That’s the upshot of beating Miami in their opening game: The Gators are 1-0, with the win coming against a non-cupcake team and away from home, for the first time since 1985, when they went to Miami to defeat a group of Hurricanes that would subsequently win 21 of its next 22 games.
This season’s beginning is thus different from 2017’s, in which Florida got a reality check in its first non-conference game against a non-cupcake in decades against Michigan, and from the starts to 1989 and 1987, when the Gators also opened up with losses against power-conference teams (Ole Miss in 1989, and Miami in 1987).