You know the drill.
Every new year comes with a caveat: Society tells us that we must resolve to do at least one thing during the upcoming year to better ourselves and/or those around us.
Inevitably, we fail. We may make a resolution to exercise more only to spend the first week of January in the gym before not returning until March, realizing that Spring Break is fast approaching and that couch-potato bod is definitely not Daytona Beach ready.
But that’s depressing. Why focus on ourselves here?
Instead, sit back, relax, and venture on a holier-than-thou journey with me as we hand out New Year’s resolutions to a few of UF’s sports teams.
Let’s hope they don’t skip the gym until March.
Football:
Find a damn quarterback.
That’s it.
I’m convinced that even if the Gators see a drop-off next year — if their defense suffers with the loss of multiple starters to the NFL Draft, if they get manhandled by Alabama in the conference title game again, and if a lackluster 2017 recruiting class sees little production in its first season — all will be forgiven if a quality quarterback arises as the signal caller of the future.
We’re looking at you, Feleipe Franks.
Of course, UF could also turn to Kyle Trask or incoming true freshman Jake Allen. But Franks was the highest-rated recruit of the three out of high school and likely the most mobile.
And in a college football landscape that favors the mobile-minded passer (see: Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts), Franks can earn a leg-up in the QB race if he plays well in Spring practice.
Men’s basketball:
Second-year head coach Mike White and the Gators need to make the NCAA Tournament. Plain and simple.
But here’s the strange thing: The No. 23 Gators may be good enough to do more than just earn a tournament berth this season.
UF hasn’t qualified for the Big Dance since 2014 — the second-to-last year of former coach Billy Donovan’s tenure and the year UF lost to eventual-champion UConn in the Final Four.
This year should be different.
To start, the Gators have a better offense than last season. They’re already averaging 78.9 points per contest — about four more than last season —and with its athletic wings, shot blockers and quick guards, UF usually plays sound defense.
Add on the fact that the Gators have played the nation’s No. 1-ranked strength of schedule so far and have looked impressive throughout (UF is 12-3 with losses to No. 5 Gonzaga by five points, No. 7 Duke by 10 points and No. 9 Florida State by five points, all away from home), and the rest of UF’s schedule looks like a cakewalk.
So, in summation: Assert yourselves as the second-best team in the Southeastern Conference (behind No. 6 Kentucky), Gators, and get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Because if you do, who knows what could happen from there.
Softball:
Re-establish your dominance.
After winning two straight national championships in 2014 and 2015, the No. 1-seed Gators couldn’t make it past their own Super Regional last season, ending the year in shocking fashion with two straight losses to No. 16-seed Georgia.
But with another strong recruiting class and coach Tim Walton still at the helm, the Gators will enter this season ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation.
Prove it.
Show the nation that last year was a fluke. Win the SEC, make it to the NCAA Tournament and, more than likely, the national championship game.
Yes, those are high expectations.
But for a program one year removed from a repeat, that’s where the expectations should be.
Baseball:
Time for coach Kevin O’Sullivan to prove that the multi-year extension he signed during the offseason was a smart investment by UF.
The Gators made the College World Series last year but were promptly booted out of the postseason with two straight losses, including one to eventual national champion Coastal Carolina.
So, as they are nearly every year, expectations for the Florida baseball team reside somewhere near winning the school’s first national title.
Go get it done, Sully.
Ian Cohen is a sports writer whose column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at icohen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @icohenb.
UF quarterback Feleipe Franks warms up prior to Florida's 30-3 win against Iowa in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 2, 2017, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
