Paul Finebaum evaluates if Tennessee or Florida enters 2024 season under more pressure

Being in the SEC comes with a ton of pressure. In 2024, that’s especially true for both Tennessee and Florida, as analyst Paul Finebaum knows.

Finebaum, while making an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, explained that the two programs are under different kinds of pressure entering 2024, starting with Tennessee.

“I think in the Tennessee case, there’s an expectation with a new regime at quarterback. When Nico [Iamaleava] took over, I think everybody felt very positive,” Paul Finebaum said. “I would hate to see Tennessee backslide, but I don’t think they’re going to.”

Florida, on the other hand, has bigger issues according to Finebaum after going just 11-14 through head coach Billy Napier‘s first two seasons with the team.

“Greg, everyone is whispering about Billy Napier. There’s no reason to whisper about it. He had a terrible season. No matter how many times his AD comes out and tries to say there’s nothing here, there’s a lot there. There is an apathy at Florida that concerns me more than the record. I talked to Steve Spurrier a couple weeks ago, [he said], ‘Ah, there’s not much buzz going on around here.’ I talked to a reporter the other day, said the same thing. Talked to a former player, Thaddeus Bullard, last week and everyone’s saying the same thing. There’s just no excitement,” Finebaum said.

“There’s almost an expectation now that winning six, seven games is good enough. Well, you know what? It’s not. This is year three, and at some point, you just have to accept whether you have the right coach or not, and until somebody can make a clear statement at Florida, and a convincing statement, then that mystery will be there and the schedule has been passed around by all of us many, many times.”

Next season, the Florida Gators will play 11 Power Five opponents during its regular season schedule. That includes games against three non-conference opponents who are in the state of Florida, Miami, UCF, and Florida State. It’s a schedule that, as Paul Finebaum emphasized, is going to create issues for Billy Napier.

“But it’s really, when your coach is under fire, the beginning of the season is critical. You can’t come out of the gate losing and they have a very tricky schedule with a lot of games that don’t look that difficult but are losable. If Billy Napier starts out very poorly, the question is, can he make it to the end?”

Paul Finebaum reveals which teams have won the college football offseason

The offseason is vital to college football teams, especially as it relates to adding coaches and building a roster. Now, Paul Finebaum shared who he thinks has won the offseason to this point.

I think it’s Ohio State and I say they won the offseason because they did so poorly at the end of the season. What Ryan Day was able to do was completely shut down all this, ‘He’s going to be on the hot seat, as ridiculous as that may sound, if he can’t beat Michigan,’” Finebaum said.

“Right now, he’s going to beat Michigan. Michigan is not the same program it was four weeks ago today. We all know that. What Ryan day has to do is get to the playoffs and beat Michigan, and he should be able to do that.”