I know that Utah was without its quarterback (it turned out the be all season) and I know that Florida’s self-inflicted wounds were a killer last year.

But think about what game you would rather play. Would you go on the road (and must leave a day early to escape a possible hurricane) and play against a team that went into the game with a 14-game home winning streak, or play at home against a Miami team that has 12 wins in the last two seasons?

It’s not even close.

Well, we do know what happened the last time Florida played Samford and the Bulldogs scores 42 points in the first half. But that was a bit of a fluke.

McNeese only won one game last year and Samford went 5-4. But really, if this season comes down to this game, it’s going to be a long one. Samford’s wins included Shorter (Frank?), VMI, Wofford and The Citadel.

So, let’s call this a wash.

Both home games, both against programs who aspire the greatness but have struggled to get there.

But you know that the energy for that Tennessee game last year was palpable and that was a better team than one with a coach in his first season at a place that lost a ton in the portal.

Who would you rather play? Sorry, Aggies.

Yeah, yeah… I know this is an overwhelming win for the SEC.

Not so fast my friend.

Charlotte gave Florida everything it could handle last year. Mississippi State has a new coach looking for yet another culture shift.

I’ll give it to this year’s opponent, but this is a game Florida has to win.

I don’t want to tick off my friends in Orlando, but this one isn’t close either.

Who do you think would win a neutral site game between Kentucky and UCF?

Now look at where the two games are or were played. Kroger Field is a tough place to play, but not nearly as tough as the Swamp.

The edge definitely goes to last year’s game.

At this point of the season, Florida will either be in fine shape (minimum of 4-1 and I mean MINIMUM!) with a rough trip ahead of them …

Or the vultures will be circling.

I get it that this one is a loss for the 2023 schedule and Florida took care of the Commodores easily last year.

I’m still not sure about Tennessee this season, but any trip to Rocky Top reveals a lot about your team’s character

These two games might be washes if both were either home or away. Florida’s gutsy win over the Gamecocks last year was supposed to get them bowl-eligible but some things happened we’d rather not talk about.

Still, you’d rather be at home against a decent SEC team than on the road against one.

So, we’d rather have this year’s seventh game.

This game will be a lot more interesting when it moves out of Jacksonville when the Jaguars renovate, but it’s definitely a wash here.

Georgia is still Georgia. They lost a lot of key players but return a quarterback with a chance to win the Heisman.

Florida needs to be competitive in this game. Just like they needed to last year.

Let’s see, would you rather go play a game in front of a bunch of crazed fans hopped up on hurricanes and crayfish heads or take the Tigers on at home?

Would you rather face the Heisman Trophy winner or Garrett Nussmeier?

Don’t answer that. We know who wins this battle.

Of course, by week 10 we have no idea about the health of any team.

Well, the easy answer is that this is where it gets really difficult.

But we can’t forget that Florida lost to Arkansas at home last year.

That was a tough one and it will be even tougher for the Gators to go to Austin to face a team that will probably be ranked in the top five next season.

The eyes of Texas will be upon the mighty Gators.

Yes, Ole Miss had a really good season last year. Oh, wait, the Rebels had the exact same record as Mizzou although both Ole Miss losses came on the road.

See where I am going with this?

Florida had that game at Missouri last year and we won’t get you in a mood where you start yelling at the clouds by bringing up fourth-and-17.

The point is that you would rather be at home than on the road to face a team that went 11-2 last year.

Hopefully, at least one of these teams is not playing its second-string quarterback for this one.

You have to give a slight edge to this year’s game because it’s in Tallahassee. But it’s not the same team for FSU and the Florida team they are playing should be better than it was a year ago.

That makes the final tally of 6-4 with two washes. So, let’s stop worrying about the schedule, capiche?

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