Florida Football: 3 takeaways from Gators’ dominant Peach Bowl win over Michigan
By Matt Oglesby
Florida football dominated Michigan 41-15 in the Peach Bowl, the Gators’ first New Year’s Six appearance since 2012.
If there were any justice, this year’s Peach Bowl would have featured the Florida Gators playing in-state FBS powerhouse UCF, with the Fiesta Bowl showcasing Michigan and LSU.
Instead, we got Michigan and Florida—for the third time in four seasons.
The teams may be the same, but the faces are a little different this time around. In Dan Mullen, the Gators have found a good fit at head coach for the first time since Urban Meyer’s departure in 2010. On the opposite sideline, the Michigan Wolverines, led by a perennially nasty defense, finally have a quarterback in Ole Miss transfer Shea Patterson, giving head coach Jim Harbaugh his first true talent since Andrew Luck at Stanford.
Michigan has won all four previous match-ups with Florida, but it was all Gators in the Peach Bowl today, with standout performances from quarterback Felipe Franks, talented running backs Jordan Scarlett and Lamical Perine, as well as excellent playcalling from Dan Mullen.
This is the Gators’ first 10-win season since 2015. Meanwhile, Jim Harbaugh falls to 1-4 in bowl games, with the Wolverines’ last win coming in the Citrus Bowl against Florida in his first year.