Cheer up, Gator fans. Florida's football schedule presents a grand opportunity | Whitley

We interrupt this Florida football anxiety attack to bring you a message from Molière.

“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”

I promise that will be the last time I quote a 17^th Century French playwright about the SEC football schedule. But when it comes to the Gators, the words still ring true.

Especially after Wednesday night.

The SEC rolled out next year’s schedule in royal fashion. Teams already knew their opponents, but most dates were still a mystery.

Since ESPN no longer must share broadcast rights with CBS (RIP Gary Danielson), dates can be nailed down early. Taking its cue from the NFL, the schedule release got the full hype treatment by Disney/ABC/ESPN.

The date of the Alabama-Georgia game was revealed on “Good Morning America.” David Muir scored an exclusive interview with Uga the Bulldog on “World News Tonight.” It all led up to the two-hour unveiling extravaganza at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

Seeing the week-by-week breakdown, the abstraction of the new-age SEC with Texas and Oklahoma became more of a reality. And boy oh boy, reality could bite for the Gators.

“I don’t know a team in the country that faces a gauntlet like that at the end of the season,” Joey Galloway said.

“Gauntlet” was the word of the evening. Every league team will face one next fall. None will face the meat grinder Florida is now staring at.

UF’s final five opponents went 58-7 in 2023. Overall, the Gators will face 10 teams that made bowl games this season.

“That’s absurd,” Greg McElroy said.

As the show wore on, you could picture Billy Napier pulling the bedsheets over his head and texting his agent:

“You swear my buyout is iron-clad, right?!?!?!”

You could picture that, but it would be wrong.

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If we’ve learned anything about Napier, it’s that he’s philosophical about life and football. He’ll spin the schedule as an opportunity, not an obstacle.

Opportunity is definitely knocking in 2024. Imagine the glory that could await!

I couldn’t reach Molière for further comment, but I suspect he’d tell fans to run with that. If nothing else, it might be a good coping mechanism in the coming months of off-season analysis.

One opportunity will be winning the state championship by playing Miami, UCF and FSU. The other non-conference game is Samford, which looks like the only sure win on the schedule.

Then again, does anyone remember the last time Samford visited Gainesville in the waning days of the Mullen Administration?

After two years under Napier, UF’s defense still looks imminently capable of giving up 42 points in the first half to an FCS team. Before depression sets in, repeat after me:

“Opportunity, not obstacle…. Opportunity, not obstacle….”

Relatively speaking, the Gators have an opportunity to get off to a fast start. The early slate reads Miami, Samford, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and UCF.

I say “relatively,” because that’s followed by Kentucky and Tennessee. And then comes Georgia in Jacksonville, Texas on the road, LSU and Ole Miss at home, and FSU on the road.

“That’s a gauntlet,” Tim Tebow said.

It’s also a cornucopia of opportunity. Imagine beating Georgia and Texas in a seven-day span. Has that ever been done?

Win the next two in The Swamp, then roll into Tallahassee on a historic hot streak. None of ESPN's football connoisseurs were buying it Wednesday night.

The big finish was declaring which team has the hardest schedule. Paul Finebaum and McElroy went with Florida. Tebow somehow went with Arkansas, despite a schedule featuring UAB, Louisiana Tech and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Galloway chose Georgia, which does have a doozy. But Georgia has the advantage of being Georgia.

“It is Florida,” Finebaum insisted. “It’d be one thing if Billy Napier was in good shape. He is not.”

Okay, that’s been an obstacle. Now we know the sequence of 12 more – 14 if you’re worried about the bye weeks.

Florida fans can look at that schedule and get depressed. Or they can channel Molière and keep repeating, “Opportunity, not obstacle…. Opportunity, not obstacle….”

Then hope that somehow, some way, all those opportunities don’t knock the Gators completely out.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida's football schedule is a great obstacle and opportunity