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Florida football: The Gators have a lot of doubters heading into 2022

By Benjamin Henderson

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 27: Anthony Richardson #15 of the Florida Gators celebrates after defeating the Florida State Seminoles 24-21 in a game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on November 27, 2021 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 27: Anthony Richardson #15 of the Florida Gators celebrates after defeating the Florida State Seminoles 24-21 in a game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on November 27, 2021 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images) /
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It is no secret that Florida football was a dumpster fire by the end of last season. The Gators were blown out by South Carolina, lost to Missouri, and gave UCF fans one of their greatest wins ever in the Gasparilla Bowl.

Florida finished the season 6-7, unranked, without a coach, and without a lot of momentum heading into the offseason.

So at a glance, we shouldn’t get too upset that the national media have few expectations for Florida to achieve anything great this season. And while the potential floor for Florida this season is low, the ceiling for this program is also quite high.

If you are doubting Florida based on last season, do you. But you are doing so at your own risk.

Florida football will improve

Going back through last season, there are only two games in that Florida didn’t have a pathway to victory:

  • Georgia
  • South Carolina

In the other five losses:

  • Alabama – The Gators would have beaten the Crimson Tide in overtime if not for a missed extra point.
    • “But Ben, how do you know they would have won in OT?” Were you paying attention to the game? Florida had all of the momentum in the second half and would have won on a walk-off touchdown.
  • Kentucky – Special teams haunt Florida again after a blocked field goal is returned for a touchdown
  • LSU – If Dan Mullen starts Anthony Richardson, and had a defensive coordinator not named Todd Grantham that knew how to stop a simple trap play, Florida wins that game
  • Missouri – Literally if Florida stops a two-point conversion in OT it wins the game
  • UCF – Congrats Knights, you needed a second-half comeback to defeat one of the least motivated Florida teams in history. Party emoji for all.

Florida was three plays and a QB change at the right time away from a 10-2 season in 2021. And that was with all the flaws that team had.

I’m aware we can play the “What if” game with a lot of teams every year. Nebraska holds the title of “Greatest 3-9 team ever.”

The difference is that on paper, Florida still has enough talent on the roster that 10-2 is the expectation, not the exception. Last season Florida’s composite talent ranking was 7th in the country according to 247 Sports.

Yet prediction after prediction seems to have zero faith in the Gators going into 2022:

  • Saturday Blitz has Florida going 8-4 with losses to Tennessee and FSU
  • Athlon Sports has Florida going 7-5 (again, predicting a loss to Tennessee)
  • ESPN’s FPI also predicts 7-5 (losing to the throw up inside a pumpkin orange team)
  • Matt Stinchcomb of the SEC Network only foresees a 6-6 year for Florida
  • USA Today’s Tipico Sportsbook thinks Florida somehow is worse this year and finishes 5-7

Florida football is getting a massive upgrade at QB. The offensive line features multiple guys that are on NFL radars. The corners and linebackers will line up properly this season. The coaching staff will play the best players with consistency.

The only way that Florida football finishes worse than 7-5 is if Anthony Richardson gets hurt, suspended, or leaves the team to go be on the Masked Singer. As we have chronicled, there isn’t a QB behind him that invokes much confidence.

Beyond that why are we convincing ourselves that when Florida travels to the Garbage Truck Workers Convention (the locals call in Knoxville) that Hendon Hooker is unstoppable?

Todd Grantham shut down Hooker last season. If Todd Grantham, the man who couldn’t stop a basic trap play from LSU, can stop Hooker anyone can. Fun fact I saw on Twitter, Vanderbilt has more wins over Georgia in the last 16 years than Tennessee has over Florida in that same period.

Why are we convinced that Will Levis, that man who consciously chooses to eat bananas with the peel still on, will make correct choices with consistency? Spoiler alert, the scouting on him is that his field vision is poor.

Texas A&M will be tough. In theory. How many times do we have to hype up the Aggies before anyone will point out that Texas A&M has only won more than 10 games in a season once since 1999?

Utah and LSU are at home. Georgia still doesn’t have an offense and lost all their defense to the NFL. Florida still has a better talent composite compared to Missouri and South Carolina. FSU is still a dumpster fire. USF and Eastern Washington are schools that at least hand out accredited degrees.

Florida does have several coin flip games and if they lose all the coin flips like last year then it could be a 7-5 season.

But 7-5 is the floor if everything goes wrong. If everything goes right who is to say that an 11-1 season isn’t outside the realm of possibility?

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