Florida Football: 3 bold predictions for Gators in 2021

2. Getting positive in turnover margin

While Florida football had a tremendous offense last season behind Trask and all those weapons on offense, the defense wasn’t what we’ve come to expect from the Gators.

One thing they have been very successful in the Mullen era is taking the ball away. In the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Florida averaged just under 25 takeaways a game. Last season, however, Florida managed just 16, which put them at negative three for the year in turnover ratio.

Part of that had to do with Trask who tended to throw some costly interceptions at times, but with an offense more based on the ground attack this year, the Gators should be better at taking care of the football.

Additionally, the defense should find a way to force more turnovers. The linebacking group is stout and pass rusher Zachary Carter is due for a big year after nine tackles for loss and five sacks last season. Florida also added some key pieces on the defense front and even though Jaydon Hill just suffered a season-ending injury, Kaiir Elam leads the way in the secondary and finished with 11 passes defended a year ago.

The bottom line is that defenses give up more points than they used to, which has made impact plays the most important and just by the law of averages, as well as talent on all three levels of the defense, Florida will take the ball away more in 2021 than it did in 2020.

And since Mullen is 29-0 at Florida when the Gators have won the turnover battle, that should lead to another successful season.