Florida football: Gators will open the 2023 season on Thursday night
By Will Thomas
![Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier leads his team out of the tunnel and onto the field at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, October 15, 2022. Before the start of the LSU game. LSU defeated the Gators 45-35. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]Ncaa Football Florida Gators Vs Lsu Tigers](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F7d2d4d988943517ac3c90e452a69af8df1ab47d99c758e8b63b19dd371fb2ab1.jpg "Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier leads his team out of the tunnel and onto the field at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, October 15, 2022. Before the start of the LSU game. LSU defeated the Gators 45-35. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]Ncaa Football Florida Gators Vs Lsu Tigers")
Florida football’s opening game for this upcoming season is a big rematch against Utah, a team that the Gators knocked off in thrilling fashion in week one of last season.
This year, the Gators have to travel out to Salt Lake City to take on the Utes who will be looking for revenge in front of their home crowd.
Now, the opener has a bit of a twist.
Rather than being played on Saturday, September 2nd, the opener for most teams next season, the game is being moved a few days earlier to Thursday, August 31st.
One of the reasons for this move was travel complications. As some may remember, Utah had a really hard time getting out of Gainesville after their matchup last season. They had to spend the night at the Gainesville Regional Airport after their plane had issued and couldn’t leave town.
The idea behind moving the game to Thursday is that it gives Florida the night after the game to stay in town, and then have all of Friday to travel back home.
Salt Lake City to Gainesville isn’t the easiest commute, so this will take a burden off of the Gator players and staff.
Another big factor in the decisions was the PAC-12 Network. When the game was scheduled for September 2nd, it was noted that the network would have a say in when the game was played.
In the end, the network pushed for a Thursday night game to put the spotlight on Salt Lake City and reduce competitors on game night.
Playing on Thursday night is a strange feeling for Florida fans. And it may not be the best thing that we get the eyes of just about every college football fan on us in a week one hostile environment against a team out to get us back.
But there’s nothing wrong with more attention from the country, and this could be a big-time spot for Napier to show the country that he’s turning the program around.
Keep up with Florida football at Hail Florida Hail.