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Florida Football: 3 Reasons to Watch 2018 Peach Bowl vs. Michigan

By John Mitchell

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 17: Emory Jones #5 of the Florida Gators runs with the football during the second half of their game against the Idaho Vandals at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on November 17, 2018 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 17: Emory Jones #5 of the Florida Gators runs with the football during the second half of their game against the Idaho Vandals at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on November 17, 2018 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) /
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In his first year, Dan Mullen lifted Florida football from a sub .500 season into the New Year’s Six. Here’s why you should watch the Peach Bowl matchup with Michigan.

The committee badly fumbled this matchup. With the Sugar and Rose Bowls set, the committee was left with four teams to assign to two bowls: Michigan, UCF, Florida, and LSU. And out of those four, they pulled the two least compelling matchups.

We could have seen the first ever Michigan-LSU game, with two storied programs facing off on the gridiron for the first time. That would have left us with UCF-Florida, an intriguing in-state matchup that in the very least would have allowed the Knights to claim a state championship in 2018 if they were able to overtake the Gators.

Instead, we are left with yet another Michigan-Florida game, which is beginning to become a yearly exercise.

This will be the third time in the last four years these teams have met, and the fourth bowl game matchup between the two since 2003; it’s easy to see why enthusiasm is mild for the Gators and Wolverines meeting in Atlanta.

Michigan sports a perfect 4-0 record against Florida – they most recently knocked off the Gators in the season opener in Arlington last year. They also rolled past Florida 41-7 in the 2016 Citrus Bowl.

The Wolverines are obviously disappointed entering the Peach Bowl after spending much of the second-half of the season among the Top 4. Am embarrassing loss to rival Ohio State, their seventh straight defeat to the Buckeyes, ended their hopes of making the playoff or capturing the Big Ten.

Instead, Michigan was relegated to the Peach Bowl, and while it’s still a New Year’s Six berth and a step up from the 8-5 season a year ago, the familiar refrain remains of Jim Harbaugh‘s inability to get over the Urban Meyer hurdle and win the big one in Ann Arbor.

A 9-3 season for the Gators in Dan Mullen’s first season in Gainesville was a pleasant surprise for a team coming off of last season’s 4-7 campaign. Improvement was expected this season, but Mullen getting Florida to this level this quickly should be viewed as a sign that he can get the Gators back to competing for SEC and National Championships.

This will represent Florida’s first New Year’s Six berth since the playoff was instituted, and their first berth in an equivalent bowl game since 2012.

While this matchup feels a bit stale, there’s still plenty of reasons to watch this year’s Peach Bowl, with two of the sport’s premier programs meeting in Atlanta.

Here’s why you should be watching:

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