College Football Rankings: 5 biggest surprises from the preseason Coaches Poll

2. Texas not being ranked inside of the top 10 just doesn’t feel right optically

It was slightly disappointing to not see Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns ranked inside of the top 10. I might be more bullish on them this year than most, but isn’t this a team capable of going 11-1, winning the Big 12 and making the College Football Playoff as a No. 3 or No. 4 seed? My thoughts are that this ever-so-slight slight of Texas has everything to do with their head coach…

With that in mind, this is an especially critical year for Sarkisian at the helm of Texas. Although an 8-4 season in year three will not get him fired, it would cast doubt in the eyes of many that he is capable of leading Texas into the SEC. If he wants to prove everyone wrong, he must break his perceived 8-4 glass ceiling and get this team to something around a 10-2 performer this season.

Texas is more likely to make the playoff over higher-ranked teams like Tennessee and Washington.

1. Why on god’s green earth is Florida almost cracking the top 25 at No. 28???

I understand Florida is an SEC blue-blood and a major college football brand, but the Gators shouldn’t be anywhere close to a top-25 team. Though they did not crack the top 25, they were the third-highest team receiving votes, in the same neighborhood as Iowa, South Carolina, UTSA and Pittsburgh. All four of these teams have played considerably better the last two years over UF.

No, this is not an indictment on Billy Napier, but rather the athletic department as a whole. Florida should continually be fielding a top-15 team, challenging Georgia every year down in Jacksonville for divisional, and going forward, conference supremacy. I could be proven wrong, but they are at-best a fifth-place team in the SEC East that will duking it out with Missouri and Vanderbilt in 2023.

Florida being ranked right behind South Carolina and ahead of Kentucky makes next to no sense…