Galen Hall – Syndication Server

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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Florida football’s history with the dual quarterback strategy

Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway are expected to get significant playing time vs. Texas A&M, so let’s dive into the Gators’ history with the dual quarterback strategy.

The world of college football is always changing and evolving with new strategies and game plans to help teams have success, but there hasn’t been many that have been as intriguing or debated as the use of the dual quarterback system.

For the Florida Gators football team, this dual quarterback approach to the game is nothing new as they will be using that strategy on Saturday when they play the Texas A&M Aggies.

Head coach Billy Napier announced that both Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway will be playing in the Gators’ Week 3 contest.

Because of that, let’s dive into Florida’s history with the dual quarterback system. Again, it’s not a new concept for the Gators.

The Mid-1980s

The concept of using several quarterbacks goes back to the mid-1980s. The Gators head coach at the time was Galen Hall who was the offensive coordinator for Florida in 1984 before becoming the interim head coach on Sept. 17 of that same year.

Hall was named the interim head coach because the previous coach, Charley Pell, was fired after an NCAA investigation alleged that he and his coaching staff had committed over 100 violations pertaining to the NCAA rules during the previous couple of seasons.

Because of this, the Florida football program had a two-year bowl ban, scholarships were lost and there were restrictions on recruiting.

Anyway, Hall took over as head coach and began experimenting with different signal-callers. Despite it not being the team’s primary tactic, these early trials were key to shaping the team’s offensive approach.

The Spurrier Era

Florida’s offensive strategy during the 1990s completely evolved under head coach Steve Spurrier.

Spurrier occasionally used a dual quarterback system to exploit different weaknesses in the defense.

In 1994, Spurrier used both quarterbacks Terry Dean and Danny Wuerffel. Wuerffel eventually became Florida’s starting quarterback and won the Heisman Trophy in 1996, but Dean’s presence allowed Spurrier to keep the opponents guessing by mixing up the offense. It created a sense of unpredictability with the Gators offensive attack.

Chris Leak and Tim Tebow

Florida’s head coach from 2005-2010 was Urban Meyer who implemented the spread offense.

Meyer didn’t necessarily use the dual quarterback approach as the team’s offensive strategy, but there were instances where multiple quarterbacks played a significant amount of snaps.

During the 2006 season, Chris Leak was Florida’s starting quarterback and Tim Tebow was the backup. Leak was a more proficient passer but didn’t have the skillset to run the ball like Tebow and Meyer knew that. So, Meyer used Tebow several different ways, mainly in goal-line packages and short-yardage situations.

By using Tebow’s strength and power, Meyer was able to create mismatches with the defense while also enabling unpredictable play calls. This strategy played a key role in helping the Gators win a national championship that year.

Feleipe Franks and Emory Jones

Skipping ahead to 2018, the dual quarterback system returned to the Gators offense under head coach Dan Mullen.

Mullen utilized both quarterbacks Feleipe Franks and Emory Jones to create an offensive attack that was effective and efficient.

Franks was the primary starter for Florida because of his arm and ability to throw the deep ball while Jones was a mobile and dynamic alternative.

The strategy that Mullen implemented was to rotate the quarterbacks depending on the situation of the game. Jones was used for designed runs and unpredictability while Franks was used to execute the primary passing game.

Looking back on the strategy

The dual quarterback approach has proved to be an effective strategy given what it’s done in the history of Florida Gators football. Although the dual quarterback system hasn’t been a constant feature of their strategy, its use in crucial seasons shows the Gators’ readiness to innovate and adapt.

As the Gators roll out in the Swamp against Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon, they’ll be implementing the same strategy that has been engraved in the program’s history over the years.

Both Mertz and Lagway will be seeing significant playing time, but it’s up to Napier to find out which quarterback can help his team win when it matters most.

Coming up for the Gators

Florida will play at home in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium against Texas A&M on Saturday, Sept. 14. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ABC.

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Florida among unranked teams that could finish in top 10, per CBS Sports

If things work out just right, CBS Sports thinks Florida could be a top-10 team at the end of this season.

Florida football has less than a week before it begins its 2023 campaign, one that carries lofty expectations from the Gator Nation while most of those outside of Gainesville are tempering their projections for [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag]’s debut season.

Hopes are high that the program can recover from the crash and burn that followed the end of the [autotag]Dan Mullen[/autotag] era. But on the other hand, both the Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 have the Orange and Blue buried in their respective preseason votes, giving the Gators a steep hill to climb in returning to respectability.

One member of the media, however, thinks that Florida could make some noise and finish in the top 10. CBS Sports’ David Cobb recently published his five unranked preseason AP Top 25 teams that he thinks could crack the top tier of the polls by the end of the season, a list that includes the Gators along with the Penn State Nittany Lions, Texas Longhorns, Tennessee Volunteers and LSU Tigers.

Here is what Cobb had to say about Napier’s 2022 squad.

Florida is all the way down at a tie for No. 37 in the AP poll. The Gators received just 14 votes following a 6-7 season and the coaching transition from Dan Mullen to Billy Napier. However, this program is also less than one calendar year removed from taking eventual SEC champion Alabama down to the wire and less than two years removed from winning the SEC East.

The Gators have a potential star at quarterback in [autotag]Anthony Richardson[/autotag] and a track record of popping under first-year coaches. UF’s past seven coaches have led their teams to the top 15 at some point in their first season, and six of those seven coaches had the Gators as high as the top 10. Only Mullen and [autotag]Galen Hall[/autotag] finished their debut seasons with a top-10 team, but that’s a still an incredible hit rate in a league as tough as the SEC.

A cross-division trip to No. 6 Texas A&M the week after playing Georgia, along with a tough opening stretch against No. 7 Utah and Kentucky, make for a big-boy schedule in 2022, but those quirks also present huge opportunities for Florida to become a surprise player on the national stage.

There are a lot of “ifs” involved and Lady Luck would play a large role, but if Richardson can step up and carry this team the way his raw talent suggests he can, it is not unfathomable that the Gators finish among the best in the nation. However, the likelihood of that happening is extremely slim as it would require a perfect storm of events to fall in Florida’s favor.

But hey, it is college football. Anything can happen.

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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.