Dooley’s Dozen: 12 seasons Florida began unranked and overachieved

Here are Pat Dooley’s 12 overachieving seasons throughout Florida football’s history.

Sometimes when you are trying to look something up, another thing jumps up and smacks you right in the face.

In this case, I was looking to see when was the last time Florida started a season unranked in both football and basketball (never finished that project, but I will).

And what was startling was that – if we assume the Gators won’t be ranked when the first Associated Press poll comes out – this will be the fifth time this century Florida will be unranked to start a season and the fourth time in the last nine years.

That last stat is mind-boggling, but it also shows what happens when you go through so many coaches in a short time.

But we will take this in a positive direction and Dooley’s Dozen will tell you some stories about teams at Florida who were not ranked in the preseason but overachieved their way to a nice season.