Florida Gators vs Miami Hurricanes has the feel of a WWF Loser Leaves Town match

On August 31, the Florida Gators will welcome the Miami Hurricanes to town for the 2024 college football season opener. Neither has lived up to expectations the past two seasons, and both programs have coaches firmly in the hot seat entering 2024.

One of the teams will get a massive feather in their cap to start the season and hope to ride that momentum through December. However, due to the zero-sum game nature of sports, one of these teams will lose, and the losing coach might only get to stick around their respective program a little longer.

Florida Football: This Town Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us

We don't need to reiterate the struggles Billy Napier has had since arriving in Gainesville. There are 178 articles out there, including some from us here at Hail Florida Hail, detailing what has gone wrong over the past two seasons.

Hope springs eternal in Gainesville, but the reality is that Napier enters his 2024 campaign with a career record at Florida of 11-14.

But as we have noted this week, it is perplexing that Miami has been getting as much love as they have in preseason polls. This is the same Miami that is 12-13 under Mario Cristobal and had the most embarrassing moment in the country last year when he didn't take a knee against Georgia Tech.

Whoever wins this game should be in a position to turn their ship around for the front half of the 2024 season. If Florida is able to beat Miami, they should be capable of beating Samford, Texas A&M, and Mississippi State before they head into their first bye week.

Miami, meanwhile, will follow up with Florida A&M, Ball State, and USF. With a win over Florida, they too should feel confident in starting 4-0.

But someone has to lose this game, and there will be more questions than answers for that team. If Florida can't beat Miami, the 5th easiest team on their schedule according to ESPN FPI, the prospect of not making a bowl game already becomes very real and Napier will be gone.

Cristobal has a slightly longer leash due to his enormous contract and significantly softer schedule, but a loss to Florida would drop him to 12-14 at Miami, and even if he claws back to 14-14, their matchup against USF could turn into his pink slip game if that too goes south.

Thus, we have an old-school WWF Loser Leaves Town match. Some classics from the past include Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior, Mr. Perfect vs. Ric Flair, Edge vs. Matt Hardy, John Cena Vs. Chris Jericho, and now Billy Napier vs Mario Cristobal.

It's only game one of the season, and yet, for both programs desperate for momentum, it feels like so much more.