ESPN analyst explains why he's high on Gators in 2022: 'Florida has a real shot' at No. 2 spot in SEC East
ESPN analyst Rod Gilmore thinks new Florida coach Billy Napier can make an immediate impact in Gainesville.
Gilmore has heard the negativity about the Gators entering 2022, but he isn’t sure things will be all that bad in The Swamp this fall.
Appearing on “College Football Live” this week, Gilmore said he thinks the Gators can be in the mix for the No. 2 spot in the SEC East by year’s end:
“It’s fascinating to me (that) people are counting Florida out. I’m not convinced,” Gilmore said. “You know, the race for No. 2 behind Georgia (in the SEC East) is wide open and Florida has a real shot. This is now Anthony Richardson’s team as the quarterback. Emory Jones has moved on to Arizona State. (Richardson) is incredibly talented with his feet, with his arms. He has a chance to be a tremendous player. This is now his team.
“Now, on the other side of the ball, they get 7 players back on defense. Seven starters. I think Florida has a chance to be way better than a lot of people expect, particularly when they get settled at quarterback with Richardson.”
Florida will face a tough test in Week 1, as College Football Playoff dark horse Utah will visit Gainesville on Saturday, Sept. 3. We’ll see if the Gators are up to the task.
It’s possible, but I think the Gators are a year or two from truly competing in the East. Make the most of AR this year while you have him.
Truly competing for 2nd in the SECE, yeah maybe.
Sunbelt Billy better hurry up and catch up with UTjr on the recruiting trail.
Already did. 24/7 has Tenn 11th and us 12th. The only reason they are ahead of us is because they have 19 commits and we’ve got 16.
Average rating for Tenn is 90.26 with a 42% blue chip ratio while we’ve got an average rating of 91.14 with a 88% blue chip ratio.
The 88% blue chip rating is a great stat. Especially with how many Florida kids are committed as of today (14 out of 16 recruits). The real litmus test will be how many sign.
“2nd place is just the first loser”
Well back door u did finish 2nd in the sec behind Bama last year so are they the fist loser ? . Always remember that tainted natty that took 41 years to get to will always have sec runner up beside it
Didn’t one of Florida’s Natty’s happen to be against a team they lost to previously??? So does it count or not? Just trying to understand your logic
Hmm well
Again Florian won the sec and the sec champ
Was locked into the sugar bowl in 1996.s”Florida played where it was contractually binded and please please read that unlike uga uf WON the sec title . Uga did not just go down in the sec title game they were blown out and then lucked up and get a rematch with bama down how
Many players ? You said 2nd place is first Loser so I simply
Pointed out uga was 2nd to bama in the sec . So even though uga is the national champ are they the first loser since they are second to bama in the sec ?
Man… is this the same guy who said Arkansas and Kentucky and Michigan were going to beat Georgia last year?
Funny how he continues to be wrong about everything.
Although, it’s far more funny to give hope to the ‘turds, because their anguish at watching their team and their overrated QB crash and burn into a 6-6 season will be hilarious.
The only Thing hilarious Is your comments as well your screen name Irvin the dush.
41 years between titles and still seeing uf having more Nattys I guess just put you over the edge to troll all things uf.
Hope you live to 2062 to see that next natty.. heck this time it might be more legitimate title as back door u could maybe win the sec as well
C
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LOL. You know, I find it funny that FU ‘turds take such pride in the supposed amazing academics of their school when they produce guys like this who can’t even count to 3.
Or who honestly believes Kirby doesn’t have this motor humming to the point that another national title is a matter of when not if.
You know, because I bet this guy was sitting talking to all his ‘turd friends right up until the moment of Kelee’s pick-6 claiming that Kirby would NEVER win a title.
Amazing how the constantly disappointed keep having to shift the goalposts just to give themselves the strength of will to go on as pathetic ‘turds.
My favorite thing is seeing these kind of comments hit the board without moderation, yet thought out, insult free responses, sit in moderation.
Well counting to 3 is easy
Uf 1996 , 2006 , and 2008
Back door u 1980 and 2021
No matter how much you claim it 1942 title ilbelongs to Ohio state not back door u ! I mean ucf
Claims the 2017 title much like back door u tried to claim that 1942 title.. funny thing is like ucf back door u is not recognized as winning that title !
Like I said 41 years between titles and having little to no success in all other sports played at back door u I guess can make a punk like irvin go crazY when a little success comes their way
CBMCKAY – My position exactly. It’s as though SDS is promoting precisely the wrong thing, in this case thoughtless antagonism. I’ve had numerous posts censored under the same conditions you describe, so many that I’m beginning to think it’s not worth the aggravation of continuing with Saturday Down South.
cbmckay good catch. The typical Georgia Moron post on a Gator article is just a worthless diatribe of veiled and not so veiled insults and name calling But there’s nothing wrong with that I guess
docgator…I hear you.
The screen name is priceless and so is the irony of this Moron calling out the author as “funny how he continues to be wrong about everything “ without realizing his own predictions are always wrong as well.
Just can’t make this sheet up
Corch…you and a few of your minions need to act like you have been there before…you must be under 41.
You are the defending champs…we get it.
Come on Rod, really? Have you dove into their roster? How many upgrades actually joined the team? What about the depth? If you think UF is the 2nd best , and if that’s the case then the rest of the East is totally incompetent with JV players. Don’t get me wrong the gators has potential but Florida can have a tenured coach or a brand new and the press is gonna give them at 1st or 2nd annually. On namesake alone. As a matter of fact can someone name a time UF was picked below third in the East ?
UF is picked below third because the media latch onto story lines without doing any research.
Florida will have the second most talented roster in the East when the 2022 247 team talent composite is published. Florida won 10 games in the first season of each of the last two head coaches, because the rosters had talent but had suffered from coaching failures.
The only way Florida doesn’t win 9-10 games — or more — this season is if AR or Ventrell Miller suffer serious injury.
While I would be happy with 8 wins, it is addition by subtraction with Grantham being gone, and that in itself is improvement.
When will the so-called experts accept that Kentucky is for real?
Agreed…Kentucky should be good this year. I believe Napier will do more with less this year. The Gators will be better than most Gator fans believe. The Kentucky-Florida game will reveal a lot about both teams.
In AR 15 we trust
Yeah…I like what UK football is accomplishing.
I respect Kentucky. How can anyone not? This is a good era for them. But… they’ve lost a fair amount on the offensive line going into this season.
It is really amazing to see these media experts talk about schools. There is another article about Florida and the red flags that says Florida is going to struggle and then we have this where they can finish second. Media “experts” are about weather folks, seldom right and never asked about being wrong.
Kudos to Napier for keeping the Utah game and series. I mean he could have shamelessly bought them out and scheduled a low end MAC school.
You know what they say about opinions. This article and the red flag article are just opinions
Just the name of this article made me laugh this is absolutely delusional the gators are going to finish last in the east
So your saying Florida will
Be behind vandy ? That is kinda bold I mean I know South Carolina has had a few last place finishes but to say uf will be last is kinda going out on a limb there black and garnet .. I def do not see Florida finishing second in the east but to say they will finish last .. come on man!
gatorfan…he/she is obviously a troll…and probably the dumbest one on site.
G8 i’m a troll because I’ve not been blind to the obvious dumpster fire that is Florida football right now on no one in their right mind can honestly believe that Billy Napier can elevate the talent in Gainesville right now he’s recruiting well but that’s based off of y’all’s name alone y’all are always going to recruit well what is a team that’s been there in recently years I can tell you y’all are in the abyss right now Billy is a interim coach with 2 years at best
You know we were in the SEC chip in 2020 right despite Todd Grantham? 2019…was a solid season as well.
We will see you in the swamp…you should win by 3 touch downs because we are a last place team in our division because you are not blind.
Gotcha.
Admitting to be a troll…is lame. Just come and talk ball. You said your opinion….fine.
Question…How come Mullen couldn’t recruit as well because of our name alone?
Yes Bank on that we will beat the Gators by 3 scores
You are South Carolina’s version of Corch, way to represent
Are you really this uninformed about relative roster quality in the East, or just putting us on?
Look bud The reality of the situation is while we used the transfer portal to bolster our roster you used it to just try to get on par. This is the reality of your roster quality… couldn’t work out and y’all end up having a halfway decent season and overachieve like we did last year??? Yeah it’s possible . But the reality of the situation is the best to hope for in league players to pick up wins against Missouri and Vanderbilt and win out in nonconference play which is going to be tougher than usual with that Utah game .. it’s just not a situation bodes well for y’all… AR is going to have to be dang near flawless to get y’all above .500
I suggest you calculate the Blue Chip Ratios of every roster in the East when 247 publishes their 2022 Team Talent Composite in the not too distant future.
You think those rankings mean a dang thing production on the field is the only thing that matters and your washer list of failed four stars doesn’t match up to the number of NFL Level talent bolstered on the South Carolina roster. So cool y’all had a lot of four and five star recruits that are on your roster how many of them have actually produced because we take three stars and turn them into NFL talent every single year! Coaching is the advantage we have on top on the number of talent elevating players added from the transfer portal… sorry but regardless of whatever that talent composite list says The gap in talent between your team and mine are light years apart going into this season
Light years apart — the talent at South Cack vs Florida…gotcha.
Well alrighty then!
Considering the fact that we beat y’all with a third string quarterback last year and didn’t just beat y’all we stomped you… and then you take in consideration the fact that we had a Heisman level quarterback to our roster in place of that third string quarterback… And you really think you have a chance
Well, since you seem to feel so strongly about it…
Florida was far more talented than South Carolina last year but the team was not playing as a team; they were in complete disarray and had pretty much quit. The head coach had also checked out.
The jury is still out on your “Heisman level” quarterback. He’s unquestionably talented, but we’ll see how he does.
Your posts don’t make me laugh…they just prove that you are a real clown.
Negan
Gwhite
BlackAndGarnet
Every team has one and they all love to talk everything Gator
My prediction for the Gators; forget the SEC East, they’ll have the cutest coeds in the stands.
LOL!
What I always find interesting is that these articles fail to look at why Florida lost games last year. 1) discipline and 2) turnovers, primarily from Emory Jones. 3) special teams. These are issues that CBN will fix and is a difference of 3-4 games depending on level of improvement.