Coming off 21 wins over the last two seasons, the Florida Gators are getting some offseason hype ahead of the 2020 campaign. Former UF coach Urban Meyer is the latest to jump on the hype train, naming the Gators his team to watch next season.

“I like the Florida Gators and here’s why: first of all, Dan Mullen is an excellent coach,” Meyer said in the FOX Sports video below. “It’s his third year in the program. They have to beat Georgia. They have their quarterback coming back, but there is chaos in the state of Florida. Miami is down. Florida State is down, and when that happens – it kind of happened to us when I was down there – you start taking advantage, and what that means is that all those great players – you have the flagship university in the state of Florida and you start getting those kids in there. I’d look for the Gators to push that top-five, maybe even higher.”

As Meyer discussed, Florida has emerged as the top program of the Sunshine State’s “Big 3.” While Mullen’s transition recruiting class in 2018 finished at No. 14 on the 247Sports Composite below Miami (No. 8) and FSU (No. 11), the Gators have won the Big 3 recruiting wars since. In the first full recruiting cycle (2019) for Mullen’s staff, Florida signed the Composite’s No. 9 class while FSU and Miami checked in at Nos. 19 and 27. The 2020 cycle has not ended yet, but Florida is currently at No. 7 while Miami is No. 17 and FSU is No. 21.

UF beat Miami and FSU in 2019, but as Meyer said, the must-win game for 2020 is against Georgia. Mullen is 0-2 as a head coach in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party rivalry meeting in Jacksonville. Over the last six meetings, the Gators and Bulldogs have split it 3-3, with Florida claiming 2014-16 and UGA winning the last three.