There’s only one thing to blame for the Gators’ gridiron woes. And a new kind of Pepsi Challenge could fix them. Late in my seventh grade year, my school welcomed a new student from the state of Indiana. I had just attended the Final Four in Indianapolis, where the Florida Gators had triumphed over the North Carolina Tar Heels and succumbed to the dirty trickery of Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans in the NCAA Tournament final. Much like George Costanza and George Peppard having the same first name, this trip gave us a commonality to talk about. As we discussed the beauty of Indiana ..read more

Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images Predicting the NFL Draft is a fool’s errand. Projecting where players would thrive is more fun. The only thing more prevalent on the Internet right now than NFL mock drafts are jokes about blue checkmarks. There are hundreds — thousands? — of mocks out there. The most prolific NFL draft pundits are on mock draft 7.0 by now, and every top prospect has been projected to just about every NFL team. That said, I’m joining the party with my own mock draft, one specific to the Gators and the 11 former players hoping to hear their names announced on the draft stage ..read more

Matt Pendleton / USA TODAY NETWORK Our first look at the 2023 Gators comes on a Thursday night. I really don’t need to do a full-blown preview for this one, do I? I already wrote out a bunch of predictions for Florida’s spring game earlier this afternoon, and while I’m as excited as you are — give or take — to endure enjoy an SEC Network+ broadcast over on ESPN+, I think we all know the stakes of this Thursday night. And, additionally: Florida’s gymnastics team living through an all-time thriller of an NCAA semifinal in Dallas on this day kind of puts the staging of an exhibition football game ..read more

Doug Engle / USA TODAY NETWORK This should be fun — little more, nothing less. With another spring practice cycle successfully put behind us without mention — I’m sure I missed some of the best action that’s ever happened during the series of practices that the players care even less about than the fall camp that they cannot wait to have end because of the sweltering Gainesville heat and humidity — it is, of course, time for a spring game exhibition that will serve as much of the basis for the hyperbole, anxiety, and outright lying that marks off-season discourse in college football fandom. He ..read more

Doug Engle / USA TODAY NETWORK One last performance in Gainesville for the hometown star... Last week, representatives from all 32 NFL teams were in Gainesville for Florida Pro Day. They pilled into the Heavener Football Training Center and the Condron Family Indoor Practice Facility to get an up close look at 11 former Gators football players — and one track star looking to get back on the gridiron. Draft season is a long and winding process for prospects hoping to impress scouts, coaches, and general managers. The first step were the college all-star games. The Combine followed. Team meeting ..read more

The best things in life are passed down. Football is the greatest sport. It’s the ultimate team game, and truly takes everyone working in unison to achieve success. And in my opinion, the greatest version of football is played at the college level. The quality of play in the NFL is obviously superior and the pro game is built to achieve a level of parity that is lacking in college football. However, the college game combines a high-level of play with a lot more variation of scheme than is seen on Sundays. At the college level, you could see an air raid team one week, a triple option team the ..read more

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images Anthony Richardson stole the show. But the Florida contingent in general excelled at the NFL Scouting Combine. I remember buying a suit from Express in the Oaks Mall. It was nice enough, a traditional black two-piece that could pair with a classic white collar and colorful tie. It didn’t break the bank for a soon-to-be college grad who still delivered pizzas to pay the bills, but I couldn’t afford to have it tailored. Putting it on ahead of attending a job fair at the O’Dome, I definitely felt like a bit of a schlub. There is nothing like your first professio ..read more

Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports Florida will look to avoid the black mark of a loss to the Knights. If you have a hard time getting up for Florida hosting UCF in the NIT, you probably have at least some sense of how difficult Wednesday night’s game will be for the Gators. Before whatever subset of the fan base is coming out for a Wednesday night game against the Knights, Florida will try to avoid the ignominy of a first-round exit from the second-best postseason tournament of men’s college basketball being contested at that moment. It may well come down to how well Florida defends UCF from the ..read more

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports Another valiant but doomed effort from the Gators? How familiar. True to form, the 2022-23 Florida Gators put together a valiant effort against an evenly-matched team in the 2023 SEC Tournament on Thursday. Equally true to form, that effort came in a game they lost. Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith scored a career-high 28 points and dumped in the game-winning lay-up with 4.3 seconds to go in overtime, carrying the Bulldogs to a 69-68 win over a Florida team that scraped itself off the court at several junctures and scrapped until the end. The first rise c ..read more

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports Florida needs a miracle to make the NCAA Tournament. Mississippi State might not even need a win. Barring a spectacular run to the SEC Tournament title, the Florida Gators are not going to make the NCAA Tournament. Unless they lose — and badly, by 30 or more — today, and the bubble contracts, Mississippi State Bulldogs should not be sweating their inclusion on Selection Sunday too hard. So motivation should be no problem for Florida’s Colin Castleton-less band of brothers in Nashville on Thursday afternoon. The problem is that Mississippi State should find ways to ..read more