College football preview 2018: 10 unranked teams most likely to surprise

Dan Mullen takes over the 2018 Florida Gators after Jim McElwain lost control and saw things really jump the shark in 2017.  The Gators went 4-7, but have way more talent coming back than the record indicates.

Mullen turned a perennially sub-.500 team with serious recruiting limitations into a winning program at Mississippi State. In nine seasons, not one team of his had the talent and depth he’ll have his first year at Florida.

Mullen is an offensive, quarterback-friendly coach who will take pressure off of young signal callers by keeping them in manageable situations where they’re asked to do less. Whichever quarterback he starts should deliver an improvement from 2017. Florida has talent coming back at skill positions and adds two blue-chip talent receivers in transfers, Van Johnson (from Ole Miss) and Trevon Grimes (from Ohio State). Both will be eligible to play immediately.

The defensive talent Florida had last year should never have come close to winning only four games. They’ll have one of the best secondaries and best defensive lines in the SEC.

In addition to all this, Florida has a Downy-soft schedule that avoids Alabama and Auburn and ends with Florida State. Florida could realistically under-achieve and still win eight games in the regular season which would obviously be a huge turnaround.