On3 Roundtable: Florida's 2023 win total is spot on
The SEC Media Poll projected Florida to finish fifth in the SEC East in 2023. That might not be what the good people in Gainesville want to hear but, according to Nick de la Torre of Gators Online, it’s about right when it comes to a projected record in Billy Napier’s second season in The Swamp.
De la Torre joined On3’s J.D. PicKell on the ‘On3 Roundtable’ and discussed Florida’s win total of 5.5 out of Las Vegas. He said that that number could be right on the money considering this could be yet another foundational year for Napier rather than one where they go all out.
“I think it’s kind of a ‘next year’ mentality for Florida,” de la Torre said. “They’re not going to just sleepwalk through these games but I think they’re building for the future.”
From there, de la Torre also pointed out how this fall’s schedule isn’t easy on the Gators. The first seven games are by no means a cakewalk. Florida will play both Tennessee and Vanderbilt at home. They’ll also open at Utah on top of going to Lexington to play Kentucky and Columbia to play South Carolina.
However, with how the final five games look? He says they’ll need to find some early wins to finish with a winning record by the end of November.
“Looking at Florida? I think that win total is probably spot on. You look at the schedule and you have to play LSU, you’ve got to play Georgia,” explained de la Torre. “I think you get lucky by playing Tennessee early and at home. It’ll be Joe Milton’s first real away game. So I think Florida needs to kind of stack some wins early.”
“You look at that after-Georgia schedule? It’s Georgia, Arkansas, LSU, a trip to Columbia that’ll probably be at 11 in the morning local time with 8,000 people there and you’ve got to bring your own juice,” de la Torre said. “I think Florida needs to stack some wins early when you look at the way the schedule sets up for them.”
After going 6-7 in 2022, Florida will want to show that they’re heading in the right direction under Napier with what they do in 2023. With how they’re viewing it and what their schedule looks like, though, de la Torre thinks they could find themselves in a very similar spot at the end of this year.