The Georgia Bulldogs got the best of the Florida Gators for the fifth-straight season on the college football gridiron on Saturday, rallying their way to a 24-20 victory over their most hated rivals in Jacksonville.
For a while, it looked like interim head coach Billy Gonzales would pick up his first-ever win as the team’s skipper in a most monumental fashion. Instead, the Dawgs did what they are wont to do, coming from behind to seize victory from the reptilian jaws of defeat.
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It is hard to call the loss a moral victory when triumph was within their grasp, only to fumble the game away much like we have seen during the Billy Napier era. But from an outsider’s viewpoint, an unranked team taking the fifth-ranked juggernaut program to the final minutes does not look too shabby.
Where Florida ranks according to SP+ after Week 10
As a result of the narrow loss, Florida actually gained a spot in ESPN college football analyst’s SP+ update after Week 10, moving from No. 40 to No. 39. That nestles the Gators between the No. 38 SMU Mustangs and No. 40 Mississippi State Bulldogs, the latter of whom fell to the Orange and Blue during Week 8 in the Swamp.
The team’s overall SP+ rating rose from 9.1 last week to 9.3 this week, with the offense remaining falling 0.6 points to 27.6, which moves them down two spots to 65th in the nation. Florida’s defensive metric also fell from 19.5 to 18.8, but rose from 25th to 20th in the rankings; special teams improved again — this time from 0.4 to 0.5 — and held onto its No. 15 ranking.
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About ESPN’s SP+ projections
“What is SP+? In a single sentence, it’s a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency that I originally created at Football Outsiders in 2008. SP+ is intended to be predictive and forward-facing,” Connelly notes.
“It is not a résumé ranking (hence the lack of unbeatens near the top), so it does not automatically give credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling — no good predictive system does. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you’re lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you’re strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.”
ESPN’s Week 10 SP+ top 25 rankings
|
Team |
Rating |
Offense |
Defense |
Spec Tms |
Rk Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Ohio St. (8-0) |
29.8 |
39.4 (8) |
9.6 (1) |
0.0 (81) |
+1 |
|
2. Indiana (9-0) |
29.5 |
40.7 (1) |
11.8 (2) |
0.5 (14) |
-1 |
|
3. Oregon (7-1) |
27.1 |
38.9 (10) |
12.1 (3) |
0.3 (36) |
+0 |
|
4. Texas Tech (8-1) |
24.3 |
39.0 (9) |
14.7 (8) |
0.0 (80) |
+0 |
|
5. Texas A&M (8-0) |
21.8 |
40.6 (2) |
18.9 (21) |
0.1 (61) |
+0 |
|
6. Utah (7-2) |
21.4 |
35.6 (19) |
14.3 (7) |
0.2 (49) |
+1 |
|
7. Notre Dame (6-2) |
21.4 |
39.4 (7) |
18.1 (18) |
0.0 (68) |
-1 |
|
8. Oklahoma (7-2) |
20.2 |
32.7 (39) |
12.9 (4) |
0.4 (18) |
+0 |
|
9. Ole Miss (8-1) |
19.7 |
38.2 (11) |
19.1 (22) |
0.6 (2) |
+1 |
|
10. Alabama (7-1) |
19.5 |
36.6 (15) |
17.1 (14) |
0.0 (76) |
-1 |
|
11. Georgia (7-1) |
18.7 |
36.1 (17) |
18.0 (17) |
0.6 (1) |
+1 |
|
12. USC (6-2) |
18.4 |
40.4 (3) |
22.4 (43) |
0.4 (28) |
+4 |
|
13. Miami (6-2) |
18.2 |
35.4 (20) |
17.7 (15) |
0.5 (13) |
-2 |
|
14. Texas (7-2) |
18.1 |
31.6 (43) |
13.7 (5) |
0.2 (46) |
-1 |
|
15. Missouri (6-2) |
18.1 |
34.3 (27) |
15.9 (10) |
-0.4 (116) |
-1 |
|
16. BYU (8-0) |
17.2 |
34.6 (25) |
18.0 (16) |
0.5 (6) |
+3 |
|
17. Iowa (6-2) |
17.1 |
30.9 (50) |
14.0 (6) |
0.2 (43) |
+0 |
|
18. Vanderbilt (7-2) |
16.8 |
37.9 (12) |
21.6 (37) |
0.5 (7) |
-3 |
|
19. Washington (6-2) |
16.0 |
36.2 (16) |
19.9 (27) |
-0.3 (107) |
+3 |
|
20. Tennessee (6-3) |
15.9 |
40.0 (5) |
24.5 (57) |
0.4 (20) |
-2 |
|
21. Michigan (7-2) |
15.6 |
31.7 (41) |
15.8 (9) |
-0.3 (101) |
+0 |
|
22. Penn St. (3-5) |
15.0 |
34.1 (30) |
19.5 (25) |
0.5 (10) |
-2 |
|
23. Louisville (7-1) |
14.1 |
33.2 (35) |
19.1 (23) |
0.0 (71) |
+1 |
|
24. Florida St. (4-4) |
13.6 |
33.9 (31) |
20.5 (30) |
0.2 (44) |
+10 |
|
25. Illinois (6-3) |
13.5 |
36.9 (14) |
23.9 (51) |
0.5 (9) |
+5 |
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida football’s ranking per SP+ after Week 10 loss to Georgia
