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OK, the High Five is back after taking some time off during football season (and Grading the Gators) and another couple of weeks for the holidays (and Gaining The Weight).
We will start out with the five reasons Florida’s schedule is so difficult in 2024. Most consider it the toughest in the nation. As Maggie O’Hooligan said in Caddyshack, “Tanks fer nuttin’.”
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Let’s blame it on the AD
When athletic director Scott Stricklin took over at UF, one of his first goals was to upgrade the schedule. Remember this was in the midst of college football attendance being on a rapid decline. Well, we didn’t see COVID coming and the bump after the pandemic means you didn’t have to schedule three Power Four teams to get full stadiums. Of course, we didn’t know that then.
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And they are all in state
Look, UCF was 6-7 last year and Miami was 7-6. FSU lost a ton of players. But you know how important these in-state games are. You know the Florida game is circled on at least three sets of calendars.
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Opponents are killing it in the portal
Every time a player jumps into the portal, I start thinking about how he might fit in at UF. Then, he commits to a team on Florida’s 2024 schedule. If you took just the players who were on other teams in 2023 who will play against Florida this season it would be like an all-star team.
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It’s difficult to pencil in wins
No Vanderbilt. No South Carolina. Shoot, the Samford program knows it can score in the 50s in The Swamp. The plus is that Florida plays seven home games, but the Gators may need to go 6-1 to have a shot at a bowl game.
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The finish
Florida plays UCF in the fifth game of the season. After that, the Gators play seven games against teams that went 75-19 last season and six of the seven games are against teams that won at least nine games last year. Cue Maggie O’Hooligan.
WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.
