Florida Football: 5 bold predictions for the 2017 season

5. Florida will lose Week 1 to Michigan

Week one is going to be a seriously important game for the Florida Gator if the team wants any chance of winning the SEC East in 2017. Harbaugh

Currently ranked the No.17 team in the nation by the AP poll, Florida will be facing off against coach Jim Harbaugh’s No. 11 University of Michigan Wolverines on Saturday Sep. 2, in a game that could have serious college football playoff implementations.

On paper the two teams are relatively well matched. They each have stout, top-10 defenses, fairly pedestrian offenses and a pair of headstrong third year head coaches. One factor that could seriously swing the tide in Michigan’s favor is star running back Jordan Scarlett’s suspension.

Scarlett and a plethora of his teammates, including starting receiver Antonio Callaway, have been suspended by the university for a multitude of issues ranging from marijuana abuse, to misusing school-issued funds.

In past seasons, losing that many players for the first game of the college football season wasn’t that big of a deal, since most teams would schedule smaller, out of conference schools to serve as a warmup before in-conference play. However, after college football shifted to a four team playoff system teams began scheduling more challenging, out of conference games in-order to strengthen their playoff resumes.

In such a potentially tight game, being without two of the team’s best offensive weapons will surely hurt the Gator’s ability to attack Michigan’s stingy defense, especially with the team breaking in a new, first year quarterback.