Florida starts 2024 season with some support in US LBM Coaches Poll

The first US LBM Coaches Poll of the 2024 college football season has arrived, and the Florida Gators earned a few votes heading into a Week 1 matchup with the Miami Hurricanes.

Florida received 11 points in the poll, putting the Orange and Blue at an unofficial 38th overall in the country.

The points system in the US LBM Coaches Poll is simple. Fifty-five Division I coaches submit a top 25, where the first-place team gets 25 points and the 25th-place team gets one point.

That means Florida could have been ranked as high as 15th on a single poll or 25th on 11 polls. The latter might mean more, but the split is kept confidential over the season.

What isn’t kept confidential are the voters each year. The 55 coaches voting weekly throughout the 2024 season are listed below. The power conferences control just 26 votes in total, hopefully eliminating any bias against mid-major programs.

Florida head coach [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] is not a voter this year. Georgia‘s Kirby Smart and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops are two familiar names from the SEC in the voting pool.

Florida plays

As expected, the preseason top 25 is littered with programs on Florida’s schedule.

Georgia is back at the No. 1 spot, SEC newcomer Texas is at No. 4, Ole Miss checks in at No. 6 and Florida State rounds out the top 10. That’s four preseason top-10 teams on Florida’s schedule, all of which come in the second half.

In fact, Kentucky is the only team on the second half of Florida’s schedule that’s ranked outside of the top 25 — LSU is ranked No. 12 —  and the Wildcats still earned more votes (12) than UF.

Florida’s first half of the season isn’t too much easier with three top-25 programs. The Gators open things up against No. 19 Miami, get a breather against Samford and then face No. 20 Texas A&M. UCF only earned four preseason votes with their head coach on the voting committee, but Tennessee is a major test at No. 15.

Here is the full US LBM Coaches Poll.

Others Receiving Votes

Washington 123; Louisville 95; Virginia Tech 64; SMU 47; Memphis 44; Boise State 30; Auburn 25; West Virginia 22; Wisconsin 17; Liberty 15; Iowa State 15; Kentucky 12; Florida 11; South Carolina 10; North Carolina 6; UNLV 5; Maryland 5; UCF 4; Texas Tech 4; UTSA 3; Tulane 2; Texas State 2; Nebraska 2; Colorado 2; Appalachian State 2; Troy 1; Syracuse 1; Miami (OH) 1; James Madison 1; Air Force 1;

List Of Voters

Atlantic Coastal Conference – 7

Jeff Brohm, Louisville; Fran Brown, Syracuse; Tony Elliott, Virginia; Brent Key, Georgia Tech; Rhett Lashlee, SMU; Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh;  Brent Pry, Virginia Tech;

Big Ten – 7

David Braun, Northwestern; Ryan Day, Ohio State; Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State; Jedd Fisch, Washington; James Franklin, Penn State; Dan Lanning, Oregon; Mike Locksley, Maryland;

Big 12 – 6

Neal Brown, West Virginia; Willie Fritz, Houston; Chris Klieman, Kansas State; Lance Leipold, Kansas; Gus Malzahn, Central Florida; Joey McGuire, Texas Tech;

Southeastern Conference – 6

Kalen DeBoer, Alabama; Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri; Mike Elko, Texas A&M; Clark Lea, Vanderbilt; Kirby Smart, Georgia; Mark Stoops, Kentucky;

American Athletic Conference – 6

Mike Bloomgren, Rice; Alex Golesh, South Florida; Mike Houston, East Carolina; Jeff Monken, Army; Jon Sumrall, Tulane; Jeff Traylor, Texas-San Antonio;

Mountain West Conference – 6

Troy Calhoun, Air Force; Spencer Danielson, Boise State; Sean Lewis, San Diego State; Bronco Mendenhall, New Mexico; Ken Niumatalolo, San Jose State; Barry Odom, UNLV;

Sun Belt Conference – 6

Major Applewhite, South Alabama; Tim Beck, Coastal Carolina; Bob Chesney, James Madison; Butch Jones, Arkansas State; GJ Kinne, Texas State; Gerad Parker, Troy;

Conference USA – 5

Jamey Chadwell, Liberty; Sonny Cumbie, Louisiana Tech; Tyson Helton, Western Kentucky; Mike MacIntyre, Florida International; Derek Mason, Middle Tennessee;

Mid-American Conference – 5

Tim Albin, Ohio; Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan; Pete Lembo, Buffalo; Chuck Martin, Miami (Ohio); Lance Taylor, Western Michigan.

Independent – 1

Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame;

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida starts 2024 season with some support in US LBM Coaches Poll