Florida Gators left looking up in SEC Football Media Poll

After SEC Media Days, the theme for the Florida Gators was one of optimism and positivity. Despite having struggles the past two seasons, Billy Napier believes that Florida isn't far off from being "on schedule" in 2024.

That sense of optimism does not appear to be extended to the SEC media as Florida was pick towards the bottom of their preseason poll.

Florida Football: Only Way Is Up

The Gators were picked 12th in the poll, ahead of only Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Mississippi State is the only team ranked below Florida the Gators will play during their SEC slate of games. In fact, Florida's schedule has four of the top five teams picked in the poll with Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, and LSU.

There is debate that Florida deserves to be higher than Auburn and Texas A&M, but beyond that the reality is Florida's placement in the poll is a reflection of going 5-7 in 2023 after going 6-7 in 2022. As we saw last year though, these polls are also far from being a definitive predictor of how a team is going to preform. Missouri for example was picked next to last in the SEC last year and went on to have a great season. Likewise Texas A&M and South Carolina were propped up last season before having middling seasons.

Florida was also left off having any members of the All-SEC First Team, but did manage to land four players on the second or third team. Montrell Johnson is the lone representative for the offense and Jason Marshall made it for the defense. Both Trey Smack and Jeremy Crawshaw made the preseason team as specialist.

The Gators will open their season on August 31 at home against Miami.