Coming into the 2025 season, Billy Napier‘s Florida was seen as a possible title contender. However, the team was defeated by South Florida in one of the biggest upsets of the new season so far, resulting in the Gators facing plenty of criticisms for their lackluster performance against the Bulls.
One of those slamming Florida was NFL legend Shannon Sharpe, who took to his “Nightcap” podcast to discuss the big upset and he did not hold back on Napier’s squad. Co-host Ocho was discussing that back in the 1990s, Florida was the go-to school for football in the Sunshine State.
This soon led Sharpe to ask what has happened to the school’s recruiting, especially fumbling the recruitment of Florida native Jeremiah Smith.
“Where is Jeremiah Smith?” Sharpe asked. “Where is he from? Florida, right? Where is he at? He’s at Alabama, right?” (1:20)
“You see what happens when you keep letting your instate, your best instate players leave,” Sharpe pointed out. “Now, you got to think about it. It’s Miami, it’s Florida, it’s Florida State, If you could just recruit the state of Florida, you’ll be fine. But you can’t keep them now because you got Ohio State, you got Alabama, you got Tennessee, you got the other big teams that’s willing to pay to get those kids.”
Shannon Sharpe added that Florida is no longer playing for those national titles, and this may be turning some instate recruits off. As per him, many of them are taking their talents elsewhere, including schools like Alabama, Michigan and Ohio State, which have been performing much better than the Gators in recent years.
Florida Gators Fall Out of AP Top 25 Season Rankings
Florida’s shock loss to South Florida also has some implications off the field, as that 19-16 loss to the Bulls has led to the team falling out of the Associated Press Poll’s Top 25 college football teams. On the other hand, the Bulls themselves finally cracked the Top 25, making their debut at No. 18.
The Gators have dropped to No. 29 nationally, garnering just 17 votes. This is a big drop, given that they were a Top 15 team during the preseason, being ranked No. 13 overall. Their next schedule is also a tough one, with showdowns against three Top 25 teams for their next three games, including LSU (3), Miami (5) and Texas (7).
Ohio State is at No. 1 in the poll after beating Texas, while Penn State is at No. 2.
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