Florida Football: 3 bold predictions for Gators in 2021
Looking ahead to the 2021 Florida football season, here are three bold predictions for the Gators this season.
Florida football was one of the most exciting teams in the country last season and fell just short of winning the SEC championship after falling in a classic game to Alabama.
Kyle Trask had an incredible year and is now a Tampa Bay Buccaneer after getting drafted in the second round of the 2021 NFL draft.
But his absence, plus the loss of Kyle Pitts, who went fourth overall to Atlanta, as well as Kadarius Toney, a first-round pick of the Giants, leaves the offense with some question marks.
On the other hand, Florida football struggled defensively.
The Gators had a rough year in terms of forcing teams into turnovers and didn’t have a defender picked in the first two rounds of the draft.
Looking ahead to the 2021 season, Florida is ranked 13th in the preseason coaches poll and the schedule, at least in conference play is brutal with trips to LSU and Alabama, on top of playing the annual game in Jacksonville against Georgia.
We’ll get to that game in a minute, but the biggest key to the 2021 season is going to be the play of Emory Jones and we start our predictions with him.
1. Emory Jones becomes a star
Dan Mullen has done a great job with the Gators and last year, he beat Georgia and won the SEC East. Doing that again is the goal this season and it’s going to take Emory Jones having a breakout season.
Obviously, Jones is a different player than Trask who was the definition of a pocket passer. Jones has attempted just 86 passes through three seasons but has completed 64 percent of those throws with seven touchdown passes.
Jones has also rushed for 514 yards on 92 carries during his first few seasons with the Gators and in the past two seasons, he went over 200 yards and averaged more than six yards per attempt. That could change if he throws the ball more and is sacked, but it’s easy to project Jones for 500-600 rushing yards and close to 10 touchdowns.
Florida is going to have a dynamic running back, possibly led by Clemson transfer Demarkcus Bowman. The passing-game targets aren’t as talented as a year ago, but Jacob Copeland is a reliable option and Xzavier Henderson should also step up in a bigger role.
Jones isn’t the passer that Trask was. But when it’s all said and done, he’s going to work his way into the Heisman conversation with around 3,500 total yards and 30 total touchdowns.