Georgia Football 2017 Preview: The Florida Gators

How does 2017 stack up:

To start with, Florida has set themselves up for a reasonable schedule thanks to lots of home games in 2017. They kick off the season against a strong Michigan team in a neutral venue. That will be a really tough match, but if they win, they will make a lot of the football world think they are for real in 2017. They also play LSU and Texas A&M in consecutive weeks in the runup to the match vs Georgia. Those games are at home but they are still really tough matches. Those games are at home however, as are matches vs Tennessee and Florida State.

Seeing as the gave vs UGA is also at a ‘neutral’ site, Florida only travels Kentucky, Mizzou and South Carolina next year. That’s a very favorable schedule in terms of home and away games. However, there are some very tough teams coming into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and they aren’t guaranteed to win them all.

One of the main reasons they might struggle is that their defense is going to be losing 8 of 11 starters. That defense was elite in 2016 and it’s going to look very different this year. They do still have plenty of talent, but a lot of the front line players are now off to play on Sunday. That is especially true in the secondary that was elite last year but saw 3 players drafted.