Florida Gators football season predictions

On this Episode of the Swamp247 Podcast, Graham Hall and I make our predictions for the upcoming Florida football season.

We discuss things like what to expect from Anthony Richardson in his first season as a starting quarterback as well as assess which of Florida’s running backs will lead the team in yards and how many of them cross the 600-yard mark for the season.

Florida’s running back room has no shortage of talent entering the 2022 season. Sophomore Nay’Quan Wright seems to be in a prime position to open the campaign as the team’s No. 1 back but newcomers Montrell Johnson and Trevor Etienne and fifth-year junior Lorenzo Lingard are also expected to contribute in Napier’s run-heavy Offensive scheme which produced three 600-plus-yard rushers in 2021 at Louisiana, including Johnson. There could be very little separation of workload between Florida’s backs, although it remains entirely unclear how the program plans to divide out reps.

We also offer our predictions for Florida’s record in SEC play and its final record overall with analysis to accompany all of our predictions.

Florida’s season kicks off on Saturday with a challenging opening matchup against No. 7 Utah, which won its conference last season and lost in a back-and-forth Rose Bowl contest to Ohio State.

Here are some notes ahead of that matchup:

– This is the second ever meeting between Florida and Utah and the first since UF’s 38-29 home victory on Nov. 19, 1977.

– While new UF HC Billy Napier will be making his Gators coaching debut, Utah HC Kyle Whittingham is Entering his 18th season with 214 games under his belt with the Utes.

– Napier is looking to become the first UF HC to beat a ranked team in his first game as head coach.

– Whittingham is the longest-tenured HC in the Pac-12 and the second-longest at the same school in the FBS.

– Since 1978, UF has never been an underdog in a home opener. UF has been an underdog 28 total times in The Swamp in that span.

– The last time Florida was an underdog in a season opener in The Swamp was on Sept. 20, 1969 vs. No. 7 Houston.

– Unranked Florida won that contest in convincing fashion, 59-34, and went on to finish 9-1-1 with a Gator Bowl Victory over SEC Champion Tennessee.

– This is the third time in program history that Florida is opening the season in The Swamp against a ranked opponent. Well. 7 Utah is tied for Florida’s highest-ranked opening-week opponent ever (1969: No. 7 Houston).

– Florida has won both of its previous season openers against ranked opponents in The Swamp. Florida 59, No. 7 Houston 34 (Sept. 20, 1969); Well. 16 Florida 17, No. 15 Miami 14 (Sept. 4, 1982)

– UF owns the longest-active home-opener win streak in the FBS with 32-straight wins (last loss, 1989: 24-19 vs. Ole Miss), losing just one season opener (2017 – No. 11 Michigan 33, No .17 Florida 17 – Arlington, Tex.) since 1990.