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Florida fans have had a good year.
After a 2017 where their football team was miserable on the field and their program a laughing stock off it, Dan Mullen arrived after nearly a decade in Starkville and immediately went about flipping the script.
Mullen signed a promising transition recruiting class, featuring 4-star quarterback Emory Jones and 4-star corner Trey Dean, who earned All-SEC freshmen honors this fall.
Mullen’s first team won 9 games a year after Florida won only 4, including a thrilling home win over then No. 5 LSU and most vitally, a dominant, state-reclaiming 41-14 rout of the hated Seminoles to close the regular season.
Florida’s reward for a surprisingly successful first season under Mullen was the program’s first New Year’s 6 bowl invite, to the Peach Bowl where the Gators will play No. 7 Michigan.
All told, Mullen and the Gators laid a strong foundation for the future in 2018, giving Gators everywhere a sense of optimism that’s been lacking since early in the Muschamp era.
Here are five things on that should be on every Gators’ fan’s wish list to build on a terrific, encouraging 2018 season.
1. A Peach Bowl “W”
A Florida victory in the Peach Bowl next week in Atlanta would be great for a host of reasons.
First, it’s Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan, a program that has dominated Florida twice in the past four seasons, winning two matchups by the combined score of 74-24. This game isn’t a referendum on Florida, but it is certainly a nice measuring stick of the progress the Gators have made in one year under Mullen.
Second, it has been forever since the Gators won a marquee bowl game. The program’s best bowl win this decade was an Outback Bowl victory over Iowa to cap the 2016 season; McElwain immediately soured that victory by blasting the UF administration in the postgame interview. Florida hasn’t won a premier bowl game since Tim Tebow’s final game, a leave-no-doubt Sugar Bowl win over Cincinnati. Win the Peach Bowl and Florida can start to feel like it belongs again.
Finally, there’s a big optical difference between a 9-win season and a 10-win season. Florida’s only won 10 games or more 15 times in 112 seasons of football. That’s lofty company for this team to join if they snag a “W” in Atlanta. A 10th win also means the Gators will finish in the top 10 for the first time since 2012 and enter the offseason with a head full of momentum and loads of confidence.
2. The Feleipe Franks we saw against Florida State to show up in Atlanta
This one kind of goes without saying.
If the Gators want to win the Peach Bowl, they’ll need the “good” Feleipe Franks to show up. That’s the one who rallied Florida from a 17-point second half deficit to defeat South Carolina and the one who was marvelous against a strong Florida State defense in Tallahassee, throwing for 254 yards and 3 touchdowns.
If the Gators get the Feleipe Franks that struggled mightily against Georgia in the season’s biggest game and was benched a week later against Missouri, they’ll finish 9-4.
How big a game is this one for Franks?
If he plays well in Atlanta and Florida wins, the chatter around the program is that he’ll enter the spring the clear starter and stay that way, barring injury, through next year’s season opener against Miami. If he plays poorly, it’s an open competition again in the spring and there’s only so many times until Mullen decides the ceiling may be higher with Emory Jones.
3. Jabari Zuniga to come back to school
Chauncey Gardner-Johnson is already gone and Jachai Polite, whose Twitter handle is @RetireMoms, is almost certain to depart as well. Both will be selected in the first three rounds of the draft, per a consensus of NFL Draft sites. Those departures, coupled with the graduation of captain Cece Jefferson, will be felt by Florida in 2019.
That makes the decision of Jabari Zuniga critical.
Like Polite, Zuniga had a breakout junior season, recording 11.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. He was especially good in the second half of the season and virtually unblockable in Florida’s final two games against South Carolina and FSU.
Consistency and strength and conditioning are the main questions raised in his draft profiles, and if he returns, he’ll get another offseason with strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage and one more autumn to answer those questions and help himself into the first round.
4. Jawaan Taylor to return too
Many NFL scouts believe if he leaves, he’ll be the first or second blocker selected. With unbelievable size and strength, Taylor is a Combine dream.
Taylor has had issues with consistency this season, but when he’s been good, he’s been exceptional, grading out twice this season (LSU, South Carolina) as one of the best linemen in the country per Pro Football Focus.
Only a 3-star out of high school, Taylor is a late bloomer who has played mostly at right tackle. Scouts wonder about his blindside value, and the decision to return would give ample opportunity to show the few remaining skeptics he can play as well on the left as the right. It’s a long shot, but this is a wish list so …
5. DBU needs Kaiir Elam and Chris Steele to be Gators
Florida’s starters in the secondary lived up to the program’s DBU reputation. C.J. Henderson is one of the best cover corners in America and his touchdown-saving play against Tennessee defined Florida’s culture change under Mullen more than any one moment this season.
When #RelentlessEffort meets the #GatorStandardpic.twitter.com/Hr77Nt7Nyp
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) September 23, 2018
Dean is a Freshman All-American. Brad Stewart had a breakout campaign at safety as well.
But anyone who watched Florida’s defense wilt after Henderson was injured on the first series of the Georgia game knows how thin Florida is in the secondary.
The Gators signed three players in the secondary during the Early Signing Period, but of that group, only Jaydon Hill profiles as a player who can help Florida immediately. Florida must do better in the month to come and that process starts and ends with Steele and Elam.
Steele’s decision will be known in two weeks.
Elam, whose Uncle Matt was an All-American at Florida, has said his decision will go to the wire, and it’s a vital one on one battle with Kirby Smart and Georgia that the Gators can’t afford to lose.
Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
