Gators Updated Bowl Projections after Loss to Gamecocks

The Florida Gators were riding high just two weeks ago after a convincing victory over No. 4 Ole Miss that pushed their record to 4-0, but it's been a nightmare over the following two weeks.

The Gators' effort fell short in a blowout loss on the road to Missouri after the emotional win over the Rebels, and last week, the South Carolina Gamecocks came into The Swamp and doubled up the Gators 38-19.

The box score showed that the game was fairly even except for one key metric: Turnovers.

Florida turned the ball over three times, while South Carolina didn't commit any.

Following the big win over the Rebels, ESPN's Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach both had the Gators in the College Football Playoff. Bonagura had the Gators as the No. 9 seed on the road at BYU, while Schlabach flipped the seeds and put the Cougars in Gainesville to take on Florida.

After just two weeks, the Gators have fallen hard. They've fallen out of the AP Top 25 and AFCA Coaches Poll, and fallen way down the pecking order in bowl prestige, according to ESPN.

Bonogura has the Gators staying relatively close to home to take on USF at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl on December 18th.

Schlachbach puts Florida in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. against Baylor on January 2nd.

It's a steep fall for the Gators, but it also shows how quickly fortunes can change early in the season in college football. With upcoming games against No. 7 Texas this week and No. 1 Georgia on Halloween following a bye, the Gators can insert themselves right back into the playoff conversation with a pair of wins.

Gators' head coach Jon Sumrall knows that won't be easy.

"All right, Disappointing football today by us; no excuse for it," Sumrall said after the loss to South Carolina. "Not many words are going to make any of it right. We have to go back to work and improve. I'm frustrated with every part of what we did today.

"It starts with me. I've got to do a better job of getting this team ready to play to its best, and today, today's not anywhere near where we need to perform."

The Gators showed against Ole Miss they are capable of playing championship football. They'll need to get to that level again if they want to get back into the national conversation.

The good news is that they have the opportunity right away against Longhorns team that was just beaten by an unranked Oklahoma Sooners squad.

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