On Sunday, the first preseason Associated Press poll was released, and the Florida Gators checked in all the way at No. 25. Despite being ranked so low, Florida is no stranger to being underrated to start the season.Last year, they were picked to finish third in the SEC East by the media at SEC Media Days. They wound up finishing 2015 woth ten wins, and an SEC East title in head coach Jim McElwain's first season.
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On Monday, the SEC Network's Paul Finebaum spoke on ESPN's SportsCenter about which team outside of the Top 15 in the AP poll has a chance to surprise people. He chose Florida as a sleeper team to watch. Here's what he had to say, as transcribed by SEC Country.
"I go all the way down to the bottom, No. 25. I think the Florida Gators are going to be better," Finebaum said via SEC Country. "They've named their quarterback in Luke Del Rio. They surprised a lot of people last year getting to the SEC championship game, and then they had a crash and burn at the end of the season when they were struggling with the quarterback position. But I think they're better this year. They don't have that big game early on. They do have the big game at the end of the season against Florida State. They have LSU at home. They still have to go to Tennessee, but they've beaten Tennessee 11 years in a row."
Florida gets No. 9 Tennessee and No. 4 Florida State on the road, and they face No. 18 Georgia in Everbank Field in Jacksonville, Fla. We'll see if the Gators can surprise some people this season like they did in 2015.
[H/T: SEC Country]
