Montrell Johnson will have a monster season in 2025

UF running back Montrell Johnson is poised to have a monster season running the ball in 2024 (Photo by Chris Spears)

9 Football predictions, plus some softball and basketball stuff:

1. MONTRELL JOHNSON WILL HAVE A MONSTER SEASON RUNNING THE BALL: Montrell has always been good. His 2,496 career rushing yards are the most of any back in the Southeastern Conference. What’s amazing is Montrell has always shared the carries, both as a freshman at Louisiana, and the last two seasons with Trevor Etienne. Etienne is gone to Georgia where he expects to get the bulk of the carries. Montrell may not see many more carries in 2024 than he’s had in any of the last three seasons, but he will be running behind a better offensive line. A year ago Montrell ran for 817 yards and 5.4 per carry despite Florida’s wildly inconsistent O-line. Some of his best runs were for short gains because he had to break tackles to make something out of nothing. Rob Sale is very confident his O-line will be vastly improved this season. The Gators will be bigger, stronger and deeper than they’ve been the last two seasons and that should translate to more big plays for Montrell, who is sneaky fast thanks to this gear he has that kicks in once he gets past the linebackers. Expect something like 175-190 carries, 1,200-plus yards and 10 or more touchdowns. The 1-2 backup punch of Treyaun Webb and freshman Jaden Baugh will make sure the Gators always have a fresh back capable of punishing defenses in the game. But make no mistake about it, this will be Montrell Johnson’s year to prove he’s one of the two or three best backs in the SEC.  

2. RON ROBERTS WILL MAKE THE FLORIDA OFFENSE BETTER: There is this misconception that Florida’s offense wasn’t very good last year. The Gators averaged 28.4 points per game and 6.05 yards per play, numbers that could have been better except for a couple of teensy details: (1) The offensive line was rather porous, allowing 39 sacks for -260 yards and only 4.27 yards per carry; and (2) the defense was so bad Billy Napier had to try to play defense with his offense by milking the clock (UF averaged more than 33 minutes of possession time per game). The offensive line will be better this year – how could it be worse? – but the biggest improvement will be thanks to Ron Roberts as the co-defensive coordinator. A year ago at Auburn, Roberts improved the defense by four first downs and seven points per game. Four first downs is the equivalent of 12 plays for the offense and that is 12 plays the defense is off the field. Seven points more than last year means UF averages 35 per game. Roberts is a master at stopping the other team and getting his own defense off the field. More plays for the offense, fewer plays for the defense will mean more wins for the Gators.

3. THREE ROAD GAMES THAT SPELL TROUBLE FOR THE POODLES: Georgia is everybody’s choice to win the national championship game, but for the Poodles to win their third national championship in the last four years they’re going to have to come up big on the road. They are at Alabama September 29, at Texas October 19 and at Ole Miss on November 9. Bet the farm that all three will be ranked top ten. The last time Georgia played a top ten team on the road was 2020 when No. 1 Alabama scored a crushing 41-24 win in Tuscaloosa. Before that it was 2018 when No. 6 LSU scored a 36-16 blowout win. In 2017, No. 10 Auburn hosed the Poodles, 40-17.

4. BEWARE OLE MISS: For years everyone has been wondering what would happen if Lane Kiffin ever had a defense to go with his typical brilliant offensive teams. A year ago Pete Golding’s defense allowed just 22.5 points per game, the fewest points an Ole Miss defense has given up since 2014 when the Rebels led the nation at 16.0. Two names to remember: (1) Linebacker Chris Paul Jr., a tackling machine from Arkansas; and (2) Walter Nolen, the Texas A&M transfer who will be the beast nose tackle who disrupts the running game and collapses the pocket. Ole Miss will score plenty of points. Now the Rebels have a defense capable of getting stops.

5. TENNESSEE WON’T BE NEARLY AS GOOD AS ITS RECORD: The SEC schedule makers gave the Vols one of the easier schedules. Phil Steele rates the UT schedule No. 52 nationally. Only Auburn (No. 56) and Missouri (No. 62) have easier schedules. The only tough road games are at Oklahoma (September 21) and Georgia (Nov. 16). The Vols get Florida, Alabama and Kentucky at home. Tennessee will probably go 9-3 this year and that might be good enough to make the College Football Playoff, but will they actually be that good? Doubtful. Highly doubtful.

6. TEXAS IS LOADED BUT THE LONGHORNS WILL LOSE A GAME THEY SHOULDN’T: The Longhorns went 12-2 last year, their first season with 10 or more wins since the 2009 team went 13-1. If you’ve followed Texas through the years, the Longhorns always lose one or two games they have no business losing. A year ago, they lost to Oklahoma, 34-30, another one of those games they should have never lost. Texas plays Michigan at the Big House, Oklahoma in Dallas and Georgia at home. Expect the Longhorns to win all three. The game they shouldn’t lose but quite possibly will is Nov. 30 at Aggieland. The Aggies hate being little brother again, more so now that Texas stole their baseball coach.

7. MISSOURI WILL SCORE POINTS BUT WON’T STOP ANYONE: Quarterback Brady Cook has a lethal weapon in wide receiver Luther Burden III and two other receivers in Theo Wease and Mookie Cooper who would start for just about any team in the country. Scoring points will not be a problem with that kind of personnel for OC Kirby Moore to work with. Stopping people? That might be troublesome. Five defenders from last year were drafted and the D-coordinator left for LSU. There will be a lot of shootouts even with a pansy schedule ranked dead last in the SEC and No. 62 nationally.

8. THESE THREE TEAMS ARE OVERRATED: LSU, Kentucky and Texas A&M are all getting a lot more love than they deserve. LSU was pathetic on defense last year and now that Jayden Daniels is gone, the running game is going to suffer. They think Garrett Nussmeier can make folks forget JD. No way and no how. The defense will suck once again. The last five games on the schedule are at Texas AM, Alabama, at Florida, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. There’s one win in that bunch. Kentucky is breaking in a QB who has never started a college game even though this is his fourth year. He’s thrown 21 passes so far. The new OC is Bush Hamdan, who was pretty average at Boise State. The defense will be good, but the Wildcats won’t score enough points to be anything better than 6-6 or 7-5. The Aggies fired Jimbo Fisher and hired Mike Elko away from Duke. Coaching in the SEC is a far cry more difficult than coaching in the Almost Competitive Conference at Duke. The QB is Conner Weigman, who has a tendency to suffer season-ending injuries. There are a lot of losable games on the schedule but the fans will be happy with a 1-11 record if the one win is Texas.

9. IT’S ALABAMA, THE TIDE WILL BE GOOD: No Nick Saban. Somehow it just doesn’t feel right. How can we have a football season in the SEC without Nick Saban? The new HBC is Kalen DeBoer, career record 104-12. At Washington, DeBoer took over a 4-8 team and went 25-3 in two seasons, taking the Huskies to the national championship game where they suffered their first loss. He turned Michael Penix into a first round draft pick at Washington. This year he will be working with Jalen Milroe, who is enormously talented. If DeBoer does for Milroe what he did for Penix, then Alabama will be formidable on the offensive side of the ball. If there is an issue it will be on the defensive side where Bama will be breaking in five new starters and a coordinator (Kane Wommack) who has never called the shots for an SEC defense. If DeBoer’s history with offenses holds true, Alabama can win a lot of shootouts. Circle September 29. That’s when Georgia comes to town.

10. UF SOFTBALL: Tim Walton D1Softball national coach of the year

Picked middle of the pack in the Southeastern Conference by the preseason media, Tim Walton guided the Gators to a second place finish in the regular season and the SEC Tournament championship. The Gators won both the regional and super regional to advance to the Women’s College World Series where they were seeded fourth. There in Oklahoma City, the Gators were a walk-off homer in extra innings from eliminating Oklahoma and playing for the national championship. The Gators went 3-2 in Oklahoma City, ended eventual national champ Oklahoma’s 20-game winning streak at the WCWS, and finished third.

That’s quite an accomplishment for Walton, who was named D1Softball’s national coach of the year Monday. It was the first time Walton has won the national coach of the year award. Florida went 54-15 in 2024. Walton is 980-238 at Florida, 1,103-302 in a career that includes eight SEC championships, six SEC Tournament championships and two NCAA championships. Walton was inducted into the NFCA Hall of Fame back in December.

11. UF BASKETBALL: Another Urban, this one a guard from Slovenia

The last time the University of Florida welcomed someone named Urban his last name was Meyer. Two national championships, a Heisman Trophy QB and three 13-1 seasons. That worked out pretty well, didn’t it? Todd Golden is bringing in another Urban, this one a point guard. Signed Monday was Urban Klavzar, a 6-1 guard from Slovenia, who spent last season playing in Spain. Playing for the Slovenian National Team in the Under-20 FIBA European Championships, Klavzar averaged 15.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game while knocking down 37.5 percent of his 3-point shots. With Klavzar, the Gators now have all 13 scholarships filled.

2024-25 roster

Bigs: Micah Handlogten (7-1, 235, JR) will redshirt; Sam Alexis (6-8, 240, JR/TR); Alex Condon (6-11, 230, SO); Thomas Haugh (6-9, 210, SO); Rueben Chinyelu (6-10, 250, SO); Viktor Mikic (6-11, 240, FR); Olivier Rioux (7-9, 298, FR) walk-on

Perimeter: Alijah Martin (6-2, 210, GR/TR); Will Richard (6-4, 206, SR); Walter Clayton Jr. (6-3, 195, SR); Denzel Aberdeen (6-5, 190, JR); Kajus Kublickas (6-2, 171, SO); Isaiah Brown (6-4, 195, FR); Urban Klavzar (6-1, 185, FR)