T-234 day Pre-season Polls

[Escambia94]

234 days until the mighty Gators begin their quest to begin anew in Year 1 of the Mus-Chomp era. ESPN's "Way too early" poll for 2011 puts us at #23. College Football Insider has us at #7. There are too many polls to summarize, and they are always wrong any way. Most put Oklahoma and Alabama at #1 and #2. That is reasonable. Where does everyone think the Gators should be preseason ranked?

I think we have the talent and coaching to be placed at #15 or so, and we could sit about that point throughout the season with a couple losses in October. Btw we ended 2010 at #30 or #31, depending on which poll you believe.

Discuss. Where should we be ranked? Where do you think we will end up? We have 234 more days to discuss it...

 

[DRU2012]

"Way Too Early" is right! So hard to say at this point, so many unanswered questions. After signing day, and a look at the broad outline of the depth chart and general scheming on BOTH sides of the ball by late in the Spring should give a good if still rough outline of "what we got".
But now? Let's take wild shot: Looking at the schedule and thinking optimistically (but not completely unrealistically), I can see us hitting 9 wins, and a final regular season ranking in the 12-to-18 range...of course, injuries and a couple of bad breaks in an UNlucky year and PESSIMISTICALLY the same team could repeat this past season's 7-5, and just outside the top 25 again.
Of course, there's the Gator in me where "hope springs eternal", and IT hunkers down now in the dead of winter and dreams of a great and stunning resurgence, a more rapid transformation than anyone but "the faithful" saw coming--but it's WAY too early to give THAT one its due, don't ya think?

 

[Escambia94]

Just because I am bored and I am craving college football...
I think we will somehow go 9-4, with a shot at 10-3. Historically, an SEC team that goes 9-4 can finish as high as #13 as Florida did in '07. In '08, Ole Miss was the highest 9-win team at #14, no thanks to its defeat of the Gators earlier in the year. In the '09 final BCS standings, LSU finished at #17 with 9 wins. In '10, Alabama was the highest 9-win finisher at #16. All we have to do is win 9 games and we should get the benefit of the doubt and start the year ranked way too early at #17 and hope to finish about #15 or better. I am being careful to not get too excited like I did last year. Right after the departure of Tim Tebow, Brandon Spikes, and 9 other soon-to-be NFL starters I figured we would go 9-4 in 2010. Then, I made the mistake of buying into the "Florida does not rebuild--it reloads" hype and "Brantley is the 2nd best passer in SEC and looked sharp as heck in the O&B Debut" hype and figured we had a good shot at 10 or even 11 wins...maybe even 12+.

There is no way with all this talent and all this coaching that we repeat the 2010 season. That takes a lot of cajones for me, a realist/pessimist to assert, but I think it is reasonable to look back at why we went 8-5 last year and assume that the cancer has been excised. Motivated head coach. Check. Fired up offensive coordinator that can make game-time adjustments. Check. Stacked defense. Check. Favorable schedule...not so much. Alabama has a better winning record in our house than we did in 2010, so let's assume they win that one. Death Valley is always scary, and it is the Mad Hatter. Let's assume they win that one. Auburn will lose all of its talent this year unless they come up with another $180K to buy a freak quarterback and a dirty defensive lineman, but they are 3-1 against us with lesser talent...using a defense coached by Will Muschamp in two of those. I think Mus-Chomp will turn the tables on that one and make sure we beat his old team. That leaves South Carolina and Florida State. It's a fresh set of downs between Muschamp and Spurrier, but with a re-energized defensive line we will contain Lattimore and take down USCe. That leaves Florida State. (Do we still call them the School Out West now that Meyer is gone?) Unfortunately, I think we have to wait until 2012 before we can take down the 'Noles. Their defense is back and that offense is still lagging, but it should be enough to hold us off. Maybe that will be where we take back the Swamp. Who knows? That is why they play the game. However, for the next 234 days, I foresee us going no worse than 9-4 with a good shot at 10-3 or better, thus keeping us around #15 in the polls and line for a decent bowl game.

 

[The Zooker]

Judging by Muschamp's first press conference, I think the press will have us in the top five for the final preseason polls.

BOOM!

 

[DRU2012]

Main thing next year is "Getting Ready": Getting things reorganized, re-energized and headed in the right direction. Like you say, E-, cop a mid-teen ranking (or better) and a decent bowl bid, rack up a top-5 recruiting class (or better) in Chomp's & Co.'s first full crack at it, and generally show enough to rate a top-10 ranking (or better) going into 2012.
As for the details, the nuts'n'bolts outcomes of the actual games, figure our "D" will keep us in virtually EVERY game next year, but I figure we'll lose a couple to deeper, more experienced teams on our schedule--however, I've got a hunch that will NOT include SOW (Why NOT keep that one? I like it, it's sneeringly dismissive, and it's OK to remember ol' Urban this way, don't ya think?) when they come to our house. Coach Boom knows how important "owning the Swamp" has been, what a big DEAL taking it back will be--NOW, not later, not "eventually". He'll have that game circled on the calendar from Day 1, Season 1, and "his guys" will be in "Full Kill Mode" by the time it gets here (and all of US right along with them!).
Which, as I project it, will leave us "ready", positioned and prepared in every way that matters for our next big run, beginning in 2012, when I believe we'll play for our next National Championship
--the first of several, as Will, Charlie and the rest envision it. They mean to pull off something unprecedented, I think, summed up in the phrase, "Win soon and win often": Will Muschamp aims to create at Florida a Defense so dominant that it sustains itself, the best coming to play here, thus maintaining that level--and he brought Weis in to do basically the same thing on Offense.
This is going to be fun to watch, I think.

 

[Jack&Dew]

In trying to be realistic, I would not be surprised if we have a record near the same as this year. We all talked about this year being a rebuilding year....next year will TRULY be a rebuilding year on all fronts; offense, defense, special teams, new style of coaching, new style of offense and defense, and completely new attitude.

The Gators can come out and put together a great year if everyone adjusts well and buy into the new program.

My main concern is are the players. I know that our old OC was not exactly Mr. Offensive Genius in his play calling but I also noticed whenever the playbook was even attempted at being opened up the players were unable to respond. I for one thought the Gators should have struggled through it but it was obvious the coached felt it better to keep is simple.

If the players are able to LEARN the new playbook then we have a great shot at having a great year as there is a ton of talent on this team and more coming in.

There is one thing that I think we can all count on....it will not be anywhere near as boring as it has been the last two years on offense!

I need to go into a coma for the next 8 months until the new Gators are ready to take the field. (I hate this time of year)

Go Gators!

 

[DRU2012]

Yeah, I KNOW what you mean...I get through it by telling myself, "We NEED this time, get everyone in, get familiar with each others' talents, styles, personalities--coaches need to see what they got and how to tailor their plans, formations, schemes and plays to suit their personnel, while players need to learn and get used to a new system with new coaches, and NEW guys have to adjust to this level of PLAY."
Not that any of that helps the time move any faster...so we fixate on recruiting, and we look for signs and portents in every piece of news we can pick up on "Gator Radar", and still it feels like we're in some slo-mo version of time that has us frozen in mid-stride.
Somebody want to get a time-clock going--say, "Day's Until Spring Practice Opens", and/or "Days Until Orange/Blue Game"? With Nat'l Signing Day between now and then, we may just have enough "manageable bites" to make it without unduly worrying those close to us.

 

[crmixon]

I do a lot of fishing this time of year. That way I can obsess by my lonesome and the guys with the white coats need not be bothered.

 

[GainesvillebornNraised]

Judging by Muschamp's first press conference, I think the press will have us in the top five for the final preseason polls.

BOOM!

hell no and we dont need to be after last season

our entire offense and most of our defense is unproven

 

[DRU2012]

hell no and we dont need to be after last season

our entire offense and most of our defense is unproven

I'm with you--the only value ANY ranking has at this point is how much ground it leaves a team that turns out later to be having a good season has to travel upwards to make it to the BCS--and our high visibility and national stature alone is enough to get us there should things turn out that way later on.
NOT something we should even be contemplating NOW, given last season, the radical changes since and the holes still to fill.
Let's see what recruiting brings, and how things shake out come the Spring.
For now, I'd rather see us hunker down and work, pull together and see if something good can grow, preferably staying "under the radar" for as long as possible.
Don't worry what the rest of the college football world thinks. We'll make plenty of noise, when the time comes.

 

[Gatorfan24]

I really can't wait to see how this huge change in the program will affect the team. It's gonna be interesting to see that, and im ready to watch any college football right now.

 

[bluemoon22]

I like the 10 to 15 range. We have a lot of talent. It is just a matter of them getting it together and working like a team on the same page. We will have some growing pains with a brand new coaching staff and switching from the spread to more of a pro style offense. Hopefully that transition is smooth and we have a great season.