- 2 days ago
The Florida Gators have a defense that will punish, and now the offense should be improved. Drew & Zinno wonder if the Gators can beat UGA this season.
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00:01First one is they've ranked the 12 toughest schedules coming up this season for college football playoff contenders,
00:07and then they've also provided a ranking of returning snap production coming up this season.
00:15Which one would you like to start with?
00:1612 toughest schedules.
00:18All right, 12 toughest schedules, and these again are for contenders for the college football playoff,
00:24and the No. 1 toughest schedule CBS has labeled is the Texas Longhorns.
00:31They're playing Texas State.
00:32They're playing Ohio State yet again in the regular season.
00:36UTSA, then they get into the meat of their SEC schedule.
00:39Tennessee, Oklahoma, Florida, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri, LSU, Arkansas, and Texas A&M.
00:48Obviously led by Arch Manning.
00:50Going to be a preseason Heisman favorite, I would guess,
00:53but Steve Sarkeesian and the Texas Longhorns, they were on the outside looking in this past season
00:59when the college football playoff selection happened.
01:03Yeah, listen, life in the SEC, right?
01:05I mean, you have three losses, it's going to be really tough for you to get in.
01:10Don't worry about it.
01:11We'll just keep expanding so we can get a five-loss team in there at some point.
01:14Yeah, they're trying hard.
01:15No. 2 toughest schedule is Oklahoma.
01:17Then it is the third toughest schedule.
01:20Oklahoma's due for some major regression this year.
01:21You think so?
01:22That was the worst team in the college football playoff.
01:26By a wide margin.
01:28Defense was great.
01:28Offense was pitiful.
01:29Yeah, they were horrific.
01:30They were bad on offense.
01:32Is Mateer back for them?
01:36John Mateer.
01:36I believe he is back for them, yeah.
01:38I believe so.
01:38I just think they're primed for major regression.
01:40I think they played way over that.
01:41And that's not to take anything away from Brett Venables as a coach.
01:44Yes, he is.
01:45I was very unimpressed by Oklahoma last year.
01:47They should have been the team that should have been left out in favor of North Carolina.
01:50And they jumped out in front of Alabama in that first round college football playoff game.
01:57And then Alabama took over and dominated them.
01:59Yep.
01:59In which they went to the Rose Bowl and then got smoked by a team.
02:01That was the game that cost Alabama during the regular season.
02:05Correct.
02:05That's exactly right.
02:06They gave that game away.
02:08Simpson was bad in that game.
02:09It was a pick 6-2 that he threw in that game against Oklahoma.
02:12Why do I know that?
02:13Because I had Alabama.
02:15Plus the points.
02:16Ty Simpson, 13th overall pick to the Los Angeles Rams.
02:19Yep, there you go.
02:19There you go.
02:20Yes, this scheduled ranking, Mark, pretty much all SEC and Big Ten teams.
02:26The one team out, of course, yes, USC is at 8.
02:30Georgia is at 9.
02:32Alabama, 10.
02:33Oregon, 11.
02:34And 12.
02:35Indiana.
02:35So all SEC and Big Ten teams there for the 12 toughest schedules for the 2026 college football playoff.
02:42Again, Georgia takes on Tennessee State, Western Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss, Missouri, South Carolina is
02:53back on the schedule.
02:54And they end with Georgia Tech.
03:02I don't know.
03:04I mean, how much more elevating can Gunnar Stockton do?
03:08What's his ceiling?
03:11That's a great question.
03:12What is his ceiling?
03:13For you to not have an immediate snap answer is one of the more surprising things that I ran into
03:19on this Monday.
03:19Well, listen, I think his ceiling, Mark, and what he can be better at is pushing the ball down the
03:24field more.
03:25More explosive plays in the passing game from the arm of Gunnar Stockton.
03:31Yes, with the offense that they ran a year ago, a lot of his passes were in the short to
03:36intermediate areas of the field.
03:38I think now, with Georgia's receiving room, Gunnar Stockton can take the next step by pushing the ball down the
03:46field and Georgia really putting an emphasis on 25-plus yard passes, getting explosive on the offensive side of the
03:57ball.
03:57I think that's his ceiling.
04:01The offense has to be better.
04:03That's the bottom line.
04:06And look, if I said to you that the level of dominance Georgia had when they won back-to-back
04:14national titles is gone.
04:16That's a fact.
04:17They're not going to be that dominant ever again.
04:19No.
04:20One of the best defenses in college football history.
04:23The landscape has changed that they will – so Georgia fans need to put that level of Georgia football out
04:28of their mind.
04:29They're not going to be – they're not going to distance themselves from the field that way.
04:33I think that's a very fair statement.
04:34Nobody really is going to be able to do that at this point in time.
04:39How much do you think returning snap production has on an impact heading into a season?
04:46Georgia, per CBS Sports, fifth in the entire country of overall returning snaps percentage.
04:53They've got 61% of their total snaps from a year ago coming back to Athens.
04:5958% of their defensive snaps – excuse me, offensive snaps.
05:0365% of their defensive snaps.
05:06Notre Dame leads the way, number one in the nation with returning snap production.
05:10They should be the preseason number one.
05:11Notre Dame should be.
05:13Yes.
05:14They won't be, but they should.
05:16Well, you know, you just mentioned that the landscape of college football has changed from a domination perspective,
05:21which I completely agree with.
05:23Kirby Smart actually talked about that last week.
05:25He was at the Regents Tradition Golf Tournament in Birmingham.
05:28He was on with The Next Round, which is a podcast.
05:31And he said, quote, I can't figure out what it is, but speaking about the Big Ten,
05:36he says, I just think the Big Ten is a more competitive conference.
05:40At the top of their conference, there are more good teams.
05:43It used to be that Ohio State was good, but now Michigan's really good when Harbaugh was there.
05:48Indiana's a great team.
05:49Now they've got Oregon.
05:50And he continues on and says the Big Ten has a draw.
05:53They have the ability to attract good players.
05:55NIL is a factor, too.
05:57Sure.
05:57But so does Miami.
05:58People have more money.
05:59The talent is spread out thin, where before, the SEC was a magnet, and the disparity was so great.
06:06Yeah.
06:07I think there's a ton of truth to that.
06:09So many things have changed in a short amount of time.
06:12Three national champions in a row.
06:15Yeah.
06:15The Big Ten.
06:16Ohio State.
06:17Michigan.
06:17Indiana.
06:18Wow.
06:19Nobody saw Indiana coming, but that's probably the outlier.
06:24And they've had SEC-level dominance.
06:26And is it a two-conference league?
06:29Two-conference sport?
06:30Probably.
06:31Absolutely it is.
06:32Probably.
06:32I mean, we'd be shocked if a Big 12 team won it.
06:35I was just going to ask, do you think there is an outsider like in Indiana, which happened this past
06:42season,
06:42that could potentially spoil the party in 2026?
06:48I mean, I don't think anybody had Indiana taking on Miami in the national championship.
06:52No.
06:52This past year.
06:53No.
06:53Another team primed for regression.
06:55The Hurricanes.
06:56Really?
06:56Yeah.
06:57Come on.
06:59With all they lost, they're not going to be able to duplicate that.
07:01With how good they were, that's not coming back.
07:03The trenches and where they won games.
07:06Plus, you're putting a whole new quarterback in there.
07:08Yeah, I'm not really sold on Mensa.
07:10I would.
07:11I'm not sold on Mensa at all.
07:13No.
07:13No.
07:16But I think when you ask about surprise teams, I mean, I don't know.
07:22Maybe somebody out of the Big 12?
07:24That's what I was thinking in my head.
07:26I'm just trying to.
07:27Could Clemson do something this year?
07:29No.
07:30Clemson's done.
07:30What about a South Carolina?
07:32Shane Beamer is up against it heading into this season.
07:35Lenore Sellers is back.
07:36I mean.
07:38Dylan Stewart is back.
07:39It's going to sound crazy.
07:42BYU making the college football playoff this year might not be a bad bet.
07:45Okay.
07:47Might not be a bad bet as they go through 2026.
07:51I mean, non-conference, they get Notre Dame at home.
07:56That'll be a tough one.
07:57But this schedule has 10 and 2 written all over it.
08:02Utah Tech, Arizona, road games.
08:04Colorado State, TCU, UCF at Utah.
08:06That'll be a tough one.
08:07And Kansas.
08:08Their toughest road game is at Utah in a program that just flipped over from Kyle Whittingham
08:12and might be in the state of flux.
08:15Home game.
08:15Cincinnati, Baylor, Arizona State, Notre Dame, Iowa State, Arizona, Utah Tech.
08:19That's a 10-1 schedule right there.
08:21All right.
08:21If not, I'm sorry, 10-2, if not 11-1.
08:23What about Indiana?
08:24Any chance that they can find lightning in a bottle?
08:27Once again, obviously, Fernando Mendoza gone.
08:30Omar Cooper gone.
08:31Ponds, the DB gone.
08:33They'll be competitive.
08:34Okay.
08:34You trust Insignity that much.
08:36I don't think they're going to be 6-6.
08:37Right.
08:38You know, but 9-3, 8-4 sounds pretty plausible.
08:43You know?
08:45If they run it back and they make it to the college football playoff again, I mean, not
08:51that Kurt Signetti needed more validation, but it's absolutely, it was more than the quarterback.
08:55Right?
08:56It was more than just Mendoza playing out of his mind for a year span.
08:59So, there's a lot there.
09:01What about Florida?
09:03Any of your thoughts on John Summer?
09:04Huge, huge, huge lift year for Florida.
09:06Really?
09:06Love them a lot.
09:07Another team that I would take to make the college football playoff.
09:10Really?
09:10Yeah.
09:10To make the college football playoff?
09:12Yeah.
09:13The Florida Gators?
09:14Can you talk about the odds that they're going to get for it?
09:16Yeah.
09:16Let me pull this up real quick.
09:19And what would be the reasoning for that?
09:21Do you trust in John Summerall?
09:22They obviously need a big-time culture change down there.
09:25He is a good coach, man.
09:27He is a good coach.
09:28Like, he's the coach who turns around when you talk about, you know, kids getting paid,
09:36like, you know, and everything else.
09:38He's the coach that says, you're getting paid, now do it.
09:40Yeah.
09:41Right?
09:41That's what the money's for.
09:42That's what the money's for.
09:43It's the old Don Draper line.
09:45Okay?
09:46Exactly.
09:46You didn't say thank you.
09:47That's what the money's for.
09:48Exactly.
09:49So, I don't have to say thank you.
09:51That is what the money is for.
09:52Let me see Florida here to make the playoffs.
09:55Plus 360.
09:57That's it.
10:00Listen.
10:01To make the playoffs, Florida is plus 360.
10:04Are you sure?
10:05I am positive.
10:06That was a roster last year that would have had wildly different results if DJ Lagway
10:12wasn't their quarterback.
10:12Sorry, Baylor.
10:13You're done.
10:14Lagway's not that good.
10:16He is not that good of a quarterback.
10:19And he was the problem for them last year more than anything else.
10:23And so, this is a Florida roster, particularly on the defensive side.
10:27You've got to remember something, Drew.
10:29Through six weeks, until everything fell off the rails, through six or seven weeks last
10:32year, that was the top 20 defense in the nation.
10:35The games that they lost weren't because their defense.
10:37Look at the Georgia, too.
10:38Yes.
10:39The games that they lost.
10:40Even the South Florida game that they lost.
10:43That was an offense problem.
10:44It wasn't a defense problem.
10:45They gave up 10 points through three and a half quarters.
10:49And their offense couldn't get in the end zone.
10:51I mean, it was the same thing in the LSU game.
10:55Five interceptions, including a pick six.
10:57Right.
10:58It wasn't a defense problem.
11:00And that was in Baton Rouge.
11:03It wasn't an offense problem.
11:04It was a defense problem.
11:04It was an offense problem.
11:05They've corrected that now.
11:07So, I think Sumrall's a hell of a coach.
11:10A hell of a coach.
11:12All right.
11:12And I think they got the right guy.
11:15I think they got a great chance to turn this thing around.
11:16Mark Zinno going to sprinkle on the Florida Gators to make the college football playoff
11:23in 2026.
11:24There you go.
11:25I did not expect that on a Monday morning.
11:29But there you go.
11:30John Sumrall, you're a big believer.
11:31They've got talent.
11:32DJ Lagway no longer there.
11:34Their defense was solid last season.
11:36I don't hate that.
11:37And the odds tell me that Vegas is respecting the Florida Gators maybe much more than some
11:43others potentially are, especially in the Atlanta area.
11:47Here are their road games this year.
11:48It's not easy.
11:49Again, remember, they had the toughest schedule in the country last year.
11:52At Auburn, at Missouri, at Texas, at Kentucky, at Florida State, neutral side against Georgia.
11:58I mean, they should run their home slate.
12:00Ole Miss, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt.
12:04Man, that's a tough schedule.
12:05Tough schedule.
12:06My God, that's tough.
12:08But they're ready to go.
12:09Big, big season upcoming in Gainesville.
12:11They get the Florida, Atlantic, and Campbell.
12:12Does that count?
12:13Yeah, and remember, they're playing Georgia right here at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
12:16Oh, that's right.
12:16It's going to be this year.
12:17Florida game, which will be awesome, and the next year, it goes back to Tampa.
12:21Hey, guys.
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