Florida football: Gators add Utah to nonconference slate in 2022, 2023

Florida football is expected to announce a future home-and-home series with the Utah Utes.

This announcement couldn’t have been timed better as the Gators head into their second FCS game of the 2019 campaign.

Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun tweeted, per his sources, the 2022 contest will take place in Gainesville and Florida football will travel to Salt Lake City in 2023.

University of Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin continues the trend of beefing of future nonconference opponents by setting up another interesting matchup for the Florida fanbase.

Earlier in the year, Stricklin announced future home-and-home games with Colorado, Texas, Miami (FL), and a two-for-one with USF. Kudos to Stricklin for completely revamping Florida’s nonconference schedule!

The cheapest flights out of Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa to Salt Lake City currently run around $300, so Florida’s first trip to play at Utah this should be a popular road trip for the Gator Nation.

In November 2018, Utah announced an $80 million renovation for their home-field, Rice-Eccles Stadium, which will be ready before the 2021 season.

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the facility upgrade is expected to add a little over 5,000 seats to bring the new capacity to just north of 50,000. Utah has sold out 57 consecutive football games meaning Gator Nation can expect to pay a hefty ticket price for the Salt Lake City game.

Florida and Utah met once before in 1977. The Gators downed the Utes 38-29 in front of a homecoming crowd in Gainesville on November 19 after trailing 17-10 at the half.

The two schools share recent history though.

In 2004, Florida hired Utah head coach Urban Meyer after leading the Utes to their first unbeaten, untied season since 1930. Meyer went on to win two national titles while in Gainesville.

Florida football head coach Dan Mullen coached the quarterbacks for Utah under Meyer and followed the coach to Gainesville to serve as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach during a wildly successful run. Current Gators Co-OC Billy Gonzales also coached the Utah receivers in 2004.

Utah head coach Kyle Wittingham served as defensive coordinator under Meyer at Utah and accepted a promotion to the head job after Meyer’s departure.

Though the Utes have not reached 2004 heights, Whittingham led a successful transition from the Mountain West into the Pac-12 and has maintained high standards for Utah football.

While you’re watching the Gators throttle another FCS opponent this weekend, remember, big-time nonconference football is on its way in the near future.

Keep it up, Stricklin!