Florida Football was battered in the headlines in the early part of the 2024 season. We here at Hail Florida Hail may or may not have played a role in some of those headlines, but we will also acknowledge that Florida has righted the ship from a narrative standpoint heading into the offseason.
While the Gators won't be participating in the playoffs, and a win in the Gasparilla Bowl isn't a magic potion to kickstart 2025, Florida should have a lot of people watching on Friday as the Gators have a chance to fully turnaround their narrative heading into the offseason.
Florida Football: The country is watching
At 8 PM on Friday, Indiana will take on Notre Dame as the opening game of the expanded playoffs. But at 3:30, Florida will take the field as the lead-in for the playoffs and should get a sizable audience to watch.
There are plenty of reasons why ESPN would have positioned Florida as the lead in bowl game, the main one being DJ Lagway. The freshman phenom was undefeated in games he started and finished in 2024, and the Gasparilla Bowl represents a chance to showcase his arm in front of the entire country.
Put up big numbers against Tulane, and Florida will morph into one of the "darkhorse" teams to make a run at the playoffs in 2025. He already is getting some predictions logged that he will be a Heisman finalist next season.
As we wrote earlier, a win against Tulane won't act as a magic springboard by itself. Of the 41 bowl winners from last season, only seven of them increased their win total in 2024 by two wins, and no bowl winner in 2023 increased their total by three or more.
But recruiting this summer should be more rosy if Florida can put on a show, as the narrative surrounding Florida will be much more positive than it was heading into this past season.
Florida takes on Tulane at 3:30 on Friday in Tampa.