Greg: Apparently the Gators are stepping up to challenge the Miami Heat for the title of most overrated team in Florida.
While UF’s No. 22 ranking in the AP Preseason Top 25 is nothing close to the hype that surrounded the Big 3, it’s equally undeserved.
This is a team that lost six NFL talents from last year’s squad — seven if you ask Will Hill — and enters 2011 with an almost entirely new coaching staff.
And that attrition comes from an already mediocre group that went 8-5 and finished an unofficial 31st in last year’s final AP poll.
It’s ridiculous that they rank ahead of No. 23 Auburn, which won the national championship a year ago, lost fewer players to the league and returns all the integral pieces of their coaching staff.
The same goes for teams like Arizona State, Penn State and Utah, all of which had solid 2010 seasons, return most of their top talent and have established stability in their program.
Florida is ranked where they are simply because they’re Florida.
Put these players in a different uniform and they probably wouldn’t sniff the Top 25.
Matt: Auburn? Really Greg? Auburn?
In 2010, nobody expected the Fightin’ Cam Newtons to rise through the ranks with a loss-less season, dominating the toughest conference in the nation en route to a national championship.
But that’s the point. These rankings mean nothing. Squat. Less than squat, actually.
Don’t believe me?
Just ask the New Ball Coach. Answering a question recently about UF’s No. 22 ranking, Mr. Eloquent, Will Muschamp, put it thusly: “I could care less.”
Well, Sir Boom, as one of our esteemed colleagues so aptly pointed out, the correct phrasing is “couldn’t care less.”
As in, I couldn’t care less why you think Florida is ranked too high, Greg, because, frankly, they are where they should be.
While the Gators receive absolutely no credit for last season’s pathetic showing, they do, fairly or not, have a leg up on most teams because of the uniforms on their backs and the conference they play in.
That’s one of the few points we agree on, Greg.
But here’s the truth.
Should Florida win a couple of the toss-up games on its schedule and break the eight-win plateau, then a finish inside the top 20 at the end of the year is completely feasible.
This is the SEC, after all — not the Whack-12.
Greg: First off, you won’t hear me arguing that the Pre-knowledge AP Poll is a good way for sportswriters across the nation to be spending their time.
Like Jersey Shore, the preseason poll is a pointless mind-suck based on nothing, that, nonetheless, keeps fans on the edge of their seats.
But my point is this: If you’re going to do it, you may as well do it right.
I’m not sure how you did your math with this toss-up thing, Matt, because even if the Gators win their toss-ups against UAB, Tennessee and Kentucky, that’s still six or seven wins.
And I know there’s no way you’re calling Georgia, Auburn or any of these other games a toss-up — unless you meant Furman, FAU and Vanderbilt? Those showdowns could be hotly contested.
The idea that Florida’s conference plays a role in these rankings is equally silly to me.
Just because the Gators are about to get their faces smacked in by good teams means they deserve credit for getting their faces smacked in?
It all comes back to Jersey Shore. You put that trash on another channel, and it’s still garbage.
Maybe Florida isn’t quite garbage, but the point remains: a mediocre team in any conference is still just a mediocre team, not one that should be ranked in the top 25.
At least not until they show us something.
Matt: While the Gators may not be #twinning (in a football sense) anymore with the departure of Maurkice and Mike Pouncey, there will be some holdover from the days of Urban and BCS crowns.
Rivalry wins.
There’s no way Muschamp loses to his alma mater in his first season at Florida. Not happening. I’m counting the Annual Bulldog Massacre as a notch in the ‘W’ column for the Gators.
Also, while Florida may very well be terrible, there’s no way they lose to UAB. (The only thing the Blazers have going for them is their proximity to Dreamland BBQ.)
FAU and Furman are also as close to a guarantee as you can get since Billy Mays OD’d on booger sugar.
Counting “toss-up” victories against Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt (yes, I went there) and Georgia, means UF only needs a quasi-upset against Auburn to validate its rank.
So, Greg, don’t be mad at me when the Gators get it in this season.
Contact Greg Luca at gluca@alligator.org, and Matt Watts at mwatts@alligator.org.
