Latest / SEC Football Addiction / Gators Football Just EXPOSED Huge ISSUE & MAJOR Rival AGREES!
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The Florida Gators are ranked eighth in the country, a
- 0:03Speaker 1: program that went four and eight last season, a program
- 0:06Speaker 1: that opened this year outside the AP top 25 entirely,
- 0:10Speaker 1: a program that a lot of people had filed away
- 0:13Speaker 1: on this season as check back in in a year
- 0:16Speaker 1: or two. This was a project for a first year
- 0:19Speaker 1: head coach, according to a lot of people nationally. And
- 0:21Speaker 1: that's why they didn't rank them inside of the top 25.
- 0:25Speaker 1: But today they're eighth in the country. And I'm going
- 0:28Speaker 1: to be very honest with you. That's a massive problem.
- 0:32Speaker 1: This is TJ Pittenger. This is SEC football addiction. We're
- 0:35Speaker 1: presented by PrizePix. We're all new users who play a
- 0:38Speaker 1: $ 5 lineup and win, get $ 150 in lineups instantly if
- 0:42Speaker 1: they use code HMA. Now stick with me on this one.
- 0:46Speaker 1: I know that there's a subset of the fan base
- 0:49Speaker 1: in Gainesville that would say, look, I'm okay not being
- 0:52Speaker 1: ranked at all until the very end of the year.
- 0:54Speaker 1: And that's a fine take to have, but I do
- 0:57Speaker 1: think that The larger point is the one that I
- 0:59Speaker 1: want to make. Start with what Florida has actually done.
- 1:03Speaker 1: Not what people predicted them to do in July. Not
- 1:06Speaker 1: what Florida haters or Florida homers had to say. Just
- 1:09Speaker 1: the general consensus of where this program was. A lot
- 1:14Speaker 1: of talent. A tough schedule. A first-year head coach. But
- 1:19Speaker 1: you're four games in. You've got four wins. a blowout
- 1:23Speaker 1: over Florida Atlantic, a blowout over Campbell, a deceiving five-point
- 1:28Speaker 1: win on the road at Auburn, where Florida dominated for
- 1:31Speaker 1: much of the game, and then Auburn scored a couple
- 1:33Speaker 1: of times late to get it closer, but the question
- 1:36Speaker 1: of the result was never in doubt. And then on Saturday,
- 1:40Speaker 1: a 52-28 win over the fourth-ranked team in the country.
- 1:45Speaker 1: Now look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend
- 1:47Speaker 1: that the first two mean a whole lot, Nobody is
- 1:49Speaker 1: building a statue in Gainesville for beating the Camels or
- 1:52Speaker 1: the Owls. Those are tune-ups. Everybody plays them. Auburn was
- 1:57Speaker 1: a different kind of game. Florida gave up 39 points
- 2:00Speaker 1: that night, but if you watched the game and didn't
- 2:04Speaker 1: just check the box score, this game was decided at
- 2:07Speaker 1: the beginning of the fourth quarter. Jordan Hare caused a
- 2:11Speaker 1: little magic. Auburn was able to come back a little bit,
- 2:13Speaker 1: but it was never in doubt. And then came the
- 2:17Speaker 1: Ole Miss game. fourth in the country. They were coming
- 2:20Speaker 1: off of a win against LSU. Trinidad Chambliss, the Heisman
- 2:24Speaker 1: favorite under center. Even I predicted that Ole Miss would
- 2:27Speaker 1: probably find a way to win this game because I
- 2:29Speaker 1: just didn't think Florida would be there this quickly. And
- 2:34Speaker 1: for maybe a half, it looked like it could go
- 2:36Speaker 1: either way. Ole Miss cut the score to 17-14 to
- 2:39Speaker 1: start the second half, and you could almost feel it.
- 2:43Speaker 1: If you were in that stadium, you absolutely could. It
- 2:47Speaker 1: was the exact moment where a lot of us thought,
- 2:50Speaker 1: is this where Florida starts to show the cracks? You
- 2:54Speaker 1: see all the times, upstart or teams that are not
- 2:57Speaker 1: expected to be great have a great first half, and
- 3:01Speaker 1: then it slowly starts to slip away. Instead, Florida scored
- 3:05Speaker 1: touchdowns on its next five possessions in a row against, again,
- 3:09Speaker 1: the No. 4 team in the country, a defensive-minded coach
- 3:12Speaker 1: in Pete Golding. Jaden Baugh carried the ball tremendously. Duke
- 3:17Speaker 1: Clark went for a buck 26 on just 12 carries.
- 3:20Speaker 1: Florida ran for over 300 yards as a team. They
- 3:24Speaker 1: had six rushing touchdowns. They had almost 500 yards of
- 3:28Speaker 1: total offense. Aaron Philo went 16 of 23. He threw
- 3:33Speaker 1: a touchdown. He ran another one in and he didn't
- 3:36Speaker 1: turn the ball over. Florida did not give up a
- 3:38Speaker 1: single sack. My favorite moment of the day. Up 17
- 3:43Speaker 1: late in the fourth quarter. Buster Faulkner does not sit
- 3:45Speaker 1: on it. He makes a statement. Dials up a play action.
- 3:49Speaker 1: Philo finds Singleton for nearly 40 yards down the field.
- 3:53Speaker 1: You get down to the two-yard line, and then who
- 3:55Speaker 1: else but Jaden Ball puts the exclamation mark on it
- 3:58Speaker 1: for his third touchdown of the day on the very
- 4:01Speaker 1: next snap. It wasn't a team that was hoping to win.
- 4:04Speaker 1: It was a team that expected to. And the history
- 4:07Speaker 1: that came with it is a little bit absurd. It
- 4:10Speaker 1: was Florida's first top-five win of against an opponent since
- 4:14Speaker 1: they beat Georgia back in 2020. It's the first time
- 4:17Speaker 1: since the 1996 National Championship team that Florida has put
- 4:22Speaker 1: up 50 plus in three of its first four games.
- 4:25Speaker 1: It's the first time since 08 that they've scored 40
- 4:28Speaker 1: or more in four straight. John Summerall becomes the first
- 4:32Speaker 1: head coach in SEC history to score over 200 points
- 4:36Speaker 1: in his first four games. And four games into the season,
- 4:40Speaker 1: Florida has already matched Last year's win total, Jaden Ball,
- 4:46Speaker 1: 600 rushing yards, 11 touchdowns, over seven yards a carry,
- 4:51Speaker 1: and he's just four games into the season. So here's
- 4:53Speaker 1: my question, and I want you to take a moment
- 4:56Speaker 1: to just think about it before you type down in
- 4:58Speaker 1: the comments. How many teams in college football right now
- 5:03Speaker 1: have a more impressive four-game resume than the Florida Gators?
- 5:08Speaker 1: I think you could make an argument for one, and
- 5:10Speaker 1: it would be Texas. beating No. 1 Ohio State, going
- 5:14Speaker 1: on the road, and though offensively they weren't super impressive,
- 5:17Speaker 1: defensively they certainly were. I'll give you the Longhorns. You
- 5:22Speaker 1: beat the Buckeyes. You beat the Vols on the road.
- 5:25Speaker 1: That's two very quality wins. I think pound for pound,
- 5:29Speaker 1: those two wins are probably better than Florida's two wins.
- 5:34Speaker 1: I think Tennessee's better than Auburn. We'll find out this weekend.
- 5:38Speaker 1: Give the nod to Ohio State over Ole Miss. Yeah,
- 5:40Speaker 1: I'm good with that. I thought Florida probably looked more
- 5:42Speaker 1: impressive against Ole Miss than Texas did against Tennessee, but
- 5:47Speaker 1: then you factor in beating Ohio State as well. Give
- 5:50Speaker 1: the nod to Texas. I don't think that there's much
- 5:53Speaker 1: of an argument. Now, keep going down the list. Georgia
- 5:57Speaker 1: is 4-0, and they look every bit like Georgia. They
- 5:59Speaker 1: beat Oklahoma handily on Saturday, but not one of Georgia's
- 6:03Speaker 1: four wins has come against a team that's ranked right now.
- 6:07Speaker 1: Notre Dame's defense has given up 33 points in four games.
- 6:11Speaker 1: I think that's elite, but they don't have a signature win.
- 6:14Speaker 1: Miami's 4-0. They moved up to fourth, and Miami hasn't
- 6:18Speaker 1: played a ranked team yet. Ohio State is really good.
- 6:22Speaker 1: Ohio State also lost their only ranked game. Indiana's the
- 6:25Speaker 1: defending national champion, and I have a ton of respect
- 6:28Speaker 1: for what they've built there in Bloomington, but Indiana was
- 6:31Speaker 1: only up two on Northwestern with a couple of minutes
- 6:33Speaker 1: left on Friday night before hanging on to win 29, 23,
- 6:38Speaker 1: Alabama has scored 45 or more in four straight Alabama's rolling.
- 6:43Speaker 1: They got a road win against Kentucky, but that first
- 6:45Speaker 1: half against Florida state didn't inspire a lot of confidence. Now,
- 6:49Speaker 1: am I telling you that I think every one of
- 6:51Speaker 1: those teams is worse than Florida or Florida is a
- 6:53Speaker 1: better team than them? No, I don't know. I don't
- 6:55Speaker 1: know how to properly evaluate that. I think that's a
- 6:58Speaker 1: different question. And honestly, I think that's where a lot
- 7:00Speaker 1: of this gets tangled up. Who would win on a
- 7:03Speaker 1: neutral field is a power rating, and who has accomplished
- 7:08Speaker 1: the most are two completely different things. Josh Pate does
- 7:12Speaker 1: the best job in all of college football at separating
- 7:15Speaker 1: those two things. His weekly lists of ratings are not rankings,
- 7:20Speaker 1: but he also gives you a ranking as well. And
- 7:23Speaker 1: then he says, here's where I disagree with myself on
- 7:25Speaker 1: ratings and rankings and deserving and resume and everything else.
- 7:29Speaker 1: If we could get that kind of transparency from the
- 7:31Speaker 1: college football playoff committee, which Florida fans haven't had to
- 7:34Speaker 1: worry about for a moment, but you'll hate them in
- 7:36Speaker 1: a few weeks too. I'm sure just like the rest
- 7:37Speaker 1: of college football does, it would be phenomenal. The AP
- 7:42Speaker 1: poll is supposed to be rewarding what has been done.
- 7:46Speaker 1: And if you're rewarding what has been done, I think
- 7:50Speaker 1: Florida has a case for number two. Not eighth, but
- 7:54Speaker 1: second in the entire country. Now, again, I know there
- 7:58Speaker 1: are UF fans that will say, look, we like being
- 8:00Speaker 1: slept on. We like being the underdog. We're fine with
- 8:04Speaker 1: not being ranked super highly right now. And again, I
- 8:07Speaker 1: think that's a fine argument. I don't have any problem
- 8:09Speaker 1: with that. The problem that I have is not the
- 8:12Speaker 1: way that UF fans view this. The problem is the
- 8:16Speaker 1: rankings in general. Before I go on, I want to
- 8:21Speaker 1: just quickly ask a favor of you. If you're not
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- 8:41Speaker 1: hopefully we'll see you more around here on SEC Football Addiction.
- 8:45Speaker 1: So why are they eighth? Well, the answer is because
- 8:48Speaker 1: they started 27th. And that is the entire answer. When
- 8:52Speaker 1: the preseason poll came out in August, Florida got 51
- 8:55Speaker 1: votes and landed just outside the top 25. They didn't
- 8:59Speaker 1: get a number next to their name. No benefit of
- 9:03Speaker 1: the doubt, which is fine. Coming off of a four
- 9:05Speaker 1: and a year brand new staff. I get it. I
- 9:08Speaker 1: don't think anybody should have put them in the top
- 9:11Speaker 1: 15 at that point, but then they went three, you know,
- 9:14Speaker 1: and they beat Auburn on the road and they debuted
- 9:17Speaker 1: at 21. Then they beat the fourth ranked team in
- 9:20Speaker 1: the country. By 24, and they jumped to 8th. 13 spots.
- 9:24Speaker 1: That's the biggest jump in the AP poll since LSU
- 9:27Speaker 1: went from 25 to 11 back in 2018. And it
- 9:31Speaker 1: was talked about like Florida was handed a gift, when
- 9:35Speaker 1: in reality, it just partially got caught up. And if
- 9:42Speaker 1: you want to understand exactly how this works, you don't
- 9:45Speaker 1: have to take my word for it. You can take
- 9:48Speaker 1: the word of an actual voter. Matt McGavick covers Louisville
- 9:52Speaker 1: for WHAS in Louisville, and he's an AP Top 25 voter.
- 9:58Speaker 1: On his ballot this week, he had all, Ole Miss
- 10:01Speaker 1: 7th and Florida 15th. The team that lost by 24
- 10:05Speaker 1: points was eight spots ahead of the team that just
- 10:08Speaker 1: beat them by 24 points. Somebody asked him about it
- 10:12Speaker 1: on X, and to his credit, he answered. Not that
- 10:15Speaker 1: I thought it was a good answer, but shout out
- 10:16Speaker 1: to him for at least giving a justification. And here's
- 10:20Speaker 1: the gist of what he said. He said last week
- 10:22Speaker 1: he had Ole Miss fifth and Florida 25th. A month
- 10:26Speaker 1: into the season, he felt that a 10-spot bump for
- 10:29Speaker 1: one game was fair. He didn't want to move a
- 10:32Speaker 1: team from 25th all the way into his top 10.
- 10:35Speaker 1: unless it was like the first week of the season,
- 10:37Speaker 1: he said. Florida's offense is great, but the defense is shaky,
- 10:41Speaker 1: and he's still high on Ole Miss. They had that
- 10:43Speaker 1: big win over LSU, and he put the Rebels ahead
- 10:46Speaker 1: of LSU on purpose because of that head-to-head. Now, I
- 10:51Speaker 1: appreciate that he explained himself. Most voters do not, and
- 10:55Speaker 1: this isn't just about the one guy. Most voters were
- 10:59Speaker 1: more reasonable with where Florida is placed, and that's why
- 11:03Speaker 1: they landed in 8th. But if you think about his explanation,
- 11:07Speaker 1: there is one part that stands out to me and
- 11:09Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with Florida at all. It
- 11:12Speaker 1: has to do with his ballot last week. He said,
- 11:15Speaker 1: I had them at 25th. And that is the whole
- 11:18Speaker 1: starting point of his argument. The question he's answering is
- 11:23Speaker 1: not where does Florida belong? It's how far am I
- 11:27Speaker 1: allowed to move them from where I already put them?
- 11:32Speaker 1: And that's the latter effect. You don't get to jump
- 11:35Speaker 1: the rung you've earned. You get to climb one step
- 11:39Speaker 1: at a time, whatever speed the voter is comfortable with.
- 11:43Speaker 1: And there's the head-to-head part. Because I agree with him
- 11:47Speaker 1: in theory on this. Head-to-head should matter. Ole Miss beat LSU,
- 11:51Speaker 1: so Ole Miss should be ahead of LSU. That's fine.
- 11:54Speaker 1: But hold that same logic up to the light. Ole
- 11:58Speaker 1: Miss beat LSU by eight at home. Florida beat Ole
- 12:02Speaker 1: Miss by 24 at home. And on that ballot, Florida
- 12:06Speaker 1: still sits eight spots behind Ole Miss and seven spots
- 12:10Speaker 1: behind LSU. One loss Oregon, 14th, a spot ahead of
- 12:16Speaker 1: the undefeated Gators. So head-to-head counts unless you're the team
- 12:21Speaker 1: that started the week at 25. Quick point about the defense.
- 12:27Speaker 1: That's the one part of the reasoning that I guess
- 12:29Speaker 1: I'll give him some credit on. Florida's defense gave up
- 12:33Speaker 1: 39 to Auburn. I talked about how some of that
- 12:36Speaker 1: was garbage time. Chambliss threw for almost 300 yards on Saturday.
- 12:39Speaker 1: If you're a Florida fan, you know that Summerall has
- 12:41Speaker 1: been somewhat critical of the defense too. I don't think
- 12:44Speaker 1: it's quite as bad as he's made it out to be,
- 12:46Speaker 1: but it is something that I think needs to improve
- 12:49Speaker 1: for this team to accomplish the lofty goals that it
- 12:52Speaker 1: may now have. Brad White's group should get better through
- 12:55Speaker 1: the year. I think that's legit. But you know whose
- 12:58Speaker 1: defense I'm more worried about this week? The one that
- 13:01Speaker 1: just gave up 52 points and 302 yards on the ground.
- 13:08Speaker 1: That brings me to Shannon Dawson for a moment. Miami's
- 13:10Speaker 1: offensive coordinator got asked about Miami's schedule on Monday, and
- 13:14Speaker 1: he went off. His first line pretty much said it all.
- 13:17Speaker 1: There should be no such thing as preseason rankings. He
- 13:20Speaker 1: said we shouldn't have any rankings until October 31st. He
- 13:23Speaker 1: pointed out straight to A & M, a team that's
- 13:26Speaker 1: now 2-2 and out of the poll after losing at
- 13:29Speaker 1: home to Kentucky and getting run 35-6 at LSU. And
- 13:33Speaker 1: he said, if you go look, they were in the
- 13:35Speaker 1: top 10. Go look back at last year. A lot
- 13:38Speaker 1: of those teams in the top 10 didn't come close
- 13:41Speaker 1: to living up to it. Now, Dawson certainly has his
- 13:44Speaker 1: own agenda here. Let's be real. Miami's schedule is going
- 13:47Speaker 1: to be picked apart all year for a lack of
- 13:50Speaker 1: ranked opponents. And he took a shot at the SEC
- 13:53Speaker 1: while he was at it. And certainly, you've got your
- 13:55Speaker 1: own agendas when you're talking about any of these things.
- 13:59Speaker 1: But he's also not wrong at the core of it.
- 14:02Speaker 1: At the end of the day, here's where I land.
- 14:04Speaker 1: I don't think preseason rankings should go away. They're fun.
- 14:07Speaker 1: They give us something to argue about all summer. Half
- 14:10Speaker 1: the videos on channels like this exist in July because
- 14:15Speaker 1: of them. The preseason poll isn't the problem. The problem
- 14:19Speaker 1: is what people do with it once the games start.
- 14:22Speaker 1: A preseason ranking is the largest guess that we make
- 14:27Speaker 1: in college football. And that's all it is, an educated guess.
- 14:31Speaker 1: But it is a guess nonetheless. And the moment real
- 14:34Speaker 1: football gets played, that should trump whatever you've guessed in
- 14:39Speaker 1: the offseason. Instead, by people like our Louisville voter, It
- 14:45Speaker 1: gets treated like gospel truth and it becomes people's baseline.
- 14:50Speaker 1: And then every result that disagrees with what your guess
- 14:55Speaker 1: was has to then fight its way past it. Was
- 15:00Speaker 1: Matt wrong for having Florida 25th? I would say that
- 15:04Speaker 1: a team was probably a little bit better than 25th
- 15:07Speaker 1: if they put 52 points on a top five team
- 15:10Speaker 1: in Ole Miss, but that's not the way these voters
- 15:14Speaker 1: look at it. They look and say, I had them 25th.
- 15:17Speaker 1: They were 25th. Is it possible? Is it even maybe
- 15:22Speaker 1: a small likelihood that maybe you misranked them last week?
- 15:28Speaker 1: Maybe they should have been a little higher than 25th.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Maybe you were wrong about the Gators when that game happened.
- 15:35Speaker 1: And so they shouldn't feel blessed that you moved them
- 15:39Speaker 1: up 10 spots. They should feel offended that you had
- 15:42Speaker 1: them ranked that low to start. Most sportswriters can't understand
- 15:47Speaker 1: that maybe they were wrong about a team when they
- 15:50Speaker 1: were voting on them the week before. Again, Pate has
- 15:54Speaker 1: been hammering this point for weeks, and it even goes
- 15:58Speaker 1: back into last year. Last week, he pointed that Florida
- 16:01Speaker 1: was sitting behind Oregon in the AP poll. a 3-0
- 16:04Speaker 1: Florida team that had just won on the road behind
- 16:07Speaker 1: an Oregon team that had already lost to Oklahoma State
- 16:10Speaker 1: and got pushed to the limit by Boise. And his
- 16:12Speaker 1: entire explanation came down to two words, preseason rankings. And
- 16:18Speaker 1: that same weekend, after Texas A & M lost at
- 16:20Speaker 1: home to Kentucky, he said people are still clinging to
- 16:24Speaker 1: what they believed at a pool party or a media
- 16:26Speaker 1: day's event in July. And he's completely right. That's the
- 16:31Speaker 1: whole problem in one sentence. Oregon started the year near
- 16:36Speaker 1: the very top of the poll, so a loss knocked
- 16:39Speaker 1: them down a few rungs, and they were still ahead
- 16:41Speaker 1: of a Florida team that everybody could tell was playing
- 16:44Speaker 1: better football than the Ducks were. A & M started
- 16:47Speaker 1: in the top 10, so it took two losses for
- 16:50Speaker 1: them to finally shake them loose. Florida started at 27,
- 16:54Speaker 1: so it took a 24-point win over the fourth-best team
- 16:57Speaker 1: in the country to get them into the top 10.
- 17:01Speaker 1: And that's what I mean when I say the burden
- 17:03Speaker 1: of proof is backwards. If you start high, the voters
- 17:06Speaker 1: need a reason to move you down. If you start low,
- 17:10Speaker 1: the voters need a reason to move you up. And
- 17:13Speaker 1: those two reasons are not held to the same standard. Now,
- 17:17Speaker 1: I will be fair here for a moment. on Florida
- 17:21Speaker 1: in general, I think they have some things that they
- 17:23Speaker 1: need to clean up. They need some to exercise some demons.
- 17:27Speaker 1: They need to go on the road and Missouri and
- 17:29Speaker 1: not make me look like an idiot for saying all
- 17:32Speaker 1: these good things about arrival. Then they get South Carolina
- 17:36Speaker 1: at home. You got to take care of business the
- 17:38Speaker 1: next two games. And I think you'll be playing in
- 17:40Speaker 1: a top five matchup when you go to Texas in
- 17:43Speaker 1: the middle of October. Georgia and Atlanta on Halloween. ESPN
- 17:48Speaker 1: had this as one of the toughest schedules in the
- 17:51Speaker 1: country before the season even started. If Florida wins one
- 17:54Speaker 1: of those two games, the polls will sort themselves out.
- 17:58Speaker 1: The Gators have every chance in the world to climb
- 18:01Speaker 1: the rest of the ladder by beating the team sitting
- 18:03Speaker 1: on the rungs ahead of them. The AP poll ultimately
- 18:07Speaker 1: doesn't pick the playoff. The committee does. The committee puts
- 18:10Speaker 1: out its own ranking starting in November. So you might
- 18:13Speaker 1: be thinking, then who cares? And I'll tell you, this
- 18:16Speaker 1: is why I care. Because it's Florida this year. It
- 18:20Speaker 1: was another team last year. It was BYU. It was
- 18:23Speaker 1: another team the year before that. And it was another
- 18:25Speaker 1: team the year before that. It'll be somebody else next year.
- 18:29Speaker 1: When the committee sits down, though, in that room, what
- 18:31Speaker 1: do they talk about? They talk about ranked wins. They
- 18:34Speaker 1: talk about your record against the top 25. They talk
- 18:37Speaker 1: about your strength of schedule. They talk about your strength
- 18:39Speaker 1: of record, who you'd beat, how good they were. Now,
- 18:42Speaker 1: Florida's in the SEC. They play a great schedule. This
- 18:45Speaker 1: is not a concern for them. Well, how good were
- 18:49Speaker 1: they according to who would be the question that I
- 18:52Speaker 1: would have for the committee. Ranked is not some objective
- 18:55Speaker 1: fact that falls from the sky like rain. For those
- 18:59Speaker 1: first two months of the season, Ranked means nothing by
- 19:04Speaker 1: these polls. And the polls were built on top of
- 19:07Speaker 1: preseason guesses that people won't move off of. So think
- 19:11Speaker 1: about what that does. A team that started in the
- 19:14Speaker 1: preseason top 10 gets to stay ranked a little bit longer,
- 19:18Speaker 1: even if it loses. Which means the teams that beat
- 19:21Speaker 1: it get to call that a ranked win. A team
- 19:24Speaker 1: that started unranked has to be significantly better than everyone
- 19:27Speaker 1: else just to get noticed. Which means when you beat
- 19:31Speaker 1: that team, it doesn't count as a ranked win at all.
- 19:35Speaker 1: Look at Wake Forest right now. They went to Louisville
- 19:37Speaker 1: and won. They hung with Miami. They're still not in
- 19:40Speaker 1: the AP poll. So when you look at Miami's resume,
- 19:43Speaker 1: that game shows up as just another unranked opponent. And
- 19:47Speaker 1: that's literally the thing that Dawson was complaining about. And
- 19:50Speaker 1: it's the exact same machinery that has Florida sitting on
- 19:53Speaker 1: 25th on a ballot a week ago. It's not just
- 19:57Speaker 1: the polls. A lot of the computer models that people
- 20:00Speaker 1: love to cite, the power indexes and the projections, start
- 20:03Speaker 1: the year with preseason assumptions. They're all baked in. Recruiting,
- 20:07Speaker 1: returning production, last year's results, that stuff fades as the
- 20:12Speaker 1: season goes on. But it doesn't vanish or change our
- 20:15Speaker 1: perceptions on day one. So the July guest does not
- 20:20Speaker 1: just stay in July. It leaks into October because today,
- 20:24Speaker 1: These writers won't change their minds. And by the time
- 20:27Speaker 1: November gets here, it's sitting in the room with the
- 20:31Speaker 1: committee wearing a name tag that says data. That's why
- 20:35Speaker 1: Florida being eighth is a problem. Not because Florida has
- 20:38Speaker 1: not earned that, but because Florida has earned more than that.
- 20:41Speaker 1: And the system is built to make them wait for it.
- 20:46Speaker 1: Florida doesn't need anyone's sympathy. This team is four and oh,
- 20:49Speaker 1: it's putting up historic numbers and it's got a Heisman
- 20:52Speaker 1: candidate running the ball. If they keep winning, they'll get
- 20:55Speaker 1: where they're going. But they shouldn't have to win twice
- 20:58Speaker 1: to get credit once. And it's not just a Florida problem.
- 21:03Speaker 1: It's a poll problem. It's a mindset problem for a
- 21:07Speaker 1: lot of these writers. Every other team near the top
- 21:11Speaker 1: got to start the year on the highest rung. Florida
- 21:13Speaker 1: had to start on the bottom of the ladder and
- 21:16Speaker 1: climb in front of everyone. The reason that they're not
- 21:19Speaker 1: higher yet is doesn't have anything to do with what's
- 21:22Speaker 1: happened on a football field. It has everything to do
- 21:25Speaker 1: with what somebody thought in August. You cannot convince me
- 21:28Speaker 1: that Florida has not been the second most impressive team
- 21:30Speaker 1: in this country through four games. So I'd like to
- 21:33Speaker 1: hear what you guys think. I know a lot of
- 21:36Speaker 1: the UF commenters are going to say, man, we're okay
- 21:38Speaker 1: being slept on. We're okay being eighth. And again, that
- 21:40Speaker 1: is a completely fine take to have. Where would you
- 21:45Speaker 1: have Florida on your ballot if you were ranking them today?
- 21:49Speaker 1: I don't know how there's much of an argument that
- 21:50Speaker 1: they're not top two at this moment. Who outside of
- 21:54Speaker 1: Texas would you have over them? Maybe you give Georgia
- 21:57Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you have Miami up
- 22:00Speaker 1: there high. I know you UF fans won't. Maybe you'd
- 22:02Speaker 1: have Notre Dame still up there. None of those three
- 22:05Speaker 1: teams have done anything close to what Florida has to
- 22:08Speaker 1: start this season. The poll is not supposed to remember July.
- 22:13Speaker 1: It's just supposed to watch Saturday. It's never going to change.
- 22:18Speaker 1: I don't know why I spent 20 minutes plus ranting
- 22:22Speaker 1: about it, but I'd love to hear your thoughts down
- 22:23Speaker 1: in the comments. Appreciate you guys for tuning in, as always,
- 22:27Speaker 1: to SEC Football Addiction. We appreciate our friends over at PrizePix.
- 22:30Speaker 1: We're all new users who play a $ 5 lineup and win,
- 22:33Speaker 1: get $ 150 in lineups instantly if they use code HMA.
- 22:36Speaker 1: We'll see you guys on the next one.