Florida football will make its 49th bowl appearance in school history this postseason, but questions remain as to where the Gators will end up playing.
Bowl bids will be determined on Sunday after the College Football Playoff Selection Committee chooses its 12 teams.
The Florida Gators (7-5) certainly present an attractive option for bowl hosts, considering that UF closed the regular season on a three-game win streak behind freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, who is 5-1 as a starter. Representatives of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl attended UF’s 31-11 win over Florida State last Saturday night in Tallahassee.
UF’s defense also is ascending late in the season with 18 sacks and nine forced turnovers over its last three games.
“We talked about putting takeaway behavior on the film,” Florida football coach Billy Napier said. “Do it in practice, do it in the game. Second, third, fourth, fifth defender in, you know, being around the ball. Population around the ball contributes to turnovers. So, the mission here was to come here and put a bunch of identity clips on the tape, and I think we did that.”
Bill Bender, Sporting News: Florida vs. TCU in the Liberty Bowl. Dec. 27
Brett McMurphy, Action HQ: Florida vs. Iowa in the Reliaquest Bowl. Dec. 31
Jerry Palm, CBSSports.com: Florida vs. Memphis in the Gasparilla Bowl. Dec. 20
Athlon Sports: Louisville vs Florida in the Gator Bowl, Jan. 2
USA Today: Florida vs. Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl, Dec. 27
247 Sports: Florida vs. Duke in the Gasparilla Bowl, Dec. 20
The Athletic: Florida vs. Duke in the Gator Bowl. Jan. 2
College Football News: Florida vs. North Carolina in the Gasparilla Bowl, Dec. 20
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1