Must-win games for Florida Gators in 2023: Vanderbilt
This week, Gators Online will break down five must-win games for the Florida football team during the 2023 season.
UF has the second-lowest win total line in the SEC from DraftKings, which projected the Gators to win just 5.5 games.
If Florida is victorious in GO’s five must-win games, along with non-conference matchups against Charlotte and McNeese, it will at least finish the regular season above .500.
No. 5 — Florida vs. Vanderbilt, Oct. 7
Let’s start with the obvious opponent. Of all the games on the Gators’ schedule, this is one that they absolutely cannot lose.
Vanderbilt pulled off a 31-24 upset last season, handing the Gators their worst loss of the year and first in Nashville since 1988.
Florida also finished 3-5 in league play, marking the program’s first time with losing SEC records in back-to-back seasons since Bob Woodruff’s last two years in 1958 and 1959.
“It’s a setback, there’s no question about it,” UF coach Billy Napier said of the loss after the game. “A little bit of a reality check to some degree.”
Vanderbilt is a must-win game for Napier from a fan support standpoint, like Will Muschamp against the Commodores in 2014 or Dan Mullen at Kentucky in 2019.
When you’re the Florida coach and a decades-long winning streak is snapped on your watch, the last thing you can do is drop that game two years in a row.
Nothing will make UF fans jump off the bandwagon faster than back-to-back losses to Vanderbilt. And historically, that hasn’t happened since before Woodruff.
The Commodores have only beaten the Gators in consecutive years once in series history — when the first teams first played each other from 1945 and 1946.
Meeting for the third time in 1949, Vanderbilt defeated Florida again and then won two straight in 1952 and 1955, winning five of the first seven matchups.
Prior to last year’s loss, UF was victorious in 30 of the last 31 games against Vandy, save for 2013. That marked the ’Dores first win in Gainsville since 1945. Napier can’t let them get No. 3 this year.
Homecoming weekend adds another must-win factor. Florida had won 31 of its last 33 homecoming games before suffering back-to-back losses in 2013 (Vanderbilt) and 2014 (Missouri) under Muschamp and in 2017 (LSU) and 2018 (Missouri) under Jim McElwain and Mullen, respectively.
After four losses in six years, the Gators have won their last four homecoming games following a 24-17 victory over Missouri last season. Napier needs to make five in a row vs. Vandy.
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