It sounds odd to discuss “must-win” football games ahead of the first week of the season, but that’s exactly the position the Florida Gators find themselves in ahead of a showdown with the Miami Hurricanes for the Gators and head coach Billy Napier.
As ESPN analyst Greg McElroy points out, this is as close to a must-win game as you can get for the Florida Gators as a result of just how difficult the rest of Florida’s schedule is.
“I think Billy Napier all season long’s gonna be feeling the heat in the event in which his team underperforms,” McElroy said according to On3. “If you look at Florida’s schedule, it’s one of the most difficult in the sport. And knowing what they bring back – it’s not a bare cupboard, but there are some unknowns. It’s a defense that struggled last year. They’re hoping they made improvements. They were really young last year, they’re now a year under their belt, playing a lot of freshmen. Now, they’re sophomores and juniors. So they’re hoping that they take a big step this year.
“But if you look at the schedule, man, the wins are hard to come by for the Florida Gators. So to have a ranked Miami team, your rival in your building on opening weekend, it feels like a must-win. There’s very few that feel like a slam-dunk possibility for Billy Napier this year. Every win will be earned. So to have this opportunity sitting right in front of them, they almost have to have it.”
Eight of Florida’s 12 regular season games are against opponents that begin the season ranked in the top 25 of the AP Poll with six of those games coming against top-15 opponents and three of them coming against top-six teams.
Needless to say, this is a huge game for Florida.
[On3]
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