Texas Football: 3 teams Longhorns should be above in Coaches Poll

3. Florida Gators

I’m not taking this list in any particular order, but starting with the former Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen gives me a common theme to work with. Florida capped its 2018 campaign, and big bounce back season, with a win over the Michigan Wolverines in the Peach Bowl.

However, there are still a lot of looming question marks for Florida heading into the 2019 regular season. The first being if rising redshirt junior 6-foot-6 quarterback Feleipe Franks is actually legit. Franks had a solid 2018 campaign with 24 passing touchdowns compared to just six interceptions. But he also had his fair share of struggles in losses to the Kentucky Wildcats and Mizzou Tigers.

The biggest reason why Texas football has a good case to be ranked ahead of Florida is the certainty at quarterback and the fact that one beat Georgia and the other didn’t. It’s a simple fact that Florida got railed by Georgia last year in the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” and Texas was able to beat them in the Sugar Bowl.

Florida has a tough road ahead in the SEC East and could be looking at a nine or 10 win season at best if Franks remains even at the same level of play he was at in 2018. Florida was the fourth highest ranked team out of the SEC in the Coaches Poll, at No. 8, and starts to show the usual preseason bias toward that conference.