Tag: Charlie Pell

Florida football’s first SEC championship team to be honored

Florida will feature its OG championship team this weekend for homecoming against Kentucky. If you know, you know.

Florida football’s original Southeastern Conference championship team will be inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium this weekend when the Gators host the Kentucky Wildcats for this year’s homecoming game.

“We are excited to welcome the 1984 Gators football team back to campus for the Kentucky game and homecoming weekend,” UF athletic director Scott Stricklin offered before the start of the 2024 season.

“It will be a wonderful opportunity to recognize them for their special accomplishments while allowing them the opportunity to reconnect with their teammates and friends.”

Of course, long-time fans of the Orange and Blue will recall that the 1984 squad went 9-1-1 that fall with a season-opening loss to the Miami Hurricanes in Tampa along with a tie in Week 2 with the LSU Tigers at home. Florida then ran off nine-straight victories including five total wins against Southeastern Conference foes.

The season was anything but smooth sailing, however, with head coach [autotag]Charlie Pell[/autotag] dismissed after the first three games as NCAA violations swirled around his program. Offensive coordinator [autotag]Galen Hall[/autotag], who was not implicated in the scandal, took the reins as the interim skipper and went 8-0 to finish the campaign.

Six months after beating Kentucky for that fifth SEC win in six tries, the league voted to strip the conference title due to the NCAA violations committed under Pell. Suffice it to say, this remains an open wound for both the Gator Nation and the players at the time.

The 1984 team may have been the best

Many, in fact, believe that squad stands alongside the best ever in Gainesville, including wide receiver [autotag]Ricky Nattiel[/autotag].

“I can compare that team to any team that has played at Florida, and there have been some good ones, no question,” Nattiel said. “There was a lot of NFL talent on that team. I’m being biased, but at the same time, I’m being realistic — that team is one of the best teams to ever play at the University of Florida on sheer talent alone.”

Offensive lineman Billy Hinson also added to the lore of the special season.

“The term ‘wait till next year’ started with us. It started with the Gators,” Hinson offered. “We had a lot of talent on that team, but what was missing was that intangible, that connectedness, and it all came together in that Kentucky game when we knew our backs were against the wall and this was our chance to win.”

However, that was a long time ago — 40 years, in fact — and many people are oblivious to what that Florida team accomplished in the mid-80s.

“I think a lot of that history has been forgotten. We were undefeated in the SEC. Through the probation and all the allegations that were happening at the time, it was just a wonderful experience for our team. A lot of things transpired after that, but at that time, that Kentucky game was definitely the highlight of our career.”

Coming up for the Gators

The Gators host the Wildcats inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19, for this year’s homecoming game. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

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Comparing Billy Napier to Florida’s other first year head coaches throughout history

Here’s a laundry list of every Florida football head coach’s first season dating all the way back to Jack Forsythe in 1906.

Billy Napier’s first season at the helm of the Florida Gators football program was not quite as successful on the field as most had hoped, but keeping in mind both the turnover of talent as well as what remained after the departure of [autotag]Dan Mullen[/autotag], the first-year head coach dealt with some significant challenges on the sidelines last fall.

Over the course of history, the debut campaign for new head coaches has been a bit of a crap shoot, with some like [autotag]Steve Spurrier[/autotag] getting off to strong starts to their tenure while others like [autotag]Charlie Pell[/autotag] starting off at rock-bottom. Much of their successes — or lack thereof — were dependent upon the strength of the roster left by the previous staff but there are also other variables in play as well.

Below is a look at every single first-year head coach of Florida’s football program dating back to Jack Forsythe, who kicked things off in Gainesville way back in 1906. This list should give the reader a good data set with which to compare the Gators’ current skipper to those of the past.

How the last 10 first-year Florida football head coaches performed

Take a look at the history Billy Napier is up against next season.

The departure of Dan Mullen from Florida football in 2021 marked the end of the tenth head coaching tenure in Gainesville since 1960. Now, former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns skipper Billy Napier has taken the helm of the Gators facing an uphill battle in his debut campaign as the team looks to move on from the debacle of this past season.

Over the years, the turnover on the sideline has happened for a myriad of reasons, from simple retirement to embarrassing scandals that rocked the entire athletic program. Each time the head coach was replaced, the newcomer faced a slew of various challenges with some benefitting from the previous regime’s roster more than others.

Below is a breakdown of how the last 10 first-year head coaches fared after taking the reins of the team dating back over 60 years. Some of the names included ring immortal in the hallowed halls of the Swamp while others are ones the Gator Nation would prefer to forget. Here is a look at the history Napier and his staff are up against in 2022.

Note: All rankings are via AP Poll and records courtesy of Sports Reference.

Florida Gators 1979 football squad was among the worst in recent history

In a list from The Athletic ranking the 25 least dominant teams over the last 50 years, UF’s 0-10-1 team was ranked No. 25.

For the better part of the last three decades, Florida has been at the forefront of the college football world. Aside from a brief dip in the early 2000’s and a bigger decline during most of the 2010s, the Gators have been one of the preeminent programs in the nation.

But if you go back prior to Steve Spurrier’s hiring taking the team to another level, the school saw many seasons of frustration, none more so than in 1979. In a list from The Athletic ranking the 25 least dominant teams over the last 50 years, UF’s 0-10-1 team from coach Charlie Pell’s first season was ranked No. 25.

It was the worst season in program history in terms of total losses. Aside from a 7-7 tie against Georgia Tech, Florida lost every game, including blowout losses at the hands of Kentucky (31-3) and Alabama (40-0). Six of its 10 losses came by double-digit points with an average point differential of 14.5.

The Gators were in the bottom 10 in offense, averaging just 9.6 points per game. Defensively, they didn’t fare much better, sitting outside the top 100 allowing 24.1 points per game. In 11 games, the team turned the ball over an astounding 34 times.

Pell went on to achieve success over the next five years at Florida before his coaching legacy was tarnished by NCAA violations, and he was fired after the school received sanctions.

Though the team saw some recent struggles prior to the hiring of coach Dan Mullen in 2018, Gators fans can rejoice at the fact that the days of winless seasons appear to be a thing of the distant past.

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