It’s easy to get lost in talking season optimism.

As Hemingway wrote, “the fun of talk is to explore.”

Gators fans have spent talking season exploring. They’ve explored the infinite possibilities of a breakout season from immensely talented quarterback Anthony Richardson. They’ve explored the energy infused in the program by the hiring of the determined and exact Billy Napier, an army of support staff that appears comical in photographs, and the opening of a state-of-the-art football complex that is the equal of any in the SEC. Throw in a young defensive coordinator, Patrick Toney, considered by industry insiders to be one of the best young minds in the sport (and throw out the antiquated, high-risk schemes of Todd Grantham), and you feel an even more excited buzz in the fan base.

Who could blame Gators fans for being optimistic?

What other choice is there?

Exploring the possibilities of a glorious road ahead is a far better way to approach the Napier era than wallowing in the wilderness of the past decade’s failures. Plus, in a nod to walking and chewing gum at the same time, Gator fans can be enthusiastic and confident while also being aware of reality: Their archrival is the defending national champion, Alabama and Nick Saban aren’t going anywhere, LSU just hired a proven College Football Playoff head coach, and Jimbo Fisher is building a behemoth with Texas oil and gas money in College Station. Florida, meanwhile, is on head coach No.  5 since the start of the 2010 season (excluding interims!) and from 2010-2021 has played its worst 12-season stretch of football from a win percentage standpoint since 1970-1981.

Faced with that reality, I’d choose hope and the exploration of possibility too, especially during talking season.

What I wouldn’t do — and what too many Gators fans on social media and at booster events have done this summer — is underestimate Utah.

I’d post a montage of tweets predicting a Florida win over No. 7 Utah on Sept. 3( 7 pm, ESPN) to Big Sean’s “Bounce Back” to make my point, but I don’t want to bury any Florida fan individually, or suggest that every Gators fan is overlooking or underestimating the Utes. Plus, it isn’t just fans. ESPN analyst (albeit Florida alum) Kevin Carter recently suggested the one top-10 team he felt was “overhyped” was No. 7 Utah, which would “lose in Week 1 to the Florida Gators.”

Kevin, my man, I love you and I think you belong in Canton, but can we dispense with the silliness?

This Utah team is really, really good, and while the smart people in Vegas rightly have this pegged as a close game, predicting a Florida victory is a stretch. “Stretch” doesn’t mean Florida can’t win. But a Florida win isn’t probable.

How good are the Utes?

There’s wiggle room in this debate, but sticking to the evidence, the facts are that 2021 Utah, with 39 less blue-chip players than 2021 Florida, won 10 games and a conference championship while the Gators had a losing season. While 2021 Florida was losing to in-state foe UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl, 2021 Utah was playing an epic Rose Bowl game against a young version of the Ohio State team Vegas pegs as a national championship favorite in 2022. If you think CJ Stroud and Ohio State finish their comeback win in a world where Utah’s All-Pac-12 quarterback Cam Rising does not leave the game with a concussion, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale on the cheap.

More facts?

Utah returns the bulk of the 2021 Pac-12 champions, especially on offense, where Rising returns along with every key skill player save wide receiver Britain Covey. Under Rising and a powerful run game (10th in the nation in rushing success rate), the 2021 Utes finished first in the Pac 12 in first downs, 14th in the country in rushing offense, 8th in the nation in 3rd-down conversions, No. 3 in the country in explosive run plays, and No. 4 in pass protection and fewest sacks and pressures allowed. The offensive line returns future NFL players in Sataoa Laumea at guard and Braden Daniels at tackle.

And then there’s Rising, who stepped into a starting role after Utah’s disappointing 1-2 start and went 9-2 as a starter, throwing for 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns (against just 5 interceptions) while earning All-Pac 12 honors in the process. In the Rose Bowl, Rising was crushing the Buckeyes with both his arm (17-22, 214, 2 TD) and legs (11 rushes, 92 yards, 1 TD) before he was injured and the Utes buckled. But there’s a reason Rising appears on preseason All-American lists, and while The Swamp will be the most hostile, difficult environment he’s ever played in, it’s tough to see a player who has played and won a conference title game and shined in a Rose Bowl being too rattled.

The Utes are also stout defensively, with a host of starters returning on a defense that ranked 22nd in SP+ defensive efficiency in 2021 (17 spots ahead of the blue-chip laden Gators) and 19th nationally in run defense (66 spots better than Florida). While it will be tough to replace All-American Devin Lloyd at middle linebacker, the addition of Florida transfer and tackling machine Mohamoud Diabate, who led the Gators in tackling percentage in 2021, is a big add and also gives Utah a first-hand, walking, talking scout of Florida’s personnel. That insight could be invaluable, but even if it isn’t, it can’t hurt Utah.

Finally, there’s the established reality that Kyle Whittingham is respected in coaching circles as one of the sport’s finest head coaches, and Utah, which just completed a nation-leading 9th consecutive season ranked in the top 40 nationally in fewest penalties committed, is perhaps the most well-disciplined outfit in the country. Utah is a great program, and the Gators better respect the Utes for what they are: a Power 5 conference champion and College Football Playoff contender.

It’s the greatness of Utah as a program that makes this game so appealing and worthy of a primetime, ESPN mothership slot on opening weekend. The consistency and discipline of Utah is also what makes this game such a terrific measuring stick for Florida.

While in recent years, Gators fans have pointed at Florida’s tilts with College Football Playoff programs (Alabama, Georgia, LSU) as a litmus test for where Florida is as a program, Utah is perhaps the best barometer. Utah isn’t a College Football Playoff program — at least not yet. But they are close — and are one of a handful of programs considered to have a solid chance at a breakthrough this season. In playing Utah, the Gators get a chance to see how close they are to the “almost a College Football Playoff contender” tier. That’s the tier the Gators have to reach (again, having been there in 2015, 2019, and 2020) before they can go Jim Mora and talk “Playoff.”

It’s a big game for Utah too, of course. Maybe one of their program’s biggest games ever. In past years, we’ve seen Utah knock off a great Alabama team in a bowl game, smash Chris Petersen’s College Football Playoff program at Washington, and just last year, hit the road to pummel a blue-blood (and Top 10 Talent Composite program) USC, and rout Oregon twice in a month. But does Utah have what it takes to earn a seat at the table as we inch closer and closer to the age of superconferences? A win in a rowdy Swamp would go a long way to suggesting the Utes should. Given the stakes, you know Whittingham and Utah will be prepared.

As for the Gators, the prospect of a four-quarter game against a great program to kick off an era that has Florida fans brimming with optimism sounds fun, whatever the ultimate outcome.

After years of being broken — in recruiting, from a facilities standpoint, from a technique and coaching balance standpoint, and at times, from a cultural standpoint (seriously, what program has a coach manufacture death threats just to make sure he can cash in his golden parachute, has another who says he doesn’t worry about recruiting in the season, and most of all, who throws a shoe!!!) — Florida is showing signs of life.

And it was Hemingway who also said that “the world breaks everyone and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.”

The Gators are getting strong again at the broken places. That’s fun to explore and talk about.

It doesn’t mean Florida is ready to beat a team as good as Utah.

Or are they? We’ll find out in The Swamp on Saturday night.