Chris Doering picks Florida as team most likely to greatly exceed expectations in 2024

As the 2024 SEC Media Days loom, ESPN and SEC Network personality Peter Burns is wasting little time getting the pulse on the conference and what team might be getting unfairly slept on heading into the fall campaign.

He put that question to fellow ESPN analyst Chris Doering, a former Florida receiver. And perhaps because of his proximity to the Gators, Doering couldn’t look past Florida as the correct answer.

“There’s a couple different metrics, right, that we have to deal with,” Doering said. “When we talk about Coach of the Year at the end of the season it’s not the Kirby Smarts or the Nick Sabans, it’s the guy who came out of nowhere, where the expectation level was so low that they exceeded it by so much.

“So we can look at what the public thought is by… Vegas sometimes gives us an idea of what the public’s thinking. The over/under on win total on the University of Florida is 4.5 wins. I think Florida ends up winning seven, maybe eight games. And I know everybody’s looking at the schedule and talking about how challenging that is, but I think people are sleeping on the roster improvements that have taken place.”

Florida’s schedule is ranked as the toughest in the country by most metrics, with a brutal back-half slate that features consecutive games against Georgia, at Texas, LSU, Ole Miss and at Florida State.

So why the sheer level of confidence that Florida will outperform this fall?

Doering pointed to roster construction and the job head coach Billy Napier has done utilizing the transfer portal in recent years.

“Go back and look at Montrell Johnson when he came over and has become such a large part of the offensive production,” Doering said. “Look at what Ricky Pearsall did. Nobody knew who Ricky Pearsall was down here, comes in from Arizona State and becomes a first-round draft pick. Last year everybody was down on Graham Mertz when Florida goes and gets him from Wisconsin. And he becomes what I feel like was a top-five quarterback in the league last year. He returns this season.

“You’ve got a lot of other veteran guys that they went out and got that have fourth-, fifth-, sixth-year experience playing at other schools coming in that fit the culture of the locker room.”

Then there’s a particular side of the ball that Doering feels Florida should be much improved on this fall that could lead to a vastly different output on the field.

“Maybe most importantly 25% of the defensive snaps were taken by true freshmen last year,” he said. “Those guys took their lumps, went through the growing pains, but they’re back for another season with that experience under their belt. I just really think that people are down-talking the talent, not recognizing what Florida’s done to upgrade the talent on the roster, and they’re overvaluing logos on the schedule.”