Just saw the Yahoo Sports piece about Florida being a top-20 team in EA Sports College Football 27 and honestly that rating feels about right if you look at the special teams numbers from last season. The Gators finished 2025 ranked 14th nationally in punt return average and 22nd in kickoff coverage efficiency per SP+. That is not flashy but it wins hidden yardage battles in a league where every possession matters.
What nobody is talking about is how Florida's special teams unit actually outperformed their overall record by a significant margin. The Gators ranked 8th in the SEC in net punting average at 41.2 yards which is respectable but not elite. The real problem was field goal percentage where they finished 11th in the conference at 74 percent. You cannot leave points on the board in a league where three games were decided by a field goal or less.
The interesting part about that EA rating is the game probably accounts for special teams as a weighted category. Florida's punt block unit generated three blocks last season which was tied for 2nd most in the conference. That is a havoc metric that does not show up in standard win-loss records but absolutely changes field position math. Teams that blocked punts won 78 percent of their games nationally last year.
Here is the part that should worry Florida fans though. The Gators lost their primary return specialist to the NFL draft and the kicker who hit 11 of 15 field goals is gone too. The replacement options on the current roster have combined for exactly zero career college kickoffs or punts. Special teams continuity is one of the most underrated factors in year-over-year improvement and Florida is essentially starting from scratch at two critical spots.
The dead period means nobody gets to see the walk-on tryouts or the position battles happening in voluntary workouts. But the special teams coordinator has a track record of developing NFL talent at his previous stops. If the new kicker hits 80 percent and the coverage unit stays top-25, Florida's floor rises by at least two wins. That EA rating might actually be conservative if the kicking game stabilizes.