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The Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the Southeastern Conference's Eastern division. They play their home games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida, USA. In 100 years of play, Florida has been recognized as SEC champions seven times (finishing first in the conference an additional three times), were national champions of the 1996 and 2006 college football seasons, and have never gone undefeated. Urban Meyer, in his second season in 2006, is the current head coach of the Gators. OverviewFlorida plays an eight-game Southeastern Conference schedule, headlined by annual SEC Eastern division showdowns against Tennessee and Georgia, the latter being held in Jacksonville, Florida every year and unofficially dubbed "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" (a nickname officially deprecated after recommendations of the NCAA and SEC in an effort to diminish excessive drinking). The permanent SEC Western division team the Gators face every season is LSU, previously playing Auburn as well before new SEC rules took effect in 2003. In addition, the team has a yearly out-of-conference meeting with Florida State at the end of the season. Prior to 1988, the University of Miami was also an annual opponent and rival. However, Florida and Miami have met only twice during the regular season since then (2002 and 2003) and do not plan to play each other again until 2008 simply because the Miami Hurricanes are scared to play the Florida Gators in Football because the Hurricanes program has been going down hill. Unlike many other teams at the college and pro level, the Gators do not currently have any retired numbers from former players. The numbers of Gator Football Ring of Honor players Steve Spurrier (11) and Jack Youngblood (74) had been retired in the past, but the numbers were re-issued to players during Spurrier's time as Florida head coach. History The Gators began play in football in 1906, coached by James Forsythe for three winning seasons. In 1909, G.E. Pyle took over coaching duties. The 1910's saw the team face many of their current rivals for the first time. The first game against South Carolina was in 1911. When Florida joined the now-defunct Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1912, they faced Auburn for the first time, followed by Georgia in 1915. The Gators joined the Southern Conference in 1922, following their traditional rivals' departure from the SIAA a year earlier. The Gators joined the Southeastern Conference in 1932, along with several other rivals from the Southern Conference—Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, and Georgia Tech. Florida had its first taste of long-term success in the mid-1960s, when Ray Graves set the team record for wins at Florida with 70, a record that stood for thirty years. One of his best teams was in 1966, a squad led by Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier. (During this time, Florida researchers developed the popular sports drink Gatorade and tested it on the Gators football team due to the humid conditions under which the team played.) He retired after a 9-1-1 season in 1969 to let Florida alumnus Doug Dickey to take over the reins. Dickey had some success, going 58-43-2, but it wasn’t enough to keep his job after a 4-7 season in 1978. Charley Pell took over from Dickey, bringing the Gators back to respectability on the field, but had troubles off of it. Though he began his career with an 0-11 season, the Gators turned it around with an eight win season the following year, which set an NCAA record for win differential in a year (this has since been surpassed). He went 33-15 after the winless opening season. He was fired during his (and, at the time, the Gators’) best season in 1984 in light of major NCAA violations. Galen Hall coached the team from the middle of 1984 to 1989 with much success, including an SEC title in 1984 and 1985, though these were to be stripped due to NCAA violations committed by Pell. Future NFL stars such as Lomas Brown and Emmitt Smith headlined the rosters. Hall went 40-18 at Florida. He had his own violation scandal, however, and was fired during the 1989 season. Gary Darnell finished the season for him. The football team has been one of the winningest in Division 1-A since 1990, the year Spurrier returned to his alma mater as coach. That year, the Gators finished first in the SEC for the third time ever (the others being the title-stripped years of ’84 and ’85), but were ineligible for the SEC title. They won their first official SEC championship in 1991. The team played for the championship in the first ever championship game in 1992 but lost to the eventual national champions, Alabama. To date, the team has played in the most championship games of any team in either division, winning six times (1993-1996, 2000, 2006) in eight appearances. Spurrier broke his old coach—Ray Grave's—mark for wins as Florida coach in 1996. The Gators had their first and only unbeaten regular season in 1995, but were denied a national championship in the 1995 Fiesta Bowl, later nicknamed the “Fiasco Bowl” for its lopsided score in favor of Nebraska (62-24). 
 Much of the team's offense returned following the bittersweet 1995 season. The 1996 team would end up setting dozens of UF's scoring records, as the Gators rolled over most of their opponents to start the season 10-0. The top-ranked Gators faced the #2 Florida State Seminoles on the road in Doak Campbell Stadium, the last regular-season 1-vs-2 matchup for a decade. Keyed by several blocking errors on offense and special teams, the Gators left Tallahassee with a 24-21 loss. But the pieces fell into place for Florida, as they beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game, 45-30, and Texas upset Nebraska in the inaugural Big 12 Championship Game to earn the Gators a re-match with the Seminoles. But the Gators were not assured of even a piece of the national championship unless Ohio State defeated #2 Arizona State in the Rose Bowl one day before the Gators got their rematch in the Sugar Bowl. The Buckeyes won the game at the last moment. The Gators had their opportunity to win the national championship, and Heisman trophy-winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel avenged the earlier loss and garnered game MVP honors in a 52-20 victory. The following season, in 1997, the Gators looked like they would reload for another title, beating heavily-ranked Tennessee at home and obtaining the #1 ranking. But the team struggled midway through their schedule, losing to LSU on the road and a 20-point loss to Georgia after having dominated both teams the previous year. Arguably the loudest, most intense game in The Swamp's history occurred later that year, as the 10th-ranked Gators upset their rivals, the top-ranked Florida State Seminoles in a 32-29 thriller that featured two last-minute lead changes. Having won 5 SEC titles in 6 seasons in 1996, the Gators had trouble keeping pace with their amazing run in the conference later in the decade, going 3 seasons before capturing the title again in 2000. The Gators looked prime to return to the SEC Championship Game as favorites in 2001, but lost a heartbreaker to the Tennessee Volunteers on a game postponed to late December due to the attacks of 9/11. 
Following the 2001 season, Spurrier left the program to try his hand at coaching in the National Football League. After a much-publicized and much-scrutinized coaching search, former Gator assistant coach Ron Zook was hired as his replacement. Zook's squads were known for their inconsistency; they handed Nick Saban's Louisiana State team its only loss in its 2003 national championship season and Georgia its only loss in 2002, while going winless against the state of Mississippi, Miami, and its bowl games. Zook was fired midway through the 2004 season after an embarrassing loss to Mississippi State, but was allowed to finish out the regular season. After Zook was relieved of duties for taking the open job at Illinois, Charlie Strong served as interim coach for the 2004 Peach Bowl, becoming the first African-American head football coach at Florida and the second in SEC history. Jeremy Foley, Florida's athletic director, found a much higher profile candidate to replace Zook in national coach of the year, Urban Meyer of Utah. Meyer was announced as Florida Football's new head coach in December 2004. His first season in 2005 was an improvement at 9-3, including a bowl win against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Though the team managed to sweep its three biggest rivals (Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida State) for just the fourth time in school history, they missed out on a chance to play in the SEC title game after a devastating loss to Spurrier's new team, South Carolina. In 2006, the Gators were victorious in the SEC Championship Game against Arkansas, winning their first title since the 2000 season. The Gators were selected to play in the BCS Championship Game against the Ohio State Buckeyes, which was played on January 8, 2007. They beat the No. 1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, 41-14, for their second national title. A month after the national championship, the Gators celebrated signing arguably their second #1 recruiting class in as many years.[1] 2006 season
The Florida Gators celebrated two milestones in the 2006 season: the 10-year anniversary of their first national championship, and 100 years of Florida football. They would have more to celebrate by season's end. Following a 9-3 season in 2005, expectations were high for a Gators squad led by senior quarterback Chris Leak. Although the team was highly ranked in most preseason polls, a tough schedule tested the Gators. Another question mark on the team was how well Leak and the wide receivers would continue to adjust into the run-oriented spread option offense of head coach Urban Meyer, especially behind a mostly new offensive line. As the season progressed, the quarterback spot was split between Leak and true freshman Tim Tebow, who came in on several occasions and made some important short-yardage plays. Chris Leak, however, remained solid as the starter in that position and received the bulk of the snaps. The season opened September 2 against Southern Miss, with a 34-7 Gator victory. They suffered the first and only loss on the road at Auburn, then began a string of very close finishes to close out their SEC schedule and clinch the SEC East title. The Gators won their first SEC title since the 2000 season on December 2 with a 38-28 win over Arkansas in the conference championship game. Finishing #2 in the regular season, Florida received a bid to play in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game on January 8, 2007 against Ohio State. Entering the game as 7 point underdogs, Florida defeated the Buckeyes 41-14 and captured the 2006 national championship title. The team finished 13-1 overall, 8-1 in SEC play, and ranked #1 both the AP and Coaches polls . ChampionshipsNational ChampionshipsFlorida has won two men's football national championships in its history.
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