Florida Gators Football Preview Predictions and Schedule 2011
After winning 13 Games in 3 of the last 4 years, the Florida Gators fell to just 8-5 a year ago in a season that saw them blown out by Alabama, South Carolina and Florida State. Urban Meyer stepped down at years end and whatever the real reason, one has to wonder if perhaps Meyer saw the writing on the wall with this team. They lose most of their defense and half of their offense, all the while teams like South Carolina are getting better.
As if losing tons of talent isn’t enough, the Gators bring in 1st time coach Will MUSChamp to steer the ship. MUSChamp bring with him a new coaching staff along with new schemes on both sides of the ball. When that happens, you can expect a learning curve.
But this is still Florida. There’s talent remaining from Urban Meyer’s efforts. The Florida Gators will always attract some fantastic talent. The biggest question mark is Will MUSChamp and whether or not he will be able to fill the big shoes of Urban Meyer.
A few key Games will be the differeNCe between an 8 win season and a 10 or 11 win season. Alabama, LSU, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida State will be their biggest tests. They start the year with 4 winnable Games and has Games Vandy and Furman later in the season. Auburn should be down a notch and very beatable so if the Gators can grab a couple of wins in the meat of their Schedule we’re looking at another 8 win season.
We’ll go ahead and predict an 8 win season. But we wouldn’t be shocked to see that win total come in at 6 or 7 as the team suffers through some growing pains. We would be shocked if they won more than 8. From a betting standpoint, the Gators will have a chance to avenge 4 of their 5 losses from a year ago as they play Alabama, LSU, South Carolina and Florida State. The only team missing is Miss State. October 1st will tells us quite a bit. That’s when they face Alabama, at home. The Gators could very well be 4-0 heading into that one.
2011 Florida Gators Football Schedule
9-3-11 FLORIDA ATLANTIC
9-10-11 UAB
9-17-11 TENNESSEE
9-24-11 at Kentucky
10-1-11 ALABAMA
10-8-11 at Louisiana State
10-15-11 at Auburn
10-29-11 Georgia @Jacksonville, FL
11-5-11 VANDERBILT
11-12-11 at South Carolina
11-19-11 FURMAN
11-26-11 FLORIDA STATE