida Football: Three takeaways from the Gators’ 2016 schedule
Florida kicks off spring practice on Wednesday. In spirit of the Gators taking the field again after a long offseason, Hail Florida Hail analyzes UF’s 2016 football schedule.
A year ago, the storyline was whether or not first-year head coach Jim McElwain could turn things around and get the storied Florida football program headed in the right direction again.
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And that’s exactly what he did — at least through the first 11 games.
McElwain had his Gators sitting at a 10-1 record and SEC East champions heading into the final stretch of the season. But then Florida State, Alabama and Michigan happened. And what had been a championship-contending team quickly morphed into a group that couldn’t buy a first down or defend any given pass-happy offense.
The expectations for Year 2 of the McElwain era are far greater than those in Year 1. Because of that, Florida will look to build off of last year’s late-season mishaps as it vies to replicate a division title run.
We’re still a month out from the Gators going under the lights of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in this year’s version of the Orange & Blue Debut on Friday, Apr. 8. But with spring practice officially underway, it’s never too early to look ahead to the next season of Florida football.
First, here’s how the schedule shapes up:
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It certainly won’t be easy for the Gators to surpass last season’s level of achievement with such a daunting schedule. With that said, here are the most notable takeaways from the upcoming slate:
Another year, another weak non-conference schedule
Yet again, Florida plays an abysmal and embarrassing crop of non-conference opponents.
Aside from the meeting with in-state rival Florida State at the end of the season, the Gators’ 2016 schedule is riddled with cupcakes Massachusetts, North Texas and Presbyterian. The Minutemen and the Mean Green, who posted a combined 4-20 record in 2015, will pad UF‘s early-season slate, while the Blue Hose — an FCS team that finished last season 2-9 overall — serves as a nice glorified bye the week before the Sunshine Showdown with the Seminoles.
No stretches of tough consecutive games
Honestly, it’s a tough schedule for Florida.
Top-to-bottom, it’s absolutely loaded with talented teams. Then again, that’s always the case when you play in the SEC. But the Gators can take solace in knowing they don’t play a string of particularly arduous games consecutively this season.
The most rugged stretch will begin on Sept. 24 when UF travels to Tennessee, followed by a trip to Vanderbilt on Oct. 1 and closing on Oct. 8 with a matchup against LSU back in Gainesville. Meetings with Georgia and Arkansas in back-to-back weeks — both away from the Swamp — will be laborious too, but at least the Gators have the bye week beforehand to prepare.
Sleepers to watch
Obviously South Carolina will be motivated and could be surprisingly competitive against the Gators next season considering who the Gamecocks selected as their head coach. But UF may not want to overlook its conference brethren from Nashville.
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Florida fans saw what happened against Vanderbilt last season. It took a miracle (an Austin Hardin made field goal) to edge the Commodores 9-7 on Homecoming.
Vandy’s defense should be just as good as it was last year; add in the fact that the ‘Dores are sandwiched between Tennessee and LSU for a potential trap game and the Gators’ task at hand becomes that much more difficult.