Ranking Florida's Best College Football Programs
Another college football Saturday has passed us by. It’s a unique chance to evaluate the best teams in Florida, in order, because 25% of the college football regular season is over, and two games yesterday placed in-state programs against one another.
Here are the bare-bone scores from Saturday, then analysis about each team, before finally finishing with Florida's college football rankings.
Florida 31 USF 28
UCF 40 FAU 14
FSU 35 Louisville 31
Texas A&M 17 Miami 9
Going in alphabetical order, thoughts about each squad.
Florida Gators (2-1)
Much like FAU, the Florida defense stinks. USF quarterback Gerry Bohanon went just 12 of 26 for 116 yards and two interceptions. Sounds great for the Gators, right? Then how did Florida narrowly escape 31-28 against USF?
Well, even with Jalen Kimber’s 39-yard interception for a touchdown, there’s much to be concerned about. Now, part of that is on the Florida offense, and more on that in a moment, but the defense is the definition of not taking advantage of a situation.
Everyone knew that USF was going to run more and more against Florida after it was obvious that Bohannon was struggling. The Gators still could not stop the Bulls from running the football.
USF finished with 46 carries for 286 yards, a 6.2 average, and three scores on the ground. Read those numbers again. Your eyes did not fool you.
That’s USF doing that. What’s Georgia going to do? How about LSU?
Those rushing stats allowed for another eye-opening stat to take place. USF was 8-of-15 on third downs. With a quarterback that hit 42.6% of his passes? Yeah, the Gators are in trouble defensively. As for the offense…
It’s pretty clear that quarterback Anthony Richardson is no place near ready to be classified as a true quarterback. He struggles with post-snap reads and his accuracy is on and off. He threw for 112 yards from 10 of 18 passing, plus two picks. Considering his obvious physical talent, something needs to happen and soon.
Either Richardson needs to change positions or there needs to be a meeting of the minds in Gainesville to fix the passing game pronto. He’s too talented to be salvaged as a sub-par signal caller.
Yes, Richardson is still inexperienced, but this is his third season at Florida. Richardson just does not look natural at quarterback, much the same as he did not last season either. The running game is doing quite well despite the lack of a passing game.
The Gators ran for 217 yards and three touchdowns. Even with that in mind, Florida’s offense sometimes stalls with the passing game woes and that’s going to lead to more losses down the line.
Hard not to love the grit and talent of running back Montrell Johnson, Jr. though. He’s a dude. Six carries for 103 yards, a 17.2 average, and a second quarter 62-yard touchdown run.
FAU Owls (2-2)
The offense has some talent at the skill spots, and the offensive line can move bodies in spurts. Overall, this offense still lacks the playmakers and depth that it needs beyond a few obvious talents.
Quarterback N’Kosi Perry possesses talent at the always important quarterback position. Against UCF, he was hot from the outset, but he looked awkward at times beyond the first quarter.
UCF made some changes, but after his fast start he fizzled. Perry finished 13 of 29 for 108 yards and a touchdown. UCF’s secondary is quite talented, but 108 yards?
The running game has two skilled backs with Larry McCammon and Zuberi Mobley. They ran over and around UCF during the early portion of the first quarter. When the Knights attacked the line of scrimmage with numbers, daring the Owls to pass, that’s when the running backs began to struggle.
That fact is largely on Perry and the passing attack overall. The Knights won the battle out wide between the cornerbacks and wide receivers and it killed the Owls chances to continue to run the football effectively.
Defensively, this team is hot garbage. UCF rolled up 40 points and 653 yards of offense despite three self-inflicted turnovers. Point blank, FAU has by far the worst defense amongst this group of six teams.
Florida State Seminoles (3-0)
When Jordan Travis went down with an injury, how many people now reading this article truly believed the ‘Noles could win against Louisville? Not much has been made about Tate Rodemaker, but the young man delivered a solid performance in the absence of Travis. Six of 10, 106 yards, two touchdowns and a pick. He had help from the running game.
The rushing attack was paced by Plant City’s own Treshaun Ward, as he toted the football 10 times for 126 yards, including a 46-yard scamper. The Seminoles can absolutely run the football with a vastly improved offensive line. That makes them dangerous moving forward.
Defensively, well, the Seminoles learned just how hard it is to tackle Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham. The fifth-year senior ran 17 times for 127 yards and two touchdowns. That also helped to open up the passing game.
The Cardinals took advantage of FSU looking for the running game, and Cunningham completed 21 of 34 passes for 243 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
So, it’s a mixed bag. On one hand, FSU’s offensive explosiveness makes it difficult to handle. Defensively there are issues. It allowed 495 yards of total offense to Louisville. If not fixed, the Seminoles could be looking at four or more losses as they get beat in shootouts, or improve on defense and be capable of beating any team they play.
Additionally, there’s the following tweet by Travis to decipher:
3-0…:) see y’all next week. #gonoles
— Jordan Travis (@jordantrav13) September 17, 2022
How healthy is the starting quarterback for the Seminoles as they prepare to play Boston College in Tallahassee?
Miami Hurricanes (2-1)
The defense for the Canes deserves credit because the offense did not hold its end of the bargain during the Hurricanes 17-9 loss to the Aggies. Even more so for Miami’s woeful special teams effort. A muffed punt and field goal issues probably deserve as much of the blame for the loss as anything.
Let’s focus on the defense, however, as it bowed up and held its ground. A&M managed to gain just 264 yards of total offense. The pass rush, led by Mitchell Agude and Leonard Taylor, among others, applying pressure, was good against a massive A&M front.
The defense did a good job of flowing down talented running back Devon Achane, holding him to 18 carries for 88 yards and a score. The problem stems from field position, as the Aggies started one drive deep in Miami territory because of the aforementioned muffed punt, as well as offense for the Hurricanes just looking awful through the air for much of the evening. Offensively, the situation is puzzling.
Where was the creative play calling? Where was the speed Miami has at wide receiver? Now, wide receiver Xavier Restrepo did not play because of a lower leg injury, but still, just a lack of creative play calling and very few plays that show Miami can make plays when needed through the air.
Keep in mind, by the middle of the game, A&M was without two key secondary members because of suspension, plus two more were ejected for targeting. Miami still struggled to throw the football.
Once a Heisman contender, Tyler Van Dyke saw that chance go up in smoke inside of Kyle Field. He went 21 of 41 for 217 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions. While a lot of it is not his fault, those are pedestrian numbers. Now, back to a prior point that hindered Van Dyke.
The play calling: awful in critical moments. It’s easy to see the conservative mentality of a former offensive lineman and now Miami head coach Mario Cristobal taking over.
The Canes were down 17-3 with just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter. They had a first down around the Aggies’ 10. Three runs? No imagination there. Then, kick a field goal instead of going for it when you are at the five and down 17-3?
Fans often complain about play calling. Miami fans have every right to complain about the situation that took place last night.
UCF Knights (2-1)
The Knights wiped the floor with FAU’s defense, rolling up 653 yards. That’s awesome. The defense started very slow yet found a way to suddenly rebound and be very effective by the end of the first quarter.
UCF won 40-14, and FAU did basically nothing from the second quarter onwards. Quarterback John Rhys Plumlee shredded the Owls and accounted for 460 yards of total offense, plus adding two rushing and one passing touchdown.
One can read more in detail about the Knights right here, but know that there’s promise for the Knights if the defense can suddenly find a consistent stride.
USF Bulls (1-2)
The team from Tampa deserves credit for not allowing The Swamp to hinder what it wanted to do. The Bulls played their brand of football, sans the passing attack, and it almost pulled off a colossal upset of the Gators.
So, it has grit. That’s a start. Now how about adding a real passing game? That was awful.
Just cannot throw for 116 yards of offense. That’s not winning football. Bohanon must get better or the Bulls will see eight-man fronts moving forward. Defensively, there’s much to be happy about.
Despite being placed in some tough spots with field position and the occasional big momentum shift because of the offense’s ineptitude, the USF defense held Florida to a total of 329 yards of offense. That’s commendable.
There’s not quite enough depth and overall talent to just flat out win games, but the difference between now and 2021 is stark. Congrats to the Bulls for improving as much as they have.
Now onto the actual rankings.
1) Florida State – The Noles find a way to win. It’s not always pretty, but it’s a win. The health of Travis might determine how long the Seminoles stay on top.
2 ) Miami – Hard to imagine Cristobal making the same boneheaded mistakes down the line, but this is a talented defensive team that can keep them in contention within any game no matter what play calling comes into the huddle.
3) UCF – Offensive firepower leads the Knights. The defense can have stretches where it looks good as well.
4) Florida – At least they can run the football and create plays with the passing defense. Long, long way to go with the passing game and rush defense though.
5) USF – The rushing attack is legit. The quarterback play is not. Defensively, yeah, it’s still below average at best.
6) FAU – Oh boy. The Owls just do not have the talent to make it happen. There may not be much reason to even keep them on this list after how lackluster their effort was against UCF.
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