Florida Gators football
| Florida Gators football | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
 | |||
| First season | 1906 | ||
| Athletic director | Jeremy Foley | ||
| Head coach |
Jim McElwain 1st year, 10–4 (.714) | ||
| Stadium | Ben Hill Griffin Stadium | ||
| Seating capacity | 88,548 | ||
| Field surface | Grass | ||
| Location | Gainesville, Florida | ||
| NCAA division | NCAA Division I FBS | ||
| Conference | SEC (1933– ) | ||
| Division |
SEC Eastern Division (1992– ) | ||
| Past conferences |
Independent (1906–1911) Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (1912–1921) Southern Conference (1922–1932) | ||
| All-time record | 701–404–40 (.630) | ||
| Bowl record | 21–21 (.500) | ||
| Claimed nat'l titles | 3 (1996, 2006, 2008) | ||
| Conference titles | 8 | ||
| Division titles | 11 | ||
| Heisman winners | 3 | ||
| Consensus All-Americans | 32[note 1] | ||
| Current uniform | |||
 | |||
| Colors |
Blue and Orange[2] | ||
| Fight song | "The Orange and Blue" | ||
| Mascot | Albert and Alberta | ||
| Marching band | Pride of the Sunshine | ||
| Primary rivals |
Georgia Bulldogs FSU Seminoles Tennessee Volunteers | ||
| Website | FloridaGators.com | ||
The Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in American football. The Florida Gators compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They play their home games in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (nicknamed "The Swamp") on the university's Gainesville campus. The Gators have won three national championships and eight SEC titles in the 108-season history of Florida's varsity football program.
Overview
The University of Florida (then known as the University of the State of Florida) fielded its first official varsity football team in the fall of 1906, when the newly-consolidated institution moved from its temporary location in Lake City to its present campus in Gainesville. The Gators football program has evolved from its humble beginnings and achieved notable successes. They have played in forty bowl games; won three national championships (1996, 2006 and 2008) and eight Southeastern Conference championships (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006 and 2008), and produced eighty-nine first-team All-Americans, forty-six National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices, and three Heisman Trophy winners.
The Gators have had an on-campus home field since the beginning of their football program. Since 1930, their home field has been Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field. The stadium was known as Florida Field until 1989, when its name was extended to honor alumnus and sports benefactor Ben Hill Griffin. During the 1990s, football coach Steve Spurrier called the stadium "the Swamp"; the nickname quickly became popular, and has been used ever since.
Since 1906 the Gators have had twenty-five head coaches, including three who were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame for their coaching success. Their first head coach was Pee Wee Forsythe in 1906; the 2015 season was the first for their twenty-fifth head coach, Jim McElwain.
During the program's early years, Florida was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association and then the Southern Conference. In 1932 the University of Florida was a founding member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and it is currently one of fourteen member institutions. The Gators have competed in the SEC Eastern Division since the league began divisional play in 1992.
Florida plays an eight-game SEC schedule, with six games against the other Eastern Division teams: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt. The schedule is filled out with an annual game against Louisiana State and a rotating SEC Western Division team. Until 2003, the Gators also played Auburn every season.
Key conference rivalries include the annual Florida–Georgia game in Jacksonville, Florida (usually around Halloween), the Florida–Tennessee rivalry (usually mid-September), and the inter-divisional Florida–LSU rivalry with their permanent SEC Western Division foe (in early to mid-October).
The Gators have also played in-state rival Florida State every year since 1958, usually facing off in the last game of the regular season. The two teams' emergence as perennial football powers during the 1980s and 1990s helped build the Florida–Florida State rivalry into a game which often has national-title implications. Before 1988, in-state rival Miami was also an annual opponent; due to expanded conference schedules, the Florida–Miami rivalry has been renewed only three times in the regular season and twice in bowl games since then. The remaining dates on Florida's regular schedule are filled by non-conference opponents which vary from year to year.
History
Before the Gators
The modern University of Florida (UF) was created in 1905 when the Florida Legislature enacted the Buckman Act, which abolished all of the state's publicly-supported institutions of higher learning and consolidated the academic programs of four in the new University of the State of Florida (a land-grant university for white men).[note 2] The private Stetson College (now Stetson University) in DeLand was the first college to field a football team in the state, playing intramural games as early as 1894.[4] Stetson, West Florida Seminary (later Florida State College, now Florida State University),[5] and Florida Agricultural College (renamed the University of Florida at Lake City in 1903) had intramural football teams by the late 1890s or early 1900s.[6]
On November 22, 1901, Florida Agricultural College (FAC) and Stetson fielded teams for a match in Jacksonville as part of the State Fair, the first known intercollegiate football game in Florida.[7] Stetson won 6–0, after a sure FAC score was blocked by a tree stump.[8][9] The game sparked interest in football in the state;[8] several other colleges organized intercollegiate games, including the East Florida Seminary (EFS) in Gainesville and Florida State College (FSC) in Tallahassee.[5] The 1902 EFS team split games with Stetson and declared itself state champion.[10]
FAC's first coach was James M. Farr, an English professor from South Carolina, who led the team to victory over FSC in 1902.[8] Two of UF's predecessor institutions, the University of Florida at Lake City (previously known as FAC) and EFS, faced each other in 1903.[8] In 1904 the Lake City university's athletic club was reorganized, allowing the first major schedule for a Florida football team.[8] Led by coach M. O. Bridges, the team was beaten easily by all its opponents (including out-of-state southern teams Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, and Georgia Tech).[11][note 3] The Lake City team lost its final game to state champion FSC, coached by Jack "Pee Wee" Forsythe[note 4] (a former lineman for John Heisman at Clemson, who was later the Gators' first coach).[13]
Humble beginnings (1906–22)
The University of the State of Florida was in Lake City during its first year of existence (1905–06), while the first buildings of its new campus were constructed in Gainesville.[14] The 1905 football season was a lost one, since university president Andrew Sledd ruled several players ineligible for academic reasons.[note 5] The state university's football team began varsity play when the Gainesville campus opened in September 1906. Tackle William Gibbs is the only known member of the lost 1905 team who played for the new university's team in Gainesville.[15]
Football and baseball games and track meets were held at University Athletic Field, a grassy playing surface flanked by low bleachers on West University Avenue just north of the present stadium site. Permanent bleachers were installed in 1911, and the facility was renamed Fleming Field in honor of former Florida governor Francis P. Fleming.[16] From 1911 to 1930, Florida's football squads posted a 49–7–1 record at Fleming Field. Because of the facility's limited capacity (about 5,000) and the relative inaccessibility of Gainesville in the early 20th century, most home games against top opponents were scheduled at larger venues in Jacksonville or Tampa; a handful were played in St. Petersburg and Miami.[17]
Jack Forsythe (1906–08)
The school's first football coach was "Pee Wee" Forsythe, who led the Florida team for three winning seasons (including a 6–0 win over the Rollins College Tars in their first game). Forsythe used the Minnesota shift and also played on the team.[18] The 1907 team was co-state champion with Stetson.[note 6] The 1908 team defeated Stetson at home and played a scoreless tie on the road. William A. Shands, future state senator and namesake of Shands Hospital, played on the 1907 and 1908 teams.[19] During these early years the Florida sports teams adopted their orange-and-blue team colors, reportedly a combination of school's predecessors: the blue and white of the FAC and the orange and black of the EFS.[14]
George Pyle (1909–13)
The new university's name was shortened to University of Florida in 1909, and George Pyle became the new head coach of its football team. The only blemishes that season were two games with Stetson: a loss on the road and a tie in Gainesville.[note 7] Pyle had a 26–7–3 (.764) record with the Gators, the third-winningest coach in school history.[21]
The 1910s saw the newly-named Gators face many of their current rivals and regular opponents for the first time. The 1911 Gators, captained by center Neal "Bo Gator" Storter, tied the South Carolina Gamecocks and defeated the Citadel Bulldogs, Clemson and the College of Charleston (the self-proclaimed "champions of South Carolina"),[22] finishing the season with a 5–0–1 record—the Gators' only undefeated football season. Earle "Dummy" Taylor, the only five-letter winner in team history,[23] scored 49 of the season's 84 points (including a school-record eight field goals.[24]
Before the 1912 season Florida joined the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA),[25] the first southern athletics conference,[26] and began the season by facing the Auburn Tigers for the first time.[21] Florida posted a 5–2–1 record, including South Carolina's first defeat.[21] After the season, the team played its first post-season game: the Bacardi Bowl in Havana, Cuba, a two-game series against two Cuban athletic clubs.[27][note 8] During the first quarter of the second game Pyle and his team left, alleging that the Cuban team persisted in playing by the old rules, and the coach was arrested for violating a Cuban law prohibiting a game's suspension after money was charged.[30] When his trial was delayed, Pyle and the Gators quickly left the island[27] and he was branded a "fugitive from justice."[29]
The 1913 Gators began the season by defeating Southern 144–0, the widest margin of victory in program history.[31] The following week, the future SIAA champion Auburn Tigers beat the Gators 55–0.[32] Florida finished the see-saw season with a 4–3 record, and Pyle left to become athletic director of West Virginia.
C. J. McCoy (1914–16)
In C. J. McCoy's first season, 1914, the team posted a much-improved 5–2 record. Unlike the previous season, the Gators played respectably against Auburn despite a 20–0 loss.[33] The following year, McCoy also became the school's first basketball coach. The 1915 Gators played the Georgia Bulldogs and Tulane for the first time. Led by quarterback Rammy Ramsdell, UF's first scholarship athlete,[34] Florida defeated Tulane 14–7. In pouring rain, "Rammy" scored the winning touchdown;[34] he also scored a school-record four touchdowns against Mercer.[35]
McCoy felt he had the makings of a great Gators squad in 1916, compiling the most ambitious and difficult Gators football schedule to date.[36] The team, captained by Rex Farrior, faced the Alabama Crimson Tide and Tennessee Volunteers for the first time.[note 9] The ill-fated 1916 team lost every game, faced multiple transfers, began the season with an injury to Ramsdell and ended it with one to Farrior.[37] The Gators were shut out in all but the last game, a 14–3 loss to Indiana.[38]
Al Buser (1917–19)
After the winless 1916 season the Gators hired Al Buser, a former All-American lineman for the Wisconsin Badgers, who promised to use a Midwestern, power-football style of play to revive the team.[39] The 1917 season, however, was a 2–4 disappointment. During his three seasons as coach Buser compiled a 7–8 record,[40] including a one-game 1918 season shortened by the influenza pandemic and World War I. Despite an improved record in 1919, the loss to Florida Southern was the first to a Florida opponent since Stetson in 1909 and was viewed as an unacceptable failure.[41]
William G. Kline (1920–22)
In 1920 the Gators hired William G. Kline, former halfback for the Illinois Fighting Illini who had coached the Nebraska Cornhuskers, as head coach.[42] Kline's first year saw an improved, 6–3 overall record but a 1–3 conference record. He upgraded the team for his second season, bringing in five players "from the University of Oklahoma and the western states."[note 10]
The 1921 Gators went 6–3–2 overall and 4–1–2 in the conference, including a 9–2 defeat of Alabama (Florida's first).[44] Georgia coach Herman Stegeman wrote in Spalding's Football Guide, "Florida, for the first time, had a strong team ... they combined a kicking game and a well-diversified offense to good advantage."[45] The team was captained by center and guard Tootie Perry, Florida's first All-Southern selection.[note 11] Perry played every minute of two seasons and "developed into a wizard at blocking punts";[47] UF's yearbook called him "Dixie's greatest guard."[47] Perry later returned to Gainesville and was a fixture on the team's sidelines as a water boy,[48] gaining national media notoriety as the "All-American Waterboy."[49]
The 1922 Gators had a 7–2 record. The team joined the Southern Conference (SoCon) after their regional rivals' departure from the SIAA in 1921, hiring former UVA athlete James L. White as athletic director.[50] The season saw the Gators' first game against a traditional northeastern power. They played the Harvard Crimson on the road and were overwhelmed by Harvard substitutes, 24–0, before their largest crowd to date.[50][note 12] According to Spalding's Football Guide, the Gators were the best forward passing team in the country.[52] Triple-threat halfback Ark Newton was selected All-Southern,[53] and former Tampa Tribune sports editor Pete Norton called Newton "Florida's greatest football player."[54]
First national prominence (1923–32)
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The 1920s and early 1930s saw the Gators' first inter-sectional victories and their first wins over several regular opponents. The 1923 and 1924 teams received national media coverage for the first time, and from 1923 to 1925 the Gators had the best three-year record in the first 20 years of Florida football.[55] The 1928 team was considered the best Florida football team until at least the 1960s by many sports commentators.[56] After the 1932 season, the Gators joined other major southern programs to establish the Southeastern Conference.[57]
James Van Fleet (1923–24)
James Van Fleet, a U.S. Army major and assistant coach under Kline,[note 13] coached the 1923 and 1924 teams to 6–1–2 and 6–2–2 records.[58] Both teams lost to Army, Kline's alma mater, and tied with southern power Georgia Tech.[59] In 1923's final game, on a rainy Thanksgiving Day, the Gators defeated Wallace Wade's heavily-favored Alabama 16–6.[60] This, the Tide's only SoCon loss, gave the Gators their first national media coverage.[55][note 14] Halfback Edgar Jones scored all the Gator points, and Newton kicked long punts.[61][note 15]
The 1924 loss to Army was close, 14–7, with Newton returning the second-half kickoff 102 yards for the Gator touchdown.[63] Van Fleet swore biased officiating cost his Gators the victory.[64] The week after the loss to Army, the team was defeated by Mercer 10–0 after about 5,000 miles of travel in three weeks.[65] Florida was ranked second to conference champion Alabama.
Tom Sebring (1925–27)
Led by new head coach Tom Sebring,[note 16] a former football star for the Kansas State Wildcats, the 1925 Gators finished 8–2 (the first season with that many wins).[66] Jones and Goldstein repeated as composite All-Southern.[67] Jones scored a school-record 108 points that season, a record which stood for forty-four years.[68][note 17]
The injury-plagued 1926 team posted a 2–6–2 record.[69] The 1927 season seemed lost early with an upset by the Davidson Wildcats. A few days after the Davidson loss, captain Frank Oosterhoudt was declared ineligible. His replacement by unanimous vote was Bill Middlekauff, a fullback from previous years.[70] Florida defeated Auburn for the first time, salvaging the season[71] with a 7–3 record. The 1927 Gators won more conference games than they had in any two previous seasons combined. Sebring graduated from the university's College of Law and left the university in 1928,[note 18] after recruiting a talented team for his successor.[71]
Charlie Bachman (1928–32)
Coach Charlie Bachman led the Gators to national recognition, taking over as head coach in 1928. Bachman, who coached Tom Sebring at Kansas State, attended Notre Dame from 1914 to 1916; an All-American guard for the Fighting Irish football team in 1916, he was a disciple of Knute Rockne.[note 19] Bachman's 1928 and 1929 Gator squads finished 8–1 and 8–2, respectively, the Gators' highest season-win totals for thirty-two years.[73] Both seasons included the first defeats of the Georgia Bulldogs.
Driven by the "Phantom Four" backfield of halfback Carl Brumbaugh, fullback Rainey Cawthon, quarterback Clyde Crabtree and halfback Royce Goodbread, the 1928 Gators led the nation in points scored with 336.[74] The team also produced the Gators' first first-team All-American, end Dale Van Sickel, Florida's first member of the College Football Hall of Fame.[75] Crabtree and Van Sickel were both unanimous All-Southern selections.[76] Crabtree was ambidextrous and could throw passes with either hand or punt with either foot, while on the run or stationary,[77] The 1928 team's sole loss was to Robert Neyland's Tennessee, 12–13, in the final game of the season.[78] Thick mud hampered the Florida offense in a game in which coach Bachman had his players convinced they were playing for a shot at a Rose Bowl berth.[74] The Florida players accused Tennessee of watering the field.[79]
The 1929 Gators lost only to defending national champion Georgia Tech and Harvard.[73] Their season ended in Miami with a 20–6 win over the Oregon Webfoots, a major inter-sectional victory.[80][note 20] Another inter-sectional victory followed in 1930, when Florida defeated Amos Stagg's Chicago Maroons 19–0. It was the Gators' first inter-sectional victory outside the South.[81] Red Bethea rushed for a single-game school record of 218 yards, a record which stood for 55 years.[82] The 1930 Gators also defeated Georgia Tech for the first time, 55–7,[83] and played their first game at Florida Field (a 20–0 loss to national champion Alabama).[84]
Winning four of eighteen games over the next two seasons (1931 and 1932), Bachman ended his tenure on a high note in his final game with a 12–2 inter-sectional upset of the UCLA Bruins.[83] After the season, Bachman accepted an offer to become head coach of the Michigan State Spartans and was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.[85]
Depression, war and football (1933–49)
The 1930s and 1940s were difficult for the Gators. After posting a six-win season in 1934, Florida did not win more than five games in a season until 1952.[86]
In 1928 John J. Tigert, a former Vanderbilt halfback,[note 21] was appointed UF president and began a drive to build a larger stadium.[87] By 1930 he was responsible for the construction of Florida Field, the Gators' permanent stadium. With state funding unavailable at the beginning of the Great Depression, the University Athletic Association raised funds and oversaw the project. To expedite construction, Tigert borrowed $10,000 and he and ten supporters of Florida's athletic program took out personal loans to raise the $118,000 required for the 22,800-seat facility.[88]
UF joined the new Southeastern Conference (SEC) in December 1932 with twelve other former members of the Southern Conference. Tigert, who was instrumental in the organization of the new conference, served four terms as SEC president.[89]
Dutch Stanley (1933–35)
Gator alumnus Dutch Stanley, an end (opposite Van Sickel) on the 1928 team, replaced Bachman as coach in the first SEC football season in 1933. The 26-year-old Stanley brought an all-Gator-alumni coaching staff to the program, and the team had a two-year revival after two consecutive losing seasons under Bachman.[90] Stanley's Gators posted 5–3–1 and 6–3–1 records in 1933 and 1934, faltering with a 3–7 season in 1935. The 1934 team won hard-fought, consecutive victories against Auburn and Georgia Tech.[90]
Josh Cody (1936–39)
Dutch Stanley resigned as head coach in response to fan pressure after the 1935 season and became an assistant to his successor, Josh Cody. Cody was a former three-time All-American tackle for Dan McGugin's Vanderbilt football teams.[91] After coaching Clemson to a 29–11–1 record from 1927 to 1930,[91] he returned to his alma mater as basketball and assistant football coach under McGugin. Cody left Vanderbilt in 1936 and, with McGugin's recommendation, became athletic director and head football coach at Florida.[92]
In 1936, Cody's first season, Florida had one conference victory. Although the 1937 Gators were also lackluster, with a 4–7 finish, they defeated Georgia and produced the Gators' first first-team All-SEC selection: senior captain Walter "Tiger" Mayberry.[93] Mayberry was a triple-threat back who set school records for interceptions in a season (6) and a career (11).[68][note 22] According to one writer, "I have not seen a better back in six years than Mayberry ... Wallace Wade, Bernie Moore, and Harry Mehre all told me that Mayberry was the best back in the South, one of the best they have seen in half a dozen years and certainly the best that Florida has produced in a decade."[94] The 1938 Gators finished seventh of thirteen SEC teams, Cody's best finish in the conference.[68] The season included the first meeting between the Gators and their in-state rival Miami Hurricanes.
Cody's finest moment as the Gators' head coach may have been the team's 7–0 upset of Frank Leahy's undefeated, second-ranked Boston College Eagles in 1939. Sophomore end Fergie Ferguson was the Gators' defensive star in the game.[95] Florida failed to win a conference game in 1939, and Cody left Gainesville with a 17–24–2 win-loss-tie record in four seasons to become an assistant coach at Temple University.[91]
Tom Lieb (1940–45)
Tom Lieb, who had most recently posted a winning record at Loyola, replaced Cody as head coach in 1940. Lieb, a former Notre Dame All-American, became Knute Rockne's top assistant in South Bend.[96] He assisted during the Fighting Irish 1924 national-championship season (with the Four Horsemen), and was the de facto head coach during Notre Dame's 1929 national-championship season when Rockne was ill.[97] Despite fans' early hopes for a return to a Bachman-like "Notre Dame system" and Lieb's previous success,[96] the Gators posted a 20–26–1 record in five seasons.[98] Lieb's best season was probably his first, in 1940, when the Gators defeated Georgia, Georgia Tech and Miami.
The 1941 season was disappointing, except for a 14–0 road upset of Miami and a hard-fought 14–7 homecoming victory against Georgia Tech. Georgia running back Frank Sinkwich played with a broken jaw as the Bulldogs romped over the Gators, 19–3.[99] However, Florida honored its second first-team All-SEC selection: senior end Fergie Ferguson, who led the team in points scored (36) and minutes played (420).[68] Ferguson also received honorable mention All-America honors from Grantland Rice in Collier's magazine.[100] The Fergie Ferguson Award is named in his honor. He caught both touchdowns in the win against Miami; according to the Miami Herald, the score was "Forrest Ferguson 14; University of Miami 0."[101]
During the World War II years of 1942 to 1945, most of the university's able-bodied students withdrew and enlisted in the U.S. military. The 1942 Gators lost 75–0 to national champion Georgia; according to Dan Magill, it was the most memorable win in Georgia history.[102] Georgia's backfield included Charley Trippi and Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich.[note 23]
Florida did not field a team in 1943 due to the lack of available players, and the 1945 backfield was made up entirely of freshmen.[84] During the war, Tiger Mayberry's fighter plane was shot down over the Pacific and he died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp; Fergie Ferguson was seriously wounded leading an infantry assault during the D-Day landings in France and died from complications of his injuries ten years later.[103]
Bear Wolf (1946–49)
Returning war veterans arrived on the Gainesville campus in the fall of 1946. Dutch Stanley returned from Duke as dean of the college of physical education and hired Bear Wolf, prewar head coach of North Carolina, to replace Lieb.[104] The Gator football program slid further under Wolf, posting a 13–24–2 record in four losing seasons[105] (the low point of the Gator football program), and is ironically known as the "golden era."[104]
The first season for Wolf was poor; the 1946 Gators finished with a 0–9 record, the worst in school history. Their upset of the 18th-ranked NC State Wolfpack in 1947 broke a thirteen-game postwar losing streak.[106] Wolf failed to use the two-platoon system and used the by-then dated double-wing, only converting to the T-formation by 1948.[107] Several members of the Florida Board of Control and a number of Florida alumni called for Wolf to step down after the 1948 season, but player-led support rallies led to a one-year contract extension.[108]
Gator running back Chuck Hunsinger was first-team All-SEC in 1948 and 1949, rushing for a career 2,017 yards.[68] In 1949, Hunsinger ran for 174 yards and three touchdowns in a 28–7 victory over Georgia.[109] Jimmy Kynes was a defensive standout, the last Gator player to play an entire sixty-minute game.[68] The Gators lost their last three games, and Wolf's contract was not renewed.[110] Iconic cheerleader Mr. Two Bits attended his first home game during the 1949 season, beginning his sixty-year tradition of leading Gator fans in the "two bits" cheer at Florida Field.[111]
Bob Woodruff (1950–59)
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The Gators improved under coach Bob Woodruff during the 1950s. His ten-year tenure was notable for a 6–4 record against Georgia, four top-twenty final AP Poll rankings, and only two losing seasons. Woodruff, who came to Florida from Baylor after a lengthy search,[112] was best known as an assistant on Doc Blanchard's Army teams. In order to induce Woodruff to coach the Florida team, the Florida Board of Control offered him a seven-year guaranteed contract at $17,000 per year; an annual salary $5,000 more than that of University of Florida President J. Hillis Miller.[113] As a former Tennessee football player and disciple of Volunteers coach Robert Neyland, he emphasized defense, field position and the kicking game over an open offense; however, during Woodruff's first season in 1950 the Gator offense posted record numbers. Haywood Sullivan was the first sophomore in SEC history to throw for more than 1,000 yards in a season. He set nine then-school records. These included average (50.3%), yardage (1,170), and average for a single game (7 for 7 against Kentucky).[114] With victories over Auburn and Vanderbilt, it was the Gators' first season since 1940 with two SEC victories. The 1951 Gators again won two SEC games (against Vanderbilt and Alabama in Tuscaloosa), in addition to inter-sectional victories against the Wyoming Cowboys (13–0) and Loyola Lions (40–7).
The Gators peaked under Woodruff during the 1952 season, posting an 8–3 record and a number-15 AP Poll ranking.[115] The Gators shut out Georgia 33–0 (their largest victory against the Bulldogs for almost forty years),[116] and national champion Georgia Tech needed a last-second field goal to defeat Florida. The Gators received their first bowl-game invitation, defeating the Tulsa Golden Hurricane 14–13 in the Gator Bowl on New Year's Day.[117] The team produced Florida's second first-team All-American: the walk-on former Army paratrooper Charlie LaPradd, the Gators' lightest tackle and one of their two captains.[118][note 24]
Woodruff never equaled the success of his 1952 team, in part due to a 1953 NCAA rule change forbidding unlimited substitutions.[note 25] The 1953 season was a year of rebuilding and backsliding after LaPradd's graduation.[121] The 1954 Gators' record SEC win-loss record of 5–2, including a win against Georgia Tech and their first victory against Tennessee, was countered by five overall losses. The 1955 team played their only eight-game SEC schedule before the 1990s. In 1956, although the Gators produced first-team All-American guard John Barrow[68] and began the season with a 6–1–1 record, they lost the last two games to Georgia Tech and Miami.[68]
The 1957 team upset Billy Cannon and his 10th-ranked LSU Tigers, finishing with a number-17 AP ranking.[122] In 1958, Florida produced first-team All-American tackle Vel Heckman[68] and ranked 14th despite a 6–4–1 record.[123] The season included a 12–9 upset of Miami and the first win against new in-state rival Florida State Seminoles (FSU). In a 5–6 loss to fourth-ranked Auburn, an injury to a Florida tackles led Woodruff to employ the unorthodox strategy of shifting Heckman between right and left tackle.[124] Bill Kastelz, the sports editor of the Jacksonville Times-Union, wrote: "Big, fast and tough, he outshone all of Auburn's great linemen."[125] According to Auburn coach Shug Jordan, "There should be a law to prevent things like that. We were supposed to run plays where Heckman wasn't, and he's there now."[126]
Woodruff finished his Gator career with a 53–42–6 record.[127] Despite his success, UF president J. Wayne Reitz pressured him to resign after 1959.[128] Woodruff returned to his alma mater, Tennessee, in 1963 and was the school's athletic director for many years.[129]
Ray Graves (1960–69)
Florida attained its first consistent success in the 1960s, when Ray Graves coached the team to three nine-win seasons and a total of seventy victories[130] (a Florida record for twenty-seven years).[131][note 26] Graves, former assistant to Tennessee coach Robert Neyland and a longtime Georgia Tech defensive assistant for coach Bobby Dodd,[132] led the Gators to a series of firsts (including their first nine-win season, in 1960). Under him, the Gators produced three times the number of first-team All-Americans during the 1960s as they had in their previous fifty-four seasons.[68][note 27] At this time, Robert Cade and other UF medical researchers developed Gatorade and tested it on the football team in the consistent heat and humidity in which they played.[133] Gatorade was a success, and Florida developed a reputation as a "second-half team."[134]
Among the 1960 season's highlights was the Gators' 18–17 upset of Dodd's tenth-ranked Yellow Jackets and a hard-fought 13–12 victory over the twelfth-ranked Baylor Bears in the Gator Bowl on New Year's Eve.[135] The 1961 team, attempting LSU coach Paul Dietzel's three-platoon system, finished with a 4–5–1 record.[136] The Gators won the Gator Bowl again in 1962, upsetting ninth-ranked Penn State. They wore the Confederate Battle Flag on the side of their helmets to pump up the southern team facing a favored northern school.[137] Florida began its 1963 season with a 1–1–1 record. The season highlight followed: a 10–6 upset of the Joe Namath-quarterbacked, third-ranked Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, one of only two home losses in Denny Stadium during Bear Bryant's twenty-five years at Alabama. Before the game, Florida's defensive coordinator Gene Ellenson challenged his shaky team's manhood and they rose to the occasion.[138] The Gators won their last three games—against Georgia (21–14), Miami (27–21) and FSU (7–0)—to finish with a 6–3–1 record.
The 1964 team, with sophomore quarterback Steve Spurrier and first-team All-American running back Larry Dupree, posted a 7–3 record and tied for second place in the SEC. They defeated Sugar Bowl bound, seventh-ranked LSU 20–6 in a game postponed until weeks after the season ended due to Hurricane Hilda.[139] The 1965 team was ranked 12th in the Coaches Poll and lost a close game to the Missouri Tigers in the Sugar Bowl, the Gators' first major-bowl appearance.[140] Spurrier was the game's most valuable player, the only MVP from a losing team in Sugar Bowl history.[141]
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Graves fielded one of his best teams in 1966, finishing with a 9–2 record and defeating Georgia Tech 27–12 in the Orange Bowl (Florida's first major-bowl victory).[142] Halfback Larry Smith ran 94 yards for a touchdown while struggling to keep his pants up. His 187 yards rushing resulted in him being named the game's "Outstanding Player."[143] Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy[144] and was a unanimous All-American[145] after waving off Florida's kicker and booting a 40-yard field goal for a 30–27 victory against Auburn.[146] The 1967 Gators upset Georgia, which the 1966 team had not done. End Richard Trapp sparked a Florida comeback with a 57-yard touchdown catch-and-run. The Gators kicked a field goal with 34 seconds left to upset the Bulldogs, 17–16.[147]
Graves signed Leonard George and Willie Jackson, Sr., the Gators' first two black football players, on December 17 and 18, 1968.[3] Since the NCAA did not permit freshmen to play on varsity teams, Jackson became the first black player (and starter) for the Gators during the 1970 season[3] and Florida quickly integrated black players into the team.
Graves' 1969 season (his last) is remembered for the "Super Sophs", which included quarterback John Reaves, All-American wide receiver Carlos Alvarez, and tailback Tommy Durrance's 110-point season scoring record.[148] The 1969 Gators also posted an alltime-best 9–1–1 record and a 14–13 Gator Bowl upset of SEC champion Tennessee.[149] The Gator Bowl was dominated by a Gator defense led by linebacker Mike Kelley (the game's MVP) and All-Americans: defensive back Steve Tannen and defensive end Jack Youngblood.[149] After the game, Graves resigned as head coach (with a 70–31–4 record) but continued as Florida's athletic director until 1979.[130]
Doug Dickey (1970–78)
Florida alumnus and former quarterback Doug Dickey took over the reins in 1970. Dickey was the head coach of Tennessee for the previous six seasons, winning two SEC championships and taking the Volunteers to five bowl games.[150]
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A colorful moment during the Dickey era was a play known as the "Florida Flop" or the "Gator Flop." In the last game of the 1971 regular season, the Gators led Miami 45–8 with less than two minutes left.[151] Victory was assured, and Florida senior quarterback John Reaves needed fourteen yards to break Jim Plunkett's NCAA record for career passing yardage; Miami had the ball.[151] Several of Florida's defensive players convinced Dickey that the only way for Reaves to set the mark would be for Miami to score quickly.[152] Dickey refused twice before he agreed.[153] With the Hurricanes near the Florida end zone, the entire Gator defense except one player fell to the ground and allowed Miami to score a touchdown.[154] Florida then got the ball back, and Reaves completed a fifteen-yard pass to Carlos Alvarez for the record.[152] After the final whistle, jubilant Florida players jumped into a tank behind the Orange Bowl end zone usually used by the Miami Dolphins' mascot, "Flipper" and angry Miami coach Fran Curci refused to shake hands with Dickey.[153]
Beginning in 1972, for the first time since 1921,[155] freshmen were permitted to play on southeastern teams.[156] Dickey also brought in twelve African-American players.[156] The 1972 and 1973 Gators were spearheaded by running back Nat Moore.[68] Dickey's team peaked in 1974 and 1975. The 1974 Gators posted an 8–4 record (after a 7–1 start) and a Sugar Bowl appearance, a 13–10 loss. Dickey employed the wishbone offense for the first season in the Gators' history.[157] The 1975 Gators had a 9–3 record.[150] Sammy Green was a consensus All-American and Jimmy DuBose was SEC Player of the Year.[158]
The 1976 and 1977 teams featured All-American wide receiver Wes Chandler, widely considered one of Florida's best all-around football players[159] and voted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015.[160] The 1976 season opened with a 24–21 loss to North Carolina before Florida won six straight games. In the win against Auburn Chandler scored a touchdown on a short pass, running 64 yards through the Auburn defense.[161] When Chandler ran out of the end zone, Auburn's mascot (the War Eagle) jumped off its perch and began clawing his shoulder pads.[162] In the next game, against Georgia game, the Gators led 27–13 at halftime and an upset seemed possible. After Georgia scored midway through the third period, Dickey gambled on fourth down with one yard to go; his play failed. Florida never recovered, and Georgia won 41–27; the play became known as "Fourth and Dumb."[163]
The Gators had a 6–4–1 season in 1977, and Chandler was 10th in balloting for the Heisman Trophy.[164] He resigned after a 4–7 season in 1978; unable to duplicate his success at Tennessee, the coach had a 58–43–2 record in nine seasons with the Gators.[150]
Charley Pell and Galen Hall (1979–89)
Charley Pell was hired as Florida's new head coach for the 1979 season.[165] Pell had coached at Clemson, where he led the Tigers to a 10–1 record and an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship in 1978.[165] Although he helped build Florida's football program, a public scandal and NCAA sanctions crippled it after his departure.
The 1979 season was a 0–10–1 disaster,[166] but Pell's Gators improved after he hired offensive coach Mike Shanahan. Quarterbacks Bob Hewko and Wayne Peace led the team to an NCAA-record turnaround with an 8–3 season in 1980.[166] Despite Georgia's consensus All-American back Herschel Walker, Florida nearly defeated the national-champion Bulldogs for what would have been its first SEC championship until Georgia executed one of the most famous plays in college-football history.[167] The Bulldogs were trailing 21–20 with time running out, facing a third down and long yardage from their seven-yard line. After scrambling around his end zone, Georgia quarterback Buck Belue found wide receiver Lindsay Scott open in the middle of the field. Scott outran everyone else down the sideline, scoring the game-winning touchdown with seconds left.[168] Georgia radio announcer Larry Munson's call of the play gave the game its nickname: "Run Lindsay Run."[169]
The Gators ended their season with a 35–20 victory against the Maryland Terrapins in the Tangerine Bowl, the first time a winless team received a bowl invitation the following season. Pell's teams built on that success, leading Florida to seven wins in 1981, eight wins in 1982 and nine wins in 1983.[166] The 1982 team upset 10th-ranked USC, 17–9, in a nationally-televised game which helped return Florida football to national prominence.[170] The 1983 team finished sixth in the final AP Poll,[171] the highest final ranking in school history to date. The 1982 and 1983 teams included consensus All-American linebacker Wilber Marshall.[68]
Before the 1990s, Florida's 1984 team was considered by many the best in school history.[172] The Gators won their first SEC championship, completing an undefeated conference schedule for the first time in school history. Florida sealed its 27–0 victory against Georgia when SEC Player of the Year,[158] redshirt freshman quarterback Kerwin Bell, dropped back into his own end zone and threw a long pass to receiver Ricky Nattiel (who ran 96 yards for a touchdown).[173] Until then, Vanderbilt was the only other charter SEC member to have never won a conference title. The Gator offense was formidable behind a line (the "Great Wall of Florida") which paved the way for John L. Williams and Neal Anderson to run the ball. The line included Phil Bromley, Lomas Brown, Billy Hinson, Crawford Ker, Scott Trimble and Jeff Zimmerman. Several polls ranked the Gators as the best team in the nation.[174]
Pell did not finish the 1984 season with the team. Due to reports of serious recruiting and other NCAA rule violations by the coach and his staff, he announced in August 1984 that he would retire at the end of the season. When school officials received a list of 107 major infractions from the NCAA in mid-September, however, university president Marshall Criser fired Pell.[175] Offensive coordinator Galen Hall, who had just arrived for the 1984 season and was not involved with the rule violations, was named interim head coach before the season's fourth game.[176] Hall rallied his players after a 1–1–1 start to win eight consecutive games for a 9–1–1 record (including an undefeated 5–0–1 SEC record), all but ensuring that he would become the permanent coach after the season. The SEC banned the Gators from the Sugar Bowl, and LSU went in their place.[177] Two weeks after the end of the season, the NCAA imposed two years of probation (a third year was suspended) and banned the Gators from bowl games and live television in 1985 and 1986. The most damaging sanctions in the long run were a limit of 20 new scholarships in 1985 and 1986 and a reduction to 85 total scholarships in 1985 and 75 in 1986.[178] In the spring of 1985, the SEC university presidents voted 6–4 to vacate the Gators' 1984 SEC championship.[179]
Florida posted another 9–1–1 record in 1985, Hall's first full season as head coach, and was briefly ranked number one in the AP Poll for the first time in school history. The Gators finished the season atop the SEC standings, but were ineligible for the conference title. Although he never had a losing season, Hall's subsequent teams did not match his early success when the scholarship losses for Pell's violations were in effect; his first two recruiting classes had only 25 players.[180] The unranked 1986 Gators upset the Auburn Tigers, 18–17. Kerwin Bell led the Gators to overcome a 17–0 fourth-quarter deficit in a game still considered one of the most dramatic in Florida Field history.[181]
The greatest player during Hall's tenure was All-American running back Emmitt Smith, who set school and conference rushing records from 1987 to 1989.[note 28] The Gators began the 1988 season with a 5–0 record, and were ranked as high as 14th. During an October game against the Memphis State Tigers, Smith injured his knee and was unable to play for a month. Florida lost that game and the next three, with the Gator offense unable to score a touchdown while Smith was sidelined.
Another NCAA infraction scandal would end Hall's tenure at Florida. In 1989 he admitted supplementing his assistant coaches' salaries with his own funds and was accused of paying child support-related legal expenses for one of his players, a charge he denied.[180] Interim university president Robert A. Bryan demanded Hall's resignation five games into the 1989 season.[183] Defensive coordinator Gary Darnell was interim head coach for the rest of the season. The NCAA imposed a two-year probation and banned Florida from bowl consideration in 1990. In imposing the penalties, the association said that it would have banned the Gators from live television in 1990 if Hall had remained as coach.[184]
Steve Spurrier (1990–2001)
Despite intermittent success, Florida had never been considered a consistent national power. This changed in 1990, when former quarterback Steve Spurrier left Duke and returned to Gainesville as the Gators' "head ball coach."[185] Since his return, the Gators rank among the three Division I (FBS) programs with the most wins.[186] Spurrier is credited with changing SEC football. He used a pass-oriented offense (known in the media as "fun 'n' gun"),[187] in contrast with the ball-control, rush-oriented offense traditionally played in the conference.[188] Spurrier's Gators won four consecutive SEC championships (1993–1996), and he once said when the Gators posed for their championship photo: "This is our annual team picture."[189]
The 1990 Gators finished first in the SEC for the third time in their history, and for the third time they were ineligible for the SEC title because of NCAA probation. Just before Spurrier's Gator coaching debut, the Gainesville campus was rocked by the Danny Rolling murders.[190] Combatting the gloom, the 1990 Gators opened the season with a no-huddle, 80-yard touchdown drive in six plays to defeat the Oklahoma State Cowboys 50–7. In their second game, they came from behind to beat Alabama 17–13; the 1991 Gators defeated Alabama, 35–0. Spurrier treasured the wins against the Crimson Tide: "Those victories early – '90, '91 – really got us started there at Florida ..."[191] The 1991 Gators won the team's first official SEC championship, 59 seasons after joining the conference as a charter member. Quarterback Shane Matthews was SEC Player of the Year in 1990 and 1991.[158] The 1992 Gators won the first of five consecutive SEC Eastern Division titles. They lost the first SEC Championship Game to eventual national champion Alabama, 28–21.
The 1993 season was the first in which the Gators were ranked in the AP top ten every week. In the second week, quarterbacks Danny Wuerffel and Terry Dean throw a total of seven interceptions against Kentucky.[192] With eight seconds left, Wuerffel threw a pass down the middle to walk-on receiver Chris Doering for the game-winning touchdown; Gator play-by-play announcer Mick Hubert shouted, "Doering's got a touchdown!"[193] The next week, Florida recovered and defeated Heath Shuler-led, fifth-ranked Tennessee 41–34 in a "shootout".[194] Auburn dropped the Gators to their lowest ranking (10th) of the season. Tied 35–35 late in the game, Auburn kicked a 41-yard field goal to win 38–35.[195] Florida's other loss was to national champion FSU. The Gators never led, although they had cut the score to 27–21. With just under six minutes left and the crowd roaring, FSU faced third down at its 21-yard-line. Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Charlie Ward hit freshman running back Warrick Dunn up the sideline for a 79-yard touchdown and a 33–21 FSU win. The Gators defeated Alabama 28–13 in the SEC Championship and the third-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers 41–7 in the Sugar Bowl, finishing fifth in the AP Poll.[196]
The Gators were first in the preseason AP Poll for the first time in 1994, remaining there until their loss to Auburn.[197] Florida remained in the top five until the FSU game known as the Choke at Doak (FSU plays at Doak Campbell Stadium). The Gators led, 31–3, at the beginning of the fourth quarter before FSU scored four touchdowns. FSU coach Bobby Bowden opted to kick the extra point rather than attempt a two-point conversion, overruling nine assistants who begged him to go for the win (there was no overtime in college football at the time).[198] The kick was good, tying the game at 31 and completing FSU's comeback. Florida edged Alabama by one point in the SEC Championship before facing the Seminoles in a rematch in the Sugar Bowl (won by FSU, 23–17). The Gators finished seventh in the AP Poll.[199]
Florida had its first undefeated, untied regular season in 1995. The Gators' closest victory margin was 11 points as they defeated three top-10 teams. Their victory against Tennessee reportedly placed Wuerffel on the cover of Sports Illustrated instead of Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning.[200] The Gators lost the national championship to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 62–24, in the Fiesta Bowl.[201] Despite the decisive loss, they remained second in the AP Poll.[202]
Most of Florida's 1996 offensive players were returning upperclassmen, who set dozens of team scoring records as they began the season with a 10–0 record. During this stretch, Spurrier became the Gators' all-time winningest coach, surpassing Ray Graves' 70 career wins. The Gators were only seriously threatened twice: by Tennessee (35–29) and Vanderbilt (28–21). Leading the Volunteers 35–0 at halftime, Spurrier then opted for a more-conservative game plan and Tennessee scored 29 points in the second half; Vanderbilt's heavy blitzing held the Gators to 28 points. Top-ranked Florida then faced second-ranked, undefeated FSU on the road to finish the regular season. With several blocking errors, the Gators fell behind in the first quarter and left Tallahassee with a 24–21 loss. Florida defeated Alabama 45–30 in the SEC Championship and Texas upset Nebraska in the inaugural Big 12 Championship Game, leaving the third-ranked Gators the best available opponent for the top-ranked Seminoles in the Sugar Bowl. For a chance at the national title, the Gators needed Ohio State to defeat second-ranked Arizona State (the only team undefeated in the regular season) in the Rose Bowl. Ohio State won on the game's final play, setting up the Sugar Bowl as the national-championship game. The Gators seized the moment, defeating FSU 52–20 for their first national championship as quarterback Danny Wuerffel received MVP honors for his shotgun formation.[203] Wuerffel and receivers Ike Hilliard and Reidel Anthony were consensus All-Americans.[204]
The 1997 Gators seemed poised for another title, never trailing Manning-led Tennessee at home to regain the top spot in the polls.[note 29] They struggled midway through the schedule, however, losing to LSU on the road and to Georgia after defeating both teams the previous year. Florida ended the regular season with a 32–29 upset of top-ranked FSU known as the "greatest game ever played in the Swamp."[206] The Seminoles were driving late in the fourth quarter when the Gator defense stopped them at the 5-yard line, and they settled for a Sebastian Janikowski field goal for a 29–25 lead. On first down of the next drive, quarterback Doug Johnson passed to consensus All-American receiver Jacquez Green from the Gator 20-yeard line for a 62-yard gain. Running back Fred Taylor completed the drive with a touchdown, and Florida took the lead for good 32–29. FSU's final comeback attempt was stymied when senior linebacker Dwayne Thomas intercepted a third-down pass from Thad Busby, costing the Seminoles a chance at the national championship.[207]
Florida went three seasons before recapturing an SEC title in 2000.[208] The 1998 Gators lost two games to teams which would eventually meet in the first BCS National Championship game: Tennessee and FSU. Florida returned to the SEC Championship in 1999, but lost to Alabama and then Michigan State in the Citrus Bowl. The 2000 team won Spurrier's sixth SEC championship, with one conference loss; Mississippi State defeated the Gators 47–35, breaking Florida's 72-game win streak against unranked teams. Spurrier, frustrated, rotated three quarterbacks (including Rex Grossman). After the game, Mississippi State fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts[209] (parts of which ended up all over campus). The preseason #1-ranked 2001 Gators appeared ready to return to the SEC Championship as favorites, but were upset 23–20 by Auburn in a last-minute field goal and lost 34–32 to Tennessee in a game postponed until December due to the September 11 attacks.[210] Florida accepted an invitation to the Orange Bowl, defeating Maryland 56–23. Grossman was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. In a surprise move, on January 4, 2002 Spurrier stunned Florida fans by resigning as the Gators' head coach;[211] ten days later, he became head coach of the NFL's Washington Redskins.[212]
Ron Zook (2002–04)
Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley initiated a coaching search which focused on Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan[213] and Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops. After both turned him down, Foley decided on New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator and former Gator assistant Ron Zook as Spurrier's replacement.
Zook was a strong recruiter, signing the twentieth-ranked class in an abbreviated 2002 search,[214] the second-ranked class in 2003,[215] and the seventh-ranked class in 2004.[216] Zook's tenure was modestly successful, but well short of what Gator fans had come to expect. Although they were talented, Zook's teams were noted for inconsistency; they typically dominated their opponents in the first half and collapsed in the second.[217] They defeated Georgia (its only loss of 2002) and upset LSU in 2003 on its way to the BCS Championship, but lost to both SEC Mississippi schools and twice to Miami. The Gators lost six games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, one more than they had in 12 years under Spurrier.
After two consecutive five-loss seasons, the 2004 season was a make-or-break year for Zook. He got into a heated argument with members of a campus fraternity after he was called in to defuse a dispute between the fraternity and his players. Following a 38–31 road loss to the 1–5 Mississippi State Bulldogs, Zook was fired but allowed to finish the regular season.[217] In his final game, the Gators defeated the Seminoles for their first win on FSU's field since 1986. Zook accepted the head-coaching position at Illinois. Defensive coordinator Charlie Strong was interim head coach for the Peach Bowl against Miami,[218] the first African-American head coach at Florida and the second in SEC history.
Urban Meyer (2005–10)
Athletic director Jeremy Foley targeted a higher-profile replacement for Zook: 2004 Sporting News Coach of the Year Urban Meyer, head coach at Utah. Meyer chose Florida over competing Notre Dame,[219] and he was announced as Florida's new head coach in December 2004.[220]
His first season (2005) was an improvement with a 9–3 record, including an Outback Bowl win against the Iowa Hawkeyes.[221] The Gators defeated their three biggest rivals (Tennessee, Georgia, and FSU) for only the fourth time in school history. In 2006 Florida had a 13–1 season,[221] with its sole loss to Auburn (27–17). In their final regular-season SEC game, the Gators managed a slender 17–16 victory when Jarvis Moss blocked a fourth-quarter field-goal attempt by South Carolina.[222] Florida defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks for the SEC championship, their first since 2000. The Gators played in the 2007 BCS Championship Game and, led by quarterback Chris Leak, defeated the #1-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes 41–14 for their second national championship.[223]
Tim Tebow became the full-time starting quarterback for the 2007 season. Although the Gators began with a 4–0 record and were ranked as high as third in media polls, a mid-season slump in which they lost three of four games to conference foes ended their hopes for another national championship. They finished with a relatively-disappointing 9–4 record[221] and a number-13 final ranking, but Tebow's record-setting season earned him the Heisman Trophy; he was the first sophomore to receive the honor.
The 2008 Gators responded as a vastly improved team. Florida won its fourth consecutive game against Tennessee, 30–6, followed by a 31–30 upset by Ole Miss. In an emotional press conference after the game, Tebow promised that no team would play harder than Florida for the rest of the season.[224] The Gators then earned their second national-championship berth in three years. They beat defending national champion LSU 51–21, got revenge against Georgia, handed Steve Spurrier (now at South Carolina) the worst loss of his career,[note 30] and defeated FSU 45–15. Florida earned the second spot in the BCS poll, beating previously undefeated Alabama 31–20 in the SEC Championship, and won the BCS National Championship Game against Oklahoma 24–14.[225]
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The 2009 Gators were ranked first in the preseason AP and Coaches Polls. Although they had the second undefeated regular season in program history, the departures of All-American Percy Harvin and offensive coordinator Dan Mullen decreased production. Florida defeated Georgia 41–17 for the seventeenth time in twenty seasons, and Tebow broke the SEC career rushing touchdown record held by Herschel Walker.[226] The Gators were ranked number one when they entered the SEC Championship against undefeated number-two Alabama. The Crimson Tide dominated the game, 32–13, and went on to win the national championship. Florida ended its season by defeating the fourth-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats 51–24 in the Sugar Bowl. In the last game of his college career, Tebow broke the Sugar Bowl record for passing yards (482) and set a BCS bowl record for total offense (533).[227] With the Sugar Bowl victory, the Gators became the first Division I team with consecutive thirteen-win seasons. The 2008 and 2009 teams included consensus All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes.[228]
On December 26, 2009, Meyer announced he would resign as the Gators' head coach after their bowl game due to health and family concerns.[229] However, the next day he said he would not resign but instead take an indefinite leave of absence.[230] Despite uncertainty about Meyer, the Gators signed the nation's consensus number-one recruiting class in February 2010.[231] Meyer resumed coaching in time for Florida's spring practice in March 2010.[232] The 2010 Gators struggled in the fall, especially on offense, and their final record (8–5) was the worst of Meyer's head-coaching career.[221] Florida finished the season unranked for the first time since 1989. On December 8, 2010 Meyer again announced his resignation, citing many of the concerns he had a year earlier.[233] His final game was an Outback Bowl victory against Penn State.[234] Meyer finished his six years at Florida with two BCS national championships, two SEC championships, a 5–1 bowl record (.8333), and an overall win-loss record of 65–15 (.8125).
Will Muschamp (2011–14)
On December 11, 2010, Florida named Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp as the Gators' new head coach.[235] Muschamp, the former defensive coordinator at LSU and Auburn, was the Longhorns' designated "head coach-in-waiting."[235] Charlie Weis, a four-time Super Bowl champion offensive coordinator and a former head coach at Notre Dame, was hired as associate head coach and offensive coordinator.[236] However, Weis's offense struggled throughout the 2011 season. Combined with an inexperienced defense, the Gators finished with a 3–5 record in the SEC, a 7–6 overall record, and a Gator Bowl victory over Ohio State.[237] Weis left to become head coach at Kansas in December 2011.[238]
The 2012 defense was much improved. Behind a defense which had grown into one of the nation's best and a ball-control offense, Florida outscored their opponents 115–30 in the fourth quarter, posted an 11–1 regular-season record and earned their first top-five ranking since 2009. The offense remained unimpressive, however, finishing 116th in the NCAA in passing with less than 2,000 yards.[239] The sole regular-season loss was to Georgia, 17–9. Although the Gator season ended with an upset by Louisville,[240] Florida finished with a top-10 ranking.
The 2013 season was the Gators' worst since 1979. They lost their last seven games (including their first defeat by an FCS team, Georgia Southern),[241] finishing with a 4–8 record and missing a bowl game for the first time since 1990. Late in the 2014 season, Muschamp was dismissed as the head coach after a loss to South Carolina.[242] His overall record as head coach was 28–21.[243]
Jim McElwain (2015–present)
On December 4, 2014, former Alabama offensive coordinator and Colorado State head coach Jim McElwain was introduced as Muschamp's replacement.[244] In his first year at Florida, he was the third coach in SEC history (and the first in the SEC East) to go to the SEC championship game in his first year.[245] McElwain, the first Gator coach to win more than nine games in his first year at Florida, finished his first regular season with a 10–2 record.
Uniforms
Jerseys
Florida has worn blue jerseys (usually a variation of royal blue) with white pants at home for most of the program's history. The exception was a decade-long period, beginning with the last home game of the 1979 season, when the Gators switched to orange home jerseys. In 1989, interim head coach Gary Darnell brought back blue jerseys (with orange pants) for the season finale against Florida State. This color combination was not used again until the 1999 season, when the Gators hosted Florida State in the regular-season finale, and in the 2013 Sugar Bowl against Louisville.
Steve Spurrier restored blue jerseys full-time when he was named coach in 1990. Since then the Gators have worn blue jerseys with white pants at home, with blue pants an option for high-profile games. Florida wore white jerseys with blue pants at home once in the 1998 season and twice in 2000. On the road, the team wears traditional white jerseys with blue, white, or orange pants. In 2005, Florida wore blue Nike Revolution football jerseys with an orange left shoulder.[246]
Since 2011, the Gators have primarily worn white jerseys and white pants on the road. They have worn orange pants for one road game per year, and blue pants once in 2013. They wore orange jerseys with white pants for one home game per year from 2010 to 2012, for the 2015 Birmingham Bowl against East Carolina and in 2015 against Vanderbilt, and in 2015 wore orange jerseys and orange pants for home games against East Carolina and Mississippi.
Helmets
Florida has had a number of helmet designs during the program's history. Colors have alternated between orange and white and (occasionally) blue, and logos have included an interlocking "UF", a simple "F", and the player number.[247]
Since 1979 Florida has worn orange helmets with a script "Gators" logo; the only exceptions were three "throwback" games. In 2006, for the 100th-anniversary game against Alabama, Florida wore 1960s throwback uniforms which included white helmets with a simple "F" logo.[248] In 2009 the Gators participated in Nike's Pro Combat uniform campaign, wearing specially-designed blue uniforms and white helmets with a slant-F logo.[249] These uniforms were worn for the last regular-season game against Florida State, and the white helmets were worn again the following week against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game with white jerseys and pants.[250]
Team logos
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Gator helmet logo during the mid-1960s
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Helmet logo since 1979
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Alternate Florida Athletics logo since the late 2000s
Rivalries
Georgia
Previously known as "the world's largest outdoor cocktail party," it is most commonly called the "Florida–Georgia game" by Gator fans. The game is held at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, usually on the last Saturday in October or the first Saturday in November. The designated "home" team alternates, with ticket distribution split evenly between the schools.
In the rivalry's early years, games rotated among locations in Savannah, Georgia, Tampa, Florida, Jacksonville and, occasionally, Gainesville and Athens.[116] Since 1933 the game has been played in Jacksonville, except for 1994 and 1995 (when the teams played a pair of home-and-home games at their respective stadiums).[116]
Georgia dominated the rivalry early, winning the first six games and holding a 21–5–1 series lead before 1950.[116] After the 2014 game Florida had won 20 out of the most-recent 26 games, and holds a 37–28–1 advantage in the series since 1950.[116] The Bulldogs lead the series overall, 49–42–2.[116]
Since 2009, the Okefenokee Oar has been awarded to the winner of the Florida-Georgia game. Florida last received the oar for its 1915 victory.
Tennessee
Although Florida and Tennessee are charter members of the SEC, irregular conference scheduling resulted in the teams meeting infrequently for many years. Tennessee won the first ten games between 1916 and 1954, when Florida finally defeated the Volunteers.[251] In 1969, Florida hired Tennessee head coach (and former Florida quarterback) Doug Dickey to replace the retiring Ray Graves immediately after their teams met in the Gator Bowl.
The rivalry reached a peak as a rivalry during the 1990s. In 1992, the SEC expanded to twelve schools and split into two divisions. Florida and Tennessee (in the Eastern Division) have met every year since, usually in mid-September for both teams' first conference game of the season.[251] Led by coaches Steve Spurrier and Phil Fulmer and featuring players such as Danny Wuerffel and Peyton Manning, both teams were highly ranked and the game had conference- and national-title implications. Florida and Tennessee combined to win two national championships during the decade.
Since becoming annual opponents, the Gators and Volunteers have combined to represent the Eastern Division in the SEC Championship Game fifteen times in twenty seasons. Florida has an eleven-game winning streak against Tennessee and leads the series, 26–19.[251]
Florida State
The University of Florida and the Florida State College for Women became co-educational in 1947. The new Florida State Seminoles football team began playing small colleges, moving up to the major-college ranks in 1955. Almost immediately, Florida State students and supporters called for the teams of Florida's two largest universities to play each other annually.[252]
Contrary to popular belief, Florida's state legislature did not decree that Florida and Florida State should meet on the field; a bill mandating the game was rejected by the Florida Senate. Prodding by Florida governor LeRoy Collins facilitated an agreement between the two universities to begin an annual series in 1958. Due to Florida State's smaller stadium, the first six games were played at Florida Field. The series has alternated between the campuses since 1964, when Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee was expanded. Florida dominated the early series with a 16–2–1 record through 1976. Both teams have produced significant winning streaks, and the series is nearly tied over the past four decades; Florida State holds a 21–18–1 advantage. Florida leads the all-time series, 34–24–2.[253]
The Florida–Florida State game has had national-championship implications since 1990, and both teams have entered the game with top-10 rankings thirteen times. Among these was the Sugar Bowl rematch at the end of the 1996 season, when Florida avenged its only regular-season loss and won its first national championship 52–20.
Louisiana State
Louisiana State and Florida first met on the football field in 1937, and have been annual opponents since 1971.[254] Since 1992, LSU has been Florida's permanent inter-divisional rival from the SEC Western Division. The winner of the Florida–LSU game went on to win the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) national championship game in the 2006, 2007, and 2008 seasons. This rivalry has been known recently for close games, with both teams highly ranked. Florida leads the all-time series, 31–28–3.[254]
Alabama
Although Alabama and Florida are charter members of the SEC, they have never been annual opponents.[255] They have met many times over the years, especially since the SEC Championship Game began in 1992. The Gators and the Crimson Tide have met seven times for the SEC championship.[255] On four occasions, the winner of a Florida-Alabama SEC title game has gone on to win a national championship. In 2008 and 2009, the teams were ranked first and second coming into the game. The second-ranked team won both times (Florida in 2008 and Alabama in 2009), with both conference champions going on to win the BCS National Championship Game. The Gators are tied with Alabama 4–4 in SEC championship games, and Alabama leads the overall series 25–14.[255]
Auburn
Auburn and Florida played annually from 1945 to 2002.[256] In the overall series won-lost record, Auburn is Florida's most evenly-matched SEC opponent. Beginning in the 1980s, one team was usually highly ranked coming into the game and it had conference- and national-title implications.
The series has had several notable upsets. Auburn defeated previously-unbeaten Florida teams in 1993, 1994, 2001, 2006 and 2007, although the Gators won SEC championships in 1993 and 1994.[68]
The annual series ended in 2002, when the SEC adjusted its football schedules so each team played one permanent and two rotating opponents from the opposite SEC division every year (instead of one rotating and two permanent teams). When Texas A&M and Missouri joined the conference in 2012, the schedule was changed again; each team played one permanent and one rotating opponent from the opposite division every year. LSU was designated as Florida's annual SEC Western Division opponent, and Florida and Auburn play two regular-season games every twelve years. Auburn leads the series, 43–38–2.[256]
Miami
Florida and Miami formerly played each other for the Seminole War Canoe Trophy, but they canceled after the 1987 season[257] when Florida's annual SEC schedule expanded to eight games. The teams did not play each other again until the 2001 Sugar Bowl.[257] Florida and Miami played a home-and-home series in 2002 and 2003, and met again in the 2004 Peach Bowl.[257] The Gators won the first leg of a home-and-home series in 2008, ending a six-game losing streak against the Hurricanes.[257] Their 2008 victory against Miami was Florida's only victory against them in the last 30 years. The last scheduled regular-season meeting of the Gators and the Hurricanes was in Miami in 2013, where the Hurricanes won 21–16. They have scheduled the next game to be somewhere in the year of 2019. [258] Miami has a 29–26 lead in the all-time series.[257]
Conference affiliations
- 1906–1911: Independent
- 1912–1921: Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA)
- 1922–1932: Southern Conference (SoCon)
- 1933–present: Southeastern Conference (SEC)
Conference championships
Florida has won a total of eight SEC championships. The Gators won their first championship with a conference record of 5–0–1 in 1984, but the title was vacated several months after the season ended by the SEC university presidents because of NCAA infractions by the Florida coaching staff under Charley Pell. The 1985 and 1990 teams also finished atop the standings with conference records of 5–1 and 6–1, respectively, but Florida was ineligible for the championship due to its NCAA probation for rule violations by previous coaching staffs. The Gators won their first official SEC football championship in 1991.
| Season | Conference | Coach | Overall | Conference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | SEC | Steve Spurrier | 10–2 | 7–0 |
| 1993 | SEC | Steve Spurrier | 11–2 | 7–1 |
| 1994 | SEC | Steve Spurrier | 10–2–1 | 7–1 |
| 1995 | SEC | Steve Spurrier | 12–1 | 8–0 |
| 1996 | SEC | Steve Spurrier | 12–1 | 8–0 |
| 2000 | SEC | Steve Spurrier | 10–3 | 7–1 |
| 2006 | SEC | Urban Meyer | 13–1 | 7–1 |
| 2008 | SEC | Urban Meyer | 13–1 | 7–1 |
| Conference championships | 8 | |||
Conference division championships
With the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina to the Southeastern Conference in 1992, the conference split into eastern and western divisions and a game between the division winners determined the SEC champion. Florida has made eleven appearances in the SEC Championship Game (the most by any SEC school), its most recent in 2015. The Gators have won seven of the eleven SEC Championship Games in which they have appeared.
| Season | Division | CG Result | Opponent | PF | PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992† | SEC Eastern | Loss | Alabama | 21 | 28 |
| 1993 | SEC Eastern | Win | Alabama | 28 | 13 |
| 1994 | SEC Eastern | Win | Alabama | 24 | 23 |
| 1995 | SEC Eastern | Win | Arkansas | 34 | 3 |
| 1996 | SEC Eastern | Win | Alabama | 45 | 30 |
| 1999 | SEC Eastern | Loss | Alabama | 7 | 34 |
| 2000 | SEC Eastern | Win | Auburn | 28 | 6 |
| 2003† | SEC Eastern | – | – | – | – |
| 2006 | SEC Eastern | Win | Arkansas | 38 | 28 |
| 2008 | SEC Eastern | Win | Alabama | 31 | 20 |
| 2009 | SEC Eastern | Loss | Alabama | 13 | 32 |
| 2012† | SEC Eastern | – | – | – | – |
| 2015 | SEC Eastern | Loss | Alabama | 15 | 29 |
| Totals | 13 | 7–4 | – | 274 | 246 |
† In 1992, the Gators finished the season tied with Georgia for the SEC East; however, Florida had defeated Georgia and won the tie-breaker to represent the division in the 1992 SEC Championship Game. In 2003 Florida ended the regular season in a three-way tie for the SEC East title with Georgia and Tennessee, and in 2012 the Gators were tied with Georgia. According to the SEC's tie-breaking procedure, Georgia was selected to represent the division in the 2003 SEC Championship Game and 2012 SEC Championship Game.
Yearly records
Florida's season records are from the record books of the university's athletic association. Through 2013, the Gators compiled an overall record of 684 wins, 395 losses, and 40 ties (including post-season bowl games).[68]
All-time record against SEC teams
| Opponent | Won | Lost | Tied | Percentage | Streak | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 14 | 25 | 0 | .359 | Lost 5 | 1916 | 2015[255] |
| Arkansas | 9 | 1 | 0 | .900 | Won 9 | 1982 | 2013[259] |
| Auburn | 38 | 43 | 2 | .470 | Lost 3 | 1912 | 2011[256] |
| Georgia | 42 | 49 | 2 | .462 | Won 2 | 1915 | 2015[116] |
| Kentucky | 48 | 17 | 0 | .734 | Won 29 | 1917 | 2015[260][261] |
| LSU | 31 | 28 | 3 | .524 | Lost 3 | 1937 | 2015[254] |
| Mississippi State | 33 | 19 | 2 | .630 | Lost 1 | 1923 | 2010[262] |
| Missouri | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | Won 1 | 1966 | 2015[263] |
| Ole Miss | 11 | 12 | 1 | .479 | Won 1 | 1926 | 2015[264] |
| South Carolina | 25 | 8 | 3 | .736 | Won 1 | 1911 | 2015[265] |
| Tennessee | 26 | 19 | 0 | .578 | Won 11 | 1916 | 2015[251] |
| Texas A&M | 2 | 1 | 0 | .667 | Won 2 | 1962 | 2012[266] |
| Vanderbilt | 37 | 10 | 2 | .776 | Won 2 | 1945 | 2015[267] |
| Totals | 318 | 235 | 15 | .573 |
Against in-state rivals
| Opponent | Won | Lost | Tied | Percentage | Streak | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | 34 | 24 | 2 | .583 | Lost 3 | 1958 | 2015[268] |
| Miami | 26 | 29 | 0 | .473 | Lost 1 | 1938 | 2013[257] |
| Totals | 60 | 53 | 2 | .530 |
Bowl games
The Gators have appeared in 42 NCAA-sanctioned bowl games, winning 21 and losing 21. This includes a streak of 22 consecutive bowl-game appearances from 1991 through 2012, the fifth-longest in college football history.[269]
† The University Athletic Association does not recognize the 1912 Bacardi Bowl as part of the Gators' bowl record.
National championships
| Year | Coach | Selector | Record | Bowl | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Steve Spurrier | AP, Coaches | 12–1 | Sugar Bowl (Bowl Alliance National Championship Game) | Florida State | W 52–20 |
| 2006 | Urban Meyer | BCS, AP | 13–1 | BCS National Championship Game | Ohio State | W 41–14 |
| 2008 | Urban Meyer | BCS, AP | 13–1 | BCS National Championship Game | Oklahoma | W 24–14 |
| Total: | 3 | |||||
The 1996, 2006 and 2008 Gators were ranked number one in the final AP and Coaches Polls, and were recognized as consensus national champions after winning postseason national-championship games.[270] Although the 1984 Gators finished third in the final AP Poll and seventh in the final UPI Coaches Poll, they were recognized as national champions by The Sporting News, The New York Times and the Billingsley, DeVold, Dunkel, FACT, Matthews, and Jeff Sagarin rankings. The 1984 Brigham Young Cougars, ranked number one in the final AP and UPI Coaches Polls, were recognized as consensus national champions.[271] Florida, ranked fifth in the final 1985 AP Poll, was recognized as national champion by a minor selector.[272]
Individual award winners
|
|
College Football Hall of Fame members
Twelve people associated with the Gators have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, including three former head coaches and nine former players:
| Name | Position | Florida years | Inducted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Alvarez | Wide receiver | 1969–71 | 2011[275] |
| Charlie Bachman | Coach | 1928–32 | 1978[276] |
| Wes Chandler | Wide receiver | 1974–77 | 2015 |
| Doug Dickey | Coach | 1970–78 | 2003[277] |
| Ray Graves | Coach | 1960–69 | 1990[278] |
| Marcelino Huerta | Coach | 1947–49 | 2002[279] |
| Wilber Marshall | Linebacker | 1980–83 | 2008[280] |
| Emmitt Smith | Running back | 1987–89 | 2006[281] |
| Steve Spurrier | Quarterback | 1963–66 | 1986[282] |
| Dale Van Sickel | End | 1927–29 | 1975[75] |
| Danny Wuerffel | Quarterback | 1993–96 | 2013[283] |
| Jack Youngblood | Defensive end | 1967–70 | 1992[284] |
Doug Dickey, the Gators' quarterback in 1951 and 1952, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003 for his record as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers from 1964 to 1969 and the Gators from 1970 to 1978.[277] Steve Spurrier was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 for his record as the Gators' Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from 1964 to 1966.[282] Marcelino Huerta, a standout Gator lineman from 1947 to 1949, was inducted in 2002 for his record as head coach of the Tampa Spartans, Wichita State Shockers and Parson Wildcats.[279]
All-Americans
Since the Gators' first season in 1906, eighty-nine players have received one or more selections as first-team All-Americans.[68] This includes thirty-one consensus All-Americans, of which six were unanimous.[285] The first Florida first-team All-American was end Dale Van Sickel, a member of the 1928 team.[286] Florida's first consensus All-American was quarterback Steve Spurrier, the winner of the Heisman Trophy for the 1966 Gators.[68][287]
SEC Legends
Since 1994, the Southeastern Conference has annually designated one former football player from each SEC member school as an "SEC Legend." Through 2012, the following twenty Gators have been SEC Legends:
Fergie Ferguson Award
The Fergie Ferguson Award is given in memory of one of the University of Florida's finest athletes, Forest K. Ferguson. Ferguson was an All-SEC end for the Gators in 1941 and state boxing champion in 1942. Subsequently a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, he led an infantry platoon during the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944.[288] Ferguson helped clear the way for his troops to advance on the Axis position, and was severely wounded leading his men in the assault.[288] A recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions,[288] he died from war-related injuries in 1954. The award, a trophy, is given to the senior football player who most displays "leadership, character, and courage."[289]
Ring of Honor
Unlike other college and professional sports teams, the Gators do not currently have any retired jersey numbers. Although Steve Spurrier's (11) and Scot Brantley's (55) numbers were once retired, Spurrier reissued them as head coach.
The Gator Football Ring of Honor, Florida's alternative to retiring a player's number, pays homage to former players and coaches. The University of Florida Athletic Association]] created the Ring of Honor in 2006 to commemorate 100 years of Florida football. Jerseys with numbers worn by Wilber Marshall, Emmitt Smith, Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, and Jack Youngblood are displayed on the facade of the north end zone of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium; their numbers are used by current players.[290]
| Name | Position | No. | Florida years | Inducted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilber Marshall | Linebacker | 88 | 1980–83 | 2007 |
| Emmitt Smith | Running back | 22 | 1987–89 | 2006 |
| Steve Spurrier | Quarterback | 11 | 1964–66, 1990–2001 | 2006 |
| Danny Wuerffel | Quarterback | 7 | 1993–96 | 2006 |
| Jack Youngblood | Defensive end | 74 | 1967–70 | 2006 |
To be considered for induction into the Ring of Honor, a former player or coach must be absent from the university for five seasons, be in good standing, and meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Heisman Trophy winner (Spurrier, Wuerffel)
- Former All-Americans inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as players (Smith, Youngblood)
- Former All-Americans who are NFL career category leaders (Smith)
- College-career category leaders
- Coaches with one or more national championship (Spurrier)
- Coaches with three or more SEC championships (Spurrier)
- Players with two or more consensus All-America honors who were also named national offensive or defensive player of the year (Marshall)
All-Time teams
A University of Florida All-Time Team was compiled by the Florida Alumnus, the official publication of the Florida alumni, in 1927.[291]
|
First team |
Second team |
Another University of Florida all-time team was chosen by the Miami Herald according to a fan vote in August 1983.
|
First Team Offense First Team Defense |
Second Team Offense Second Team Defense |
All-Century Team
The Florida Gators All-Century Team, chosen by Gator fans, was compiled by The Gainesville Sun in the fall of 1999.
|
First Team Offense |
Second Team Offense |
100th-Anniversary Team
The 100th-Anniversary Gator Team was selected in 2006 to celebrate a century of Florida football. Fans voted by mail and online.
|
Offense |
Defense |
Gators in the National Football League
A number of former Florida Gators have played in the National Football League (NFL), beginning in the 1920s. They include defensive lineman Jack Youngblood and running back Emmitt Smith, both of whom were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Coaching staff
The current head coach of the Gators is Jim McElwain, and the 2015 season was his first with the team. McElwain replaced Will Muschamp after the 2014 regular season and bowl game. McElwain's coordinators and assistant coaches are:
| Name | Responsibilities | Joined |
|---|---|---|
| Jim McElwain | Head coach | 2015 |
| Doug Nussmeier | Offensive coordinator, quarterbacks | 2015 |
| Geoff Collins | Defensive coordinator | 2015 |
| Greg Nord | Special teams, tight ends | 2015 |
| Kerry Dixon II | Wide receivers | 2015 |
| Randy Shannon | Associate head coach, linebackers | 2015 |
| Mike Summers | Offensive line | 2014 |
| Torrian Gray | Defensive backs | 2016 |
| Tim Skipper | Running backs | 2015 |
| Chris Rumph | Defensive line | 2015 |
| Mike Kent | Strength and conditioning coach | 2015 |
| [292] |
Future opponents
Non-division opponents
Florida plays Louisiana State (LSU) (a non-division opponent) annually; with the other six SEC Western Division teams rotated on a six-year cycle, Florida plays every Western Division team once every six years (twice every twelve years) with alternating home and away games.[293]
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LSU | at LSU | vs LSU | at LSU | vs LSU | at LSU | vs LSU | at LSU | vs LSU | at LSU |
| at Arkansas | vs Texas A&M | at MSU | vs Auburn | at Ole Miss | vs Alabama | at Texas A&M | vs Arkansas | at Auburn | vs MSU |
Non-conference opponents
Announced schedules as of October 7, 2015[294]
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs UMass September 3 |
vs Michigan at Arlington, TX. September 2 |
vs Colorado State September 15 |
vs Florida State November 30 |
at Florida State November 28 |
| vs North Texas September 17 |
vs Florida State November 25 |
at Florida State November 24 |
vs Miami (FL) (Orlando, FL) August 31 |
|
| vs Presbyterian November 19 |
vs UAB November 18 |
vs Idaho TBA |
||
| at Florida State November 26 |
See also
- Florida Gators
- History of the University of Florida
- List of University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame members
- University Athletic Association
Notes
- ↑ The NCAA records for "consensus" All-Americans do not reflect the total number of All-American honors received by Gators football players, only those players who received a majority of the various first-team All-American selections at their position in any given season. The Gators' first consensus All-American was quarterback Steve Spurrier in 1966; the thirty-second and most recent was cornerback Vernon Hargreaves in 2015.[1]
- ↑ The University of Florida would not accept its first black student until 1958, and would not become fully integrated racially until the 1960s.[3]
- ↑ It was Mike Donahue's first season at Auburn and John Heisman's first season at Georgia Tech.
- ↑ In 1903, Bridges at Cumberland and Forsythe at Clemson tied in the first organized Southern championship game.[12] Forsythe was the only one on Heisman's Clemson teams to spend every minute of his career on the field.[12]
- ↑ Just half a contest was played, against Julia Landon Institute of Jacksonville.[15]
- ↑ The team picture is captioned "Champions of Florida '07".
- ↑ 1909 is the last season in which Stetson claims a state championship.[20]
- ↑ The first game was played under the so-called "old rules" that existed before the American football reforms of 1906. In that game, Florida defeated the Vedado Tennis Club, 28–0.[28] Five days later Florida played the Cuban Athletic Club of Havana, ostensibly under new rules.[29]
- ↑ Rex Farrior became a name partner in a prominent Tampa law firm with 1910 quarterback Bob Shackleford, and remained one of the biggest boosters of the Gators sports program until his death.
- ↑ Namely end Ferdinand H. Duncan, halfback Ark Newton, tackle Arthur Doty, fullback Ray C. Dickson, and end Lloyd Hockenstadt.[43]
- ↑ According to the F Club, the university's lettermen's association.[46] Perry is also the namesake of the university's baseball stadium: Perry Field.
- ↑ En route, the team met then-President Warren Harding in Washington, D. C.[51]
- ↑ Van Fleet was an active duty U.S. Army officer who was also the senior officer of the university's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. As a regimental commander, he participated in the D-Day landings in Normandy, France during World War II, and later became a division and corps commander under General George Patton. During the Korean War, Van Fleet commanded the U.S. Eighth Army, following Douglas MacArthur and Matthew Ridgway. He retired as a four-star general in 1953
- ↑ Vanderbilt, where Wade had coach previously, thus won the conference.
- ↑ Newton, captain and tackle Robbie Robinson, and guard Goldy Goldstein were the first Gators to make the composite All-Southern team.[62] Newton, Goldstein, and lineman Cy Williams were among the first Gators to play professional football, as teammates with the Newark Bears of the fledgling American Football League
- ↑ Sebring was a student at the University of Florida College of Law while serving as the Gators' coach. He later was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court.
- ↑ Jones played a nine-game season, and the record stood until 1969 when sophomore fullback Tommy Durrance broke it by scoring 110 points during an eleven-game season.
- ↑ Sebring later became a circuit court judge and chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
- ↑ Just before Rockne died in a plane crash, he vacationed in Florida and spoke with Bachman.[72]
- ↑ John McEwan coached Oregon, who had been Army's coach during the Van Fleet era.
- ↑ Tigert was All-Southern in 1903.
- ↑ Mayberry was also the first Gator ever chosen in the NFL Draft, though he never played professionally.
- ↑ Gator Paul Duhart was drafted second overall, after Trippi, in the 1945 NFL Draft, the highest a Gator has ever been taken.
- ↑ LaPradd became a football coach at FSU and then president of St. John's River Community College in Palatka.[119]
- ↑ The NCAA embraced a set of new rules requiring the use of the one-platoon system, primarily due to financial reasons. The system allowed only one player to be substituted between plays, which effectively put an end to the use of separate specialized units. Tennessee's coach Neyland praised the change as the end of "chickenshit football"[120]
- ↑ Steve Spurrier led the Gators to seventy-three wins from 1990 to 1996, and ultimately won a total of 122 games as the Gators' head coach from 1990 to 2001.
- ↑ Coach Ray Graves' Gators football teams of the 1960s produced fifteen first-team All-Americans. From 1906 to 1959, the Gators only had five players who received first-team All-American honors.
- ↑ Including Red Bethea's single-game yardage record in a 23–14 upset of Alabama in 1987.[182]
- ↑ Tony George memorably returned an interception 88 yards for a score.[205] Peyton Manning went on to be the first overall pick in the NFL Draft and break numerous NFL records, but ended his career without a win against Florida.
- ↑ Spurrier had returned to the college ranks at South Carolina
References
- ↑ NCAA Football Award Winners, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis, Indiana, pp. 7–13 (2015).
- ↑ "UF Identity Style Guide". University of Florida. March 2016. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
- 1 2 3 See Michael DiRocco, "Generations of inspiration: The first black football players at UF remain an inspiration to others," ESPN (February 24, 2012). Retrieved September 20, 2012.
- ↑ "A History of Stetson Football" (PDF).
- 1 2 Kabat, pp. 23–33
- ↑ e. g. "Pinakidias". p. 73.
- ↑ James P. Jones. "F. S. U. ONE TIME A HISTORY OF SEMINOLE FOOTBALL". p. vi.
- 1 2 3 4 5 McEwen, pp. 20–30
- ↑ Bill Chastain. The Steve Spurrier Story. p. 23.
- ↑ "America's Lost Colleges". America's Lost Colleges.
- ↑ McEwen, pp. 30–34
- 1 2 Wiley Lee Umphlett. Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football. p. 67.
- ↑ University Athletic Association / IMG College copyright 2015. "Gator Memories - Henry Buckman Starts UF". gatorzone.com.
- 1 2 "University of Florida History". Archived from the original on December 27, 2008.
- 1 2 McEwen, pp. 36–37
- ↑ Carlson, Norm (September 14, 2009). "Gator talk: History lesson". Gatorzone.com. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
- ↑ Carlson, p. 38
- ↑ McEwen, p. 39
- ↑ McCarthy, p. 13
- ↑ see Stetson University Athletics. "ISSUU - 2013 Stetson Football by Stetson University Athletics". Issuu.
- 1 2 3 College Football Data Warehouse, All-Time Coaching Records, G.E. Pyle Records by Year. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
- ↑ MIKE McCALL, Alligator Staff Writer (4 September 2009). "Worth Repeating: Gators hope to reprise title run". The Independent Florida Alligator.
- ↑ "Sports: 100 things about 100 years of Gator football".
- ↑ The Times-Union (September 1, 2006). "10 top 10 lists". Retrieved April 17, 2015.
- ↑ Champions of the South regardless of conference affiliation
- ↑ Greg Roza, Football in the SEC (Southeastern Conference), p. 1, 2007, ISBN 1-4042-1919-6.
- 1 2 Antonya English, "100 things about 100 years of Gator football," St. Petersburg Times (August 27, 2006). Retrieved March 1, 2010.
- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, 1912 Game by Game Record. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
- 1 2 Floyd Conner, Football's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of the Great Game's Outrageous Characters, Fortunate Fumbles, and Other Oddities, Brassey's, Dulles, Virginia, pp. 191–192 (2000). Retrieved March 1, 2010.
- ↑ "Football Row in Havana; Florida University Students Hooted for Breaking Up Game," The New York Times, p. S1 (December 29, 1912). Retrieved July 31, 2010.
- ↑ Robbie Andreu. "No. 74 FLORIDA 144, FLORIDA SOUTHERN 0".
- ↑ McEwen, p. 56
- ↑ McEwen, p. 58
- 1 2 Joey Johnston, "Tampa Bay's All-Century Team: No. 98 Rammy Ramsdell," The Tampa Tribune (September 22, 1999). Retrieved October 2, 2011.
- ↑ "Making His Mark". tribunedigital-orlandosentinel.
- ↑ McEwen, p. 60
- ↑ McEwen, p. 62
- ↑ "Florida Put Out 14-3, by Stiehm Men". The Indianapolis Star. November 19, 1916. p. 33. Retrieved August 23, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Joe Dalton (October 17, 1917). "'Gators Smash Carolina Defense And Win Brilliant 21-13 Victory". The Florida Alligator 6 (4).
- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, All-Time Coaching Records, Alfred Leo "Al" Buser Records by Year. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
- ↑ "Florida Outclassed In Every Stage of the Game". The Southern 2 (6). November 6, 1919.
- ↑ McEwen, p. 74
- ↑ see "Typescript of a "History of the University of Florida" by Klein Graham". ufl.edu.
- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, All-Time Coaching Records, William G. Kline Records By Year. Retrieved February 10, 2010.
- ↑ Spalding's Football Guide. p. 89.
- ↑ see e. g. "Scribes Are Finding Material Plentiful For All-Star Machines". Atlanta Constitution. November 29, 1921. p. 12. Retrieved March 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- 1 2 The Seminole 1922, Vol. XII (UF yearbook), p. 141.
- ↑ "Tootie Ready For Welcome: Gators' "Water Boy" Will Be First to Greet New Florida Coach". Sarasota Herald. January 31, 1928. p. 3.
- ↑ Associated Press, "Hurry 'Tootie!'," The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune, p. 6 (November 3, 1932). Retrieved October 3, 2014 (subscription required).
- 1 2 The Seminole 1923, Vol. XIII (UF yearbook), p. 94–98
- ↑ see "Harvard Is Held To 24 Points Only Ten After First Quarter". Florida Alligator. November 5, 1922.
- ↑ Newton, Virgil M. (September 19, 1923). "'Ark' Newton Ready To Go". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved March 12, 2015 – via Google news.
- ↑ see "Teams Selected By Various Scribes". Atlanta Constitution. December 3, 1922. p. 5. Retrieved March 7, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Norton, Pete (December 23, 1934). "Sport Outlook". St. Petersburg Times.
- 1 2 McEwen, p. 78
- ↑ http://floridagators.com/news/2006/8/10/10739.aspx
- ↑ Brett Weisband (June 5, 2015). "A Brief History of the Southeastern Conference".
- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Florida Yearly Results: 1920–1924. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
- ↑ Pete Norton (December 23, 1934). "Sport Outlook". St. Petersburg Times.
- ↑ "Surprises of South Upset Title Dope". The Monroe News-Star. November 30, 1923. p. 7. Retrieved August 21, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "Gators Trounce Alabama In Titular Grid Contest". The Evening Independent. November 30, 1923. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
- ↑
"All Star Eleven To Be Awarded By Atlanta Paper". Times-Picayune. December 9, 1923. (password-protected) - ↑ McEwen, p. 76
- ↑ McEwen, p. 81
- ↑ "Alligators Surprised By Ferocious Bruins". Mercer Cluster (8). November 21, 1924.
- ↑ McCarthy, p. 22
- ↑ "All Southern Grid Team Compiled By The Associated Press". Kingsport Times. November 30, 1925.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 89–95, 116–126, 129–130, 131–132, 152 (2011). Retrieved March 11, 2012.
- ↑ "Crippled Gators To Meet Kentucky Wildcats Today". Evening Independent. October 23, 1926.
- ↑ "[No title]". The Anniston Star. October 8, 1927. p. 2. Retrieved September 4, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- 1 2 McEwen, pp. 84–85
- ↑ Rick Plumlee (September 26, 1999). "Kansas Ties To Notre Dame Go Beyond Rockne Crash Scene". Chicago Tribune. p. 2.
- 1 2 College Football Data Warehouse, Florida Yearly Results: 1925–1929. Retrieved August 20, 2009.
- 1 2 Golenbock, p. 3
- 1 2 College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Dale Van Sickel. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ↑ "All Southern Selections". The Kingsport Times. December 7, 1928. Retrieved August 17, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ McEwen, p. 98
- ↑ "Dope Upset As Vols Win 13-12 In Fast Game". Anniston Star. December 9, 1928. Retrieved July 24, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "Coach Meyer: Here's a primer on rivalry vs. UT". Gatorsports.com. September 13, 2005. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
- ↑ Rex Saffer, "Crabtree Leads Gators to Victory Over Oregon," St. Petersburg Times, p. 1 (December 8, 1929). Retrieved April 9, 2010.
- ↑ Associated Press, "Florida Eleven to Seek First Grid Victory on Foreign Soil in Chicago Next Saturday," The Independent, p. 5 (October 16, 1930). Retrieved September 28, 2015.
- ↑ Associated Press, "Red Bethea Better Than All Chicago Backfield In Play," Sarasota Herald, p. 8 (October 21, 1930)
- 1 2 McEwen, p. 104
- 1 2 Golenbock, p. 6
- ↑ College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Charlie Bachman Member Biography. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
- ↑ http://floridagators.com/news/2011/12/25/22019.aspx
- ↑ "Tigert understood the significance of sports". Gainesville.com.
- ↑ Carlson, p. 41
- ↑ Pleasants, Julian M., Gator Tales: An Oral History of the University of Florida, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (2006)
- 1 2 McEwen, pp. 108–110
- 1 2 3 "Josh Cody, Big Man on Campus". ClemsonTigers.com.
- ↑ Edwin Pope, Football's Greatest Coaches, p. 341 (1955). Retrieved March 8, 2015 via Archive.org.
- ↑ "Versatility, Great Power Represented". The Monroe News-Star. December 3, 1937. p. 10. Retrieved May 26, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Maxwell Stiles (February 1938). "The 1937 All-Sig Ep Football Team". Sigma Phi Epsilon Journal: 192–195.
- ↑ Associated Press, "Florida Beats Boston College On First-Period Touchdown," The New York Times, p. 31 (October 12, 1939). Retrieved October 2, 2014.
- 1 2 Associated Press, "Lieb Named Florida Grid Mentor: Former Irish Coach Signs For 3 Years," St. Petersburg Times, p. 1 (April 1, 1940). Retrieved March 18, 2010.
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- ↑ Golenbock, p. 179
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- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Florida Yearly Results: 1965–1969. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
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- 1 2 Heisman.com, Heisman Winners, 1966 – 32nd Award: Steve Spurrier. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
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- ↑ "Gators Spring Trapp, Upset Georgia, 17-16". Chicago Tribune. November 12, 1967.
- ↑ For an account of Durrance's record-breaking season, see Franz Beard, "Tommy Durrance: A Great Gator, A Better Man," Gator Country.com (July 22, 2005). Retrieved September 9, 2009.
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- 1 2 3 College Football Data Warehouse, All-Time Coaching Records, Doug Dickey Records by Year. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
- 1 2 Mick Elliott, "Meyer Isn't Looking Back at History of Florida-Miami Rivalry," The Tampa Tribune (September 2, 2008). Retrieved June 9, 2010.
- 1 2 Joanne Korth, "Florida-Miami: a rivalry revisited," St. Petersburg Times (December 28, 2000). Retrieved June 9, 2010.
- 1 2 Jack Hairston, Tales from the Gator Swamp, Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois, pp. 84–90 (2002).
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- ↑ see "COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Emmitt Smith Rushes for 224 Yards; Gators Upset Alabama, 23-14". latimes.
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- ↑ Inside Florida Football
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- ↑ "Steve Spurrier says early '90s wins over Alabama 'got us started there at Florida'". AL.com.
- ↑ "Gators' streak vs. 'Cats filled with close calls". Gatorsports.com.
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- ↑ Associated Press, "Auburn's Defense Stops Florida When It Counts," The New York Times (October 17, 1993). Retrieved August 17, 2011.
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- ↑ Rick Warner, "Undefeated Auburn swamps No. 1 Florida, 36–33," The Sunday Gazette, pp. 1E & 6E (October 16, 1994). Retrieved August 17, 2011.
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- ↑ bencornfield. "Peyton Manning never beat Florida". GatorCountry.com.
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- ↑ "1997 Game Recap / Allstate Sugar Bowl".
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- ↑ Andy Hutchins (27 May 2012). "Florida Football 2012 100 For 100, No. 97: Remember 1997, And The Greatest Game Ever Played In The Swamp". Alligator Army.
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- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Steve Spurrier Records by Year: 2000. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
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- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Steve Spurrier Records by Year: 2001. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
- ↑ "USATODAY.com - Florida coach Spurrier resigns, could leap to NFL".
- ↑ "NFL Redskins hire Steve Spurrier as highest-paid coach in pro football".
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- ↑ Doug Alden, "Urban Meyer jilts Notre Dame, heads for Florida," USA Today (December 23, 2004). Retrieved March 23, 2010.
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- ↑ "Consensus All-America Teams (2000–2009)". College Football at Sports-Reference.com.
- ↑ "UF's Urban Meyer Steps Down as Head Football Coach," GatorZone.com (December 26, 2009). Retrieved December 12, 2010.
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- ↑ Stewart Mandel, "Meyer was undoubtedly great, but Florida will survive without him," Sports Illustrated (December 8, 2012). Retrieved December 1, 2012.
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- 1 2 Scott Carter, "One-Time Gainesville Native Will Muschamp Returns To Coach Florida Gators," Gatorzone.com (December 11, 2010). Retrieved December 12, 2010.
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- ↑ "Florida's Jim McElwain becomes first coach to win SEC East in first year". AlligatorArmy.com.
- ↑ UniformCritics.com, Photos of 2005 Florida Gators Orange Shoulder Jersey. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
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- ↑ UniformCritics.com, Photos of 2006 Florida Gators Throwback Uniform. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
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- 1 2 3 College Football Data Warehouse, Florida vs. Auburn. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 College Football Data Warehouse, Florida vs. Miami. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
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- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Florida vs. Arkansas. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Florida vs. Kentucky. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
- ↑ Can the Wildcats stop being Gator bait?
- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Florida vs. Mississippi St. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Florida vs. Missouri. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
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- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, Florida vs. South Carolina. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
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- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, 1996 National Championships. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
- ↑ College Football Data Warehouse, 1984 National Championships. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
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- ↑ Heisman.com, Heisman Winners, 1996 – 62nd Award: Danny Wuerffel. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
- ↑ Heisman.com, Heisman Winners, 2007 – 73rd Award: Tim Tebow. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
- ↑ College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Carlos Alvarez. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ↑ College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Charlie Bachman. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- 1 2 College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Doug Dickey. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- ↑ College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Ray Graves. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- 1 2 College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Marcelino Huerta. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
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- ↑ College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Emmitt Smith. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
- 1 2 College Football Hall of Fame, Hall of Famers, Steve Spurrier. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
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- 1 2 3 Hall of Valor, Forest Ferguson, Military Times. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
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Bibliography
- 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida (2015).
- Carlson, Norm (2007). University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators. Atlanta, Georgia: Whitman Publishing, LLC. ISBN 0-7948-2298-3.
- Golenbock, Peter (2002). Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory. St. Petersburg, Florida: Legends Publishing, LLC. ISBN 0-9650782-1-3.
- Hairston, Jack, Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told, Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). ISBN 1-58261-514-4.
- Kabat, Ric A. (July 1991). "Before the Seminoles: Football at Florida State College, 1902–1904". Florida Historical Quarterly' 70 (1). Retrieved November 30, 2010.
- McCarthy, Kevin M (2000). Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football. Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-0559-6.
- McEwen, Tom (1974). The Gators: A Story of Florida Football. Huntsville, Alabama: The Strode Publishers. ISBN 0-87397-025-X.
- Nash, Noel, ed., The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football, Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois (1998). ISBN 1-57167-196-X.
- Proctor, Samuel, & Wright Langley, Gator History: A Pictorial History of the University of Florida, South Star Publishing Company, Gainesville, Florida (1986). ISBN 0-938637-00-2.
External links
- FloridaGators.com – Official website of the Florida Gators football team
- GatorSports.com – Florida Gators football news from The Gainesville Sun
- Playerfilter.com – Statistics of Florida Gators alumni in the NFL
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