Paul Finebaum declares Florida's Week 1 game vs. Miami the most important game of the season

The Florida Gators open the 2024 college football season with a Week 1 game against the Miami Hurricanes. It’s a game that plenty of people have marked on their calendars, including Paul Finebaum.

While making an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Finebaum explained that he thinks things are trending upward for Florida this offseason but the most important game of the season is coming right out of the gate.

“I just feel like they’ve had a pretty good offseason as well,” Paul Finebaum said. “And I’m not talking about the legal problems. I’m talking about in terms of replacing personnel. But their season really lies with that first game.”

Both Miami and Florida are going into their third year under their current head coaches. To this point, both teams have underperformed expectations under those coaches. For Miami, the Hurricanes have gone 12-13 under Mario Cristobal. Meanwhile, Billy Napier has led the Gators to an 11-14 record. In that respect, it’s important for both teams to start on the right foot.

“For all the important games that we will talk about over the next two and a half months, the Florida-Miami game in Gainesville is probably the most important game of the year because if they can win that game, they’re going to get some momentum,” Finebaum said. “If they lose, they may have a more difficult time digging themselves out.”

Florida is also going to be challenged by a difficult schedule throughout the season. So, to show growth in the record column, winning as many games as possible is going to be vital for the Gators.

Why a strong start to 2024 season is critical to Billy Napier’s future at Florida

In a recent appearance on Andy Staples On3, Nick de la Torre of Gators Online  shared why he thinks a quick start is going to be critical to Billy Napier’s future at Florida.

“I might start calling Week 1 the Hope Bowl. Both coaches hired in the same offseason, they’re under .500, they’re selling hope to their fanbases. This is a former yearly rivalry, as you can see from the comments calling them the ‘candy canes.’ Miami fans have a certain way of spelling Gators that we don’t need to say on the show. But there’s no love lost between the fanbases. Good luck selling hope if you’re Billy Napier or Mario Cristobal losing this game,” de la Torre said.

“Yes, Florida and Miami will play next year but who knows when they’ll play after that? It’s not like Florida-Florida State where every year, every 365, you have a chance to grab those bragging rights. You don’t know when you’ll have the chance to grab those bragging rights and Billy Napier doesn’t have the excuse that Mario will have of, ‘We had to go on the road, and it was a hostile environment. We had a bunch of transfers playing their first game for us.’ So, there’s almost a built-in excuse, not that many Canes fans want to hear it, but a built-in excuse for Miami being on the road that Billy Napier doesn’t have playing that game at home.”