Florida Gators: Looking At The 2021 Football Season

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The Florida Gators start the 2021 football season with many questions. As many college football teams do, many of their great players head to the NFL. For the Gators, three of them on offense made up for a lot of yards. Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts, and Kadarius Toney were those three players. The offense averaged about 42 points a game. There were many good things that happened like finally beating the Georgia Bulldogs and a close game in the SEC Championship with the Alabama Crimson Tide. The same Crimson Tide that went on to win another national championship. Dan Mullen is going to have to figure out a way of making up for those three players and the others he lost. Looking at the schedule this team could win 10 games which they’ve done under Mullen very frequently. Let’s look at the 2021 season to see how it will end up.

With the departure of Kyle Trask, the Florida Gators are making a change at the quarterback position. It falls on the shoulders of Emory Jones. We saw Jones last year in certain situations. Many believe that Mullen will call the same plays when he had Dak Prescott at Mississippi State. Jones shares a similar skill set. Look for a lot of play-action and rollouts this year. Jones will prosper in this style of offense. With Toney gone, look to Jacob Copeland to take that main role at the wide receiver position. This will help Jones on the rollouts plays and hopefully stretch the field. The last player I am watching on offense is at the tight end position. This will be Kyle Pitts replacement, Kenmore Gamble. Gamble is not Pitts, but he will be enough to keep the offense moving.

One of the biggest questions last year for the Florida Gators was their defense. Todd Grantham was on the verge of being fired but was brought back by Dan Mullen. Everyone is interested in how the defense will do this year. They will have to stay away from giving up so many points. Many like the defensive secondary for the Gators and one of the players is Kaiir Elam. Elam started all 12 games last season. Look for him to play a huge part on defense. On the defensive line, I will be looking at Zachary Carter. Carter, like Elam, started in all 12 games last year for Florida. He led the Gators in sacks in 2020. In the middle of the defense let’s look at Brenton Cox Jr. He played in all 12 games last year and led the team in quarterback hurries.

With that, let’s look at four games that should be exciting in 2021. The first one is in week three when the Florida Gators host the Alabama Crimson Tide. This game was close last year in the SEC Championship. The Gators will have to bring all they have because Alabama is once again the favorite to win it all. The next one comes on the eve of Halloween when they play their biggest rival the Georgia Bulldogs. Florida played a good game and was able to win last year. This year the Bulldogs are out for revenge and this should be a classic back and forth affair. The third game is against the LSU Tigers. That game is two weeks before the Georgia game. On the road, this is the team that upset the Gators last year because of dumb mistakes. The last game is against the Missouri Tigers in November.

All four of the games could make or break the Florida Gators 2021 season. It is looking like the best they may do is a split in these four games. The two defeats will more than likely come against Alabama and Georgia. I am not saying that Florida cannot win both of those games. They have a shot at being a 10-win team. There are going to be cupcake games this year with one coming in week two against the USF Bulls. The Gators should not have any problems against the Florida State Seminoles at the end of the year too.

We will all have to see how all the new pieces come together under Dan Mullen while also focusing on the ones that are coming back. The offense will not score 42 points a game this year so the defense will have to eliminate mistakes. In the end, it should be an exciting 2021 Florida Gators football season.