Florida Football: Post-spring game-by-game predictions for 2019

Florida football took a massive leap in Dan Mullen’s first season in Gainesville. Can they contend for an SEC Championship in year two?

It wasn’t a surprise to see Florida football improve in Dan Mullen’s first season as the head coach; the surprise was in how much it improved. Following a 4-7 2017 season, not many projected the Gators to be players on the national stage so quickly.

While they still finished two games behind Georgia in the East (and lost to the Bulldogs by 19 in Jacksonville), Mullen immediately rejuvenated the Swamp and Florida won 10 games. That included a home win over LSU in the regular season and a dominant performance in the Peach Bowl against Michigan.

10 wins and a New Year’s Six bowl victory is a heck of a beginning to Mullen’s tenure at Florida, and with a lot of returning talent in Gainesville, the Gators should be even better in 2019, and could contend with Georgia in the SEC East race.

Florida has the third most returning production in the SEC, and could take major strides on both sides of the ball. Much-maligned quarterback Feleipe Franks took a big step in his redshirt sophomore season under Mullen’s tutelage, and if the spring game was any indication, he could be set to take an even bigger step forward in 2019.

Franks will be aided by a talented stable of running backs led by Lamical Perine and dynamic understudies Dameon Pierce and the do-it-all Kadarius Toney. The Gators will also boast one of the nation’s deepest and most talented group of receivers. If the offensive line comes together, this could be the best offense since Urban Meyer was in town.

On the other side of the ball, Florida boasts a lot of talent at every level of the defense. Similarly, it might all depend on how the line comes together with Jachai Polite and CeCe Jefferson gone, but there’s still plenty of talent up front led by rising senior Jabari Zuniga.

In the middle, senior David Reese is one of the nation’s top linebackers, and the secondary boasts a ton of talent as well, headlined by potential first round pick C.J. Henderson, who might well be the top cornerback in the entire country.

The gap between Georgia and Florida has closed considerably in a short time frame. Can the Gators overtake the Bulldogs and capture the SEC East in 2019?

Let’s take a game-by-game look at Florida’s schedule and make some predictions.