"It's a joke"- Josh Pate breaks down why Billy Napier's Florida will remain a mystery going into next season 

Florida coach Billy Napier was on the college football hot seat before the 2024 season started. And for large periods of last season, his firing seemed inevitable before the Gators rallied to finish with a respectable 8-5 record and a Gasparilla Bowl win.

During Tuesday's segment of "Josh Pate's College Football Show," Pate, who was among a handful of analysts to support Napier last season, broke down why the Gators would continue to be a mystery going into next season.

"Florida. Florida is a mystery to me," Josh Pate said. "Carryover from bowl season is overrated. Yes, Florida ended the season red hot, and then you go into bowl season and they win their game, you always get this mindless chatter about momentum and it carrying over. It's all B.S. Dynamics can carry over."

Pate was full of praise for the base set by the beleaguered Billy Napier and outlined why next season could go either way for the Gators.

"It's, 'Are the same dynamics in place. So, DJ Lagway, is he still gonna be your quarterback?' That's something tangible," Pate said. "Defensively, did you make the right staff moves and are you bringing critical pieces back? 'Cause they fared very well against Ole Miss, LSU down the stretch. I think the answer is yes there. Those are some dynamics that I can count on transferring from one season to the next.

"But also, here's why it's a mystery, 'cause Florida is a bonafide playoff team in many other circumstances, but they've got the schedule thing to deal with again this year and it's a joke.

"It's a complete crime against college football, the disparity of strength of schedule that we have team to team even within conferences. It's just a joke. No excuse for it to be like this."

Billy Napier's Florida tabbed to be playoff contender

During Thursday's segment of the "On3" podcast, analyst J. D Pickell tabbed Billy Napier's team to be a force in the Southeastern Conference due to the continuity offered by quarterback DJ Lagway vis-a-vis the Gators' opponents in the conference (Timestamp: 3:30).

"Florida is once again going to be a problem not just for the SEC but the rest of college football like the SEC," Pickell said. "A lot of the traditional powers in that conference or the big boys if you will. Texas is not a traditional power in the conference, but, I mean, they played for the conference (title) last year.

"New quarterbacks, like Alabama coming off a year where they were kind of lackluster going on to be starting somebody new. Georgia's starting somebody new. Texas's starting somebody new. Garrett Nussmeier, he's coming back for LSU, but I don't think LSU feels like they're free of any question marks.

"If Florida and DJ Lagway can again recreate what they did at the end of last year, it's not ridiculous to think they could be in the discussion for Atlanta."

Billy Napier steadied the Florida ship in impressive fashion after being on the hottest seat in college football for most of the season to earning bowl eligibility and winning the Gasparilla Bowl.