Main article: Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium The remaining dates on Florida's regular schedule are filled by non-conference opponents which vary from year to year. However, the rivalry was dropped when the SEC expanded its yearly schedule in the late 1980s, and the Florida–Miami rivalry has been renewed on an infrequent basis since then. In-state rival Miami was once another annual opponent. The Gators and Seminoles have faced off in the last game of the regular season since the 1970s, and their emergence as perennial football powers during the 1990s helped build the Florida–Florida State rivalry into a game that often had national-title implications. 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 (usually in October).įlorida has played in-state rival Florida State every year since 1958 except for the pandemic-altered 2020 season. Until 2003, the Gators also played Auburn every season, but contests in the rivalry are now infrequent events as part of the SEC's rotating opponent system. The schedule is filled out with an annual game against Louisiana State and a rotating SEC Western Division team. Florida is one of fourteen member institutions in the SEC, and the football team has competed in the SEC Eastern Division since the league began divisional play in 1992.Ĭelebration following the 2009 BCS National Championship Gameįlorida plays an eight-game SEC schedule, with six games against the other Eastern Division teams: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt. They moved to the Southern Conference in 1922, then joined with a dozen other schools to establish the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 1932. Florida's first head coach was Pee Wee Forsythe, and the current coach is Billy Napier.įlorida competed for its first several seasons as an independent before joining the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1912. Since then, Florida Gator football squads have played in over 40 bowl games won three national championships ( 1996, 20) and eight Southeastern Conference championships ( 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 20) and have produced three Heisman Trophy winners, over 90 first-team All-Americans and 50 National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices.ĭiscounting interim coaches, there have been twenty-five head coaches in program history, including three who were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame for their coaching success. The University of Florida was established in Gainesville in 1906 and fielded its first official varsity football team that fall. In addition, quarterbacks Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow won the Heisman in 19, respectively. Since 1990, Florida has won three national championships (in 1996 under Spurrier and in 20 under Urban Meyer), eight conference titles, fifteen SEC East division titles, and sixteen bowl games, and Florida squads have finished the season ranked in the top-10 fifteen times. Spurrier returned to his alma mater as the Gators' head ball coach in 1990, and the program has been among the top in college football since then. After having appeared in only two sanctioned bowl games up to that time, Grave's Gators won four during the decade, and quarterback Steve Spurrier became the school's first Heisman Trophy winner in 1966. Florida football enjoyed its first sustained success in the 1960s under head coach Ray Graves. On the field, the Gators found intermittent success during the first half of the 20th century, with a highlight being the 1928 squad that went 8–1 and led the nation in scoring. They play their home games in Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on the university's Gainesville campus.įlorida's football program was established along with the university in 1906, took on the "Gators" nickname in 1911, began playing in newly constructed Florida Field in 1930, and joined the Southeastern Conference as a founding member in 1932. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football.
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