Florida Gators
U.S. NATIONAL TEAM
Gators a top 10 team headed to SEC Championship Game in at least one man's view
Thursday, June 28, 2012 | Women's Basketball, Football, Scott Carter
Photo: One notable college football analyst expects Will Muschamp to have more to cheer about in Year 2.
Call me old-fashioned, a hopeless throwback or something worse. I admit it. I still actually like to read books, magazines and newspapers that are not on my computer screen.
It's true, I like to hold and fold what I'm reading sometimes. One of those items came in the mail Thursday: a college football preseason magazine.
This one was “Phil Steele's 2012 College Football Preview,” which on the cover stated “the book the experts cannot do without.”
Steele's publications have a reputation as being loaded with more information than any one human can consume in one sitting. No doubt about that after flipping through its 344 pages of small type.
And for what it's worth, Steele tweeted this week about writing a story 12 years ago about a perfect four-team playoff system to determine college football's national champion. It's similar to the playoff model announced Tuesday.
Anyway, ready for some football, I flipped directly to see what the magazine had to say about the Gators. Here are some interesting tidbits Steele offered up:
--Steele expects Florida to be much-improved in 2012 and to back up his analysis he has the Gators ranked No. 10 in his preseason Top 40. “The Gators have my No. 2-rated defense in the country and should get vastly upgraded QB play and have a more powerful run game between the tackles. I expect the Gators to be in the SEC title game and would have them ranked higher in my top 10, but if they play in the title game, they would have to face five potential Top 10 teams and might suffer a loss or two.”
--Steele points out that four second-year head coaches have won national titles in the last 11 years and that Muschamp is the best candidate in 2012 (he didn't predict, just a note he dropped into his capsule).
--Here is how Steele projects the SEC East: 1. Florida, 2. Georgia, 3. South Carolina, 4. Tennessee, 5. Missouri, 6. Vanderbilt, 7. Kentucky.
--Steele ranks Florida's special teams the best in the country, highlighted by kicker Caleb Sturgis and Andre Debose's history as an explosive kick returner.
--In his ranking of the top 60 quarterbacks in the country, eight SEC quarterbacks made the cut, including two in the top five: Arkansas' Tyler Wilson and Tennessee's Tyler Bray. Florida's Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett haven't played enough to crack the list.
--Steele ranks Gators junior Jordan Reed as the 11th-best tight end in the country and Trey Burton as the seventh-best returning fullback. In his ranking of the top 70 wide receivers, the only Gator to make the list is Debose at No. 24.
--The highest-ranked Gator on any of Steele's position rankings is Sturgis, whom Steele ranks as the nation's second-best kicker behind Oklahoma State's Quinn Sharp.
--Florida's offensive line received some love from Steele: Jon Harrison is ranked the 28th-best center, Jon Halapio the 37th-best guard, Sam Robey as the 55th-best guard, Xavier Nixon the 14th-best tackle.
--On the defensive line, Steele likes several Gators, including Dominique Easley (27th-best DE despite playing DT), Ronald Powell (34th-best DE), Sharrif Floyd (8th overall at DT) and Omar Hunter (47th overall at DT).
--Florida's Jon Bostic is ranked No. 17 among middle linebackers, and Jelani Jenkins checks in on Steele's list of outside linebackers at No. 11.
--In the secondary, Steele is high on strong safety Matt Elam (No. 4 overall) while free safety Josh Evans checks in at No. 28 among his position group. He doesn't have any Gators on his list of the 70 best cornerbacks in the country.
--Steele has the Gators as his No. 5 surprise team, behind Texas, Clemson, Oklahoma State and Wisconsin. Steele sees the Gators as a team on the rise in Muschamp's second season coming off a 7-6 campaign in 2011.
If you want to read more of Steele's preseason predictions, you can visit philsteele.com by clicking on this link.
