{"id":403490,"date":"2026-09-18T11:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403490\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:34:10","slug":"mailbag-does-florida-really-have-much-of-a-talent-edge-vs-auburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403490\/","title":{"rendered":"Mailbag: Does Florida really have much of a talent edge vs. Auburn?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Payton Smith\/The Auburn Observer)<\/p>\n

AUBURN \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s been far too long.<\/p>\n

The last time Auburn played Florida, I had no idea The Observer was even a possibility. The last time Auburn played Florida at home, I was a freshman with an undecided major. <\/p>\n

The anticipation for Saturday night\u2019s showdown between Auburn and Florida has been building all week. You could even say it\u2019s been building since the summer, when we first knew that it would be a night game inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been far too long since Auburn fans have gotten to look forward to a game like this \u2014\u00a0the optimism, the nervousness, the excitement, the fear. It\u2019s just one game in the grand scheme of things, but it\u2019s a lot closer to what this program is supposed to have on a regular basis. This is the type of matchup that makes this place special.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve broken down both sides of the ball for Auburn vs. Florida both in the newsletters and in the podcast this week. In today\u2019s mailbag, to kick off a true big game weekend on the Plains again, we\u2019ll tackle some questions about the rosters, the head coaches and the history that hangs over a rivalry that needed to return.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been far too long since we\u2019ve gotten to hit a weekend like this. We\u2019ll see how it all unfolds on Saturday night, but it\u2019s good to be back here. Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n

I keep hearing, from you and others, that Florida has a better overall roster than Auburn. I don\u2019t think they are better at quarterback, and I can\u2019t imagine they have superior linebackers, so what positions, in your opinion, give the Gators an edge, however slim that advantage might be?<\/p>\n

Paul<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said a few times that UF has the better roster on paper \u2014 can you provide a little more context to that?<\/p>\n

How does USF\u2019s roster last year compare to AU\u2019s roster this year?<\/p>\n

How does UF\u2019s roster last year compare with this year?<\/p>\n

Ham Sandwich<\/p>\n

Whenever I\u00a0talk about on-paper talent advantages, I am almost always pointing to recruiting rankings. The go-to is the 247Sports Team Talent Composite, which stacks up the star ratings of every player on a roster and weighs them all against each other. It\u2019s been around for more than a decade now.<\/p>\n

According to the 2026 edition<\/a>, Florida is No. 10 in the Composite rankings with three former 5-stars and 47 former 4-stars on its roster. In 2025, Florida was No. 12 with four former 5-stars and 48 former 4-stars. The difference, essentially, is that former 5-star DJ Lagway is now at Baylor. It also goes to show you that it\u2019s getting harder to retain talent as it spreads out through the portal, as an ever-so-slightly weaker roster on paper is actually two spots better than it was a season ago.<\/p>\n

The Jon Sumrall rebuild at Florida was pretty straightforward: Florida recruited a lot of talent under Billy Napier and couldn\u2019t do much with it. The offseason emphasis for Florida was to retain as much of those players as possible, then fill in the gaps through the portal. On Florida\u2019s depth chart, I counted a dozen former blue-chip players in the starting lineup that were with the Gators last season.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Auburn is at No. 18 in the 2026 Team Talent Composite with one former 5-star and 31 former 4-stars. It\u2019s important to note these are based on the composite rankings, and Da\u2019Shawn Womack was the only composite 5-star on Auburn\u2019s current roster. (Players like Malik Autry were 5-stars on 247 but not in the composite.) That\u2019s a roster that is around the middle of the pack in the SEC, which is right around where Auburn reportedly is spending compared to its peers.<\/p>\n

Last year, Auburn was No. 13 in the Team Talent Composite with three former 5-stars and 43 former 4-stars. As you all know by now, Auburn had a lot more outgoing movement in the transfer portal than Florida did. The Tigers were able to retain some bigger-named players, especially on defense, but Alex Golesh\u2019s rebuild strategy leaned more on plugging in the pieces that worked for him at USF last year.<\/p>\n

Obviously, looking at talent levels through former recruiting rankings isn\u2019t a perfect strategy. Jaden Baugh might be Florida\u2019s best player on offense, and he\u2019s a former 3-star. The same goes for Byrum Brown for Auburn. Top players for the Tigers such as Cody Sigler, Jo Simmons and Keshaun Singleton didn\u2019t have high school star ratings at all. But, generally speaking, stars matter at the macro level \u2014\u00a0even though it\u2019s more difficult than ever to stockpile recruiting talent in this current era.<\/p>\n

We also know that talent level alone doesn\u2019t win football games. Auburn had a very talented roster the last couple of seasons under Hugh Freeze and couldn\u2019t win with it, much like Florida had with Napier. Indiana had some of the lowest star ratings of any power-conference team in college football last season and steamrolled its way to a dominant national championship run. And, of course, Golesh\u2019s USF beat Florida in The Swamp last season with a roster that was ranked No. 61 in the Team Talent Composite, with just seven former 4-stars in total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Payton Smith\/The Auburn Observer) AUBURN \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s been far too long. The last time Auburn played Florida, I had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-403490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}