Florida football schedule: Predicting the first loss for the Gators in 2021

The Florida football schedule presents a daunting challenge for Dan Mullen and the Gators.

After winning the SEC East for the first time under Dan Mullen, the Florida football program could experience a bit of a pullback year in 2021.

While this is no slight on the Gators, they did lose their three most important offensive weapons to the 2021 NFL Draft in tight end Kyle Pitts, wide receiver Kadarius Toney and quarterback Kyle Trask. All three were off the board before the end of the second round. Florida also faces an incredibly difficult regular-season schedule. While they could win the East again, don’t count on it.

What game should Gator Nation be expecting its first loss of the 2021 college football season?

Florida football: When will the Gators suffer their first loss of the 2021 season?

While the non-conference slate should be fairly navigable, regardless of how much better the in-state rival Florida State Seminoles are in year two under Mike Norvell, Florida gets about as worse of a draw in SEC play as you could ever hope for. The Gators’ rotational game out of the SEC West is vs. the defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide. That will be Florida’s first loss, too.

Though this game is at home, Alabama should be excellent defensively, even if the Crimson Tide lost a ton of offensive talent to the NFL as well. If this game were in Tuscaloosa, Florida would have no chance. While they do have a legitimate shot to win this one in The Swamp as home underdogs, Florida is very unlikely to begin SEC play at 1-0 and get out of September unscathed.

In the rare chance the Gators defeat the Crimson Tide on Sept. 18, they have two very tough games on the slate vs. rivals in October: At LSU on Oct. 16 and vs. Georgia down in Jacksonville on Oct. 30.

While Florida will want to beat the Bayou Bengals after how last year went, Georgia will want to avenge its embarrassment from a year ago along the Banks of the St. Johns River as well.

Florida is good enough to go 10-2 this season, but getting back to Atlanta will prove very difficult.

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