Florida Opens at No. 23

The Florida Gators will open the 2012 season ranked at No. 23 in the preseason USA Today Coaches' Poll that was released on Thursday afternoon.

The Gators start the year ranked No. 23 despite finishing the 2011 season with a 7-6 record, capped with a win over Ohio State in the Gator Bowl and finishing the year unranked.

Florida has four ranked teams on its schedule in 2012. All four of those teams - LSU (1), Georgia (6), Florida State (7) and South Carolina (9) - are ranked in the top ten. Florida players three of those games in the month of October.

Alabama (2), Arkansas (10) and Auburn (25) also made the top 25 from the SEC, but none of the three are on Florida's regular season schedule.