The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They play their home games on Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on the university's Gainesville campus.
Florida's football program was established along with the university in 1906. It 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. 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. Florida football enjoyed its first sustained success in the 1960s under head coach Ray Graves. 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.
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. Since 1990, Florida has won three national championships (in 1996 under Spurrier and in 2006 and 2008 under Urban Meyer), eight conference titles, fifteen SEC East division titles, and seventeen bowl games, and Florida squads have finished the season ranked in the top-10 fifteen times. In addition, quarterbacks Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow won the Heisman in 1996 and 2007, respectively.
History
The University of Florida was established in Gainesville in 1906 and fielded its first official varsity football team that fall. Since then, Florida Gator football squads have played in over 40 bowl games; won three national championships (1996, 2006 and 2008) and eight Southeastern Conference championships (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006 and 2008) and have produced three Heisman Trophy winners, over 90 first-team All-Americans and 50 National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices.
Discounting 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. Florida's first head coach was Pee Wee Forsythe, and the most recent coach was Billy Napier.
Conference affiliations Florida competed for its first several seasons as an independent before joining the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1912. They moved to the Southern Conference in 1922, then joined with a dozen other schools to establish the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 1932, where it has remained ever since.
Yearly schedule The SEC allowed considerable leeway with regard to conference schedules for several decades after its founding in 1932. Like most members, Florida played a few conference foes every season but would not play other schools for several years at a time until the conference attempted to balance schedules by establishing a rotation of sorts in the late 1960s and formalizing it in 1972.
Schedules were further standardized in 1992 when the SEC expanded to twelve teams, established two divisions, and set eight team conference schedule plus a championship game between the two division winners. Florida was placed in the SEC Eastern Division and played every division foe every season. From 2012 until 2023, the Gators' annual conference slate consisted of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt along with permanent Western Division opponent LSU plus another Western Division team on a rotating schedule.
In 2024, the SEC expanded to 16 schools and abolished divisions, though it temporarily retained the eight-game conference schedule. Beginning in 2026, the league will move to a nine-game conference schedule which will controversially end some annual rivalries, including some involving Florida.
Florida's key conference rivals include Georgia (played in Jacksonville usually around Halloween), Tennessee (historically played in mid-September, although the series was not played annually until 1992), and LSU (usually in early to mid-October, but played in November in 2024 and September in 2025). These contests were played annually for many years, but once the SEC moves to a nine-game conference schedule in 2026, Florida will play LSU and Tennessee every other year.
Florida has played in-state rival Florida State every year since 1958 except for the pandemic-altered 2020 season. The Gators and Seminoles have faced off around Thanksgiving 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. In-state rival Miami was once another annual opponent. 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, and will be scheduled even less frequently due to the SEC and ACC each expanding to nine conference games in 2026. The remaining dates on Florida's regular schedule are filled by non-conference opponents which vary from year to year.
Home fields
The University of Florida's campus did not include sports facilities when it opened in 1906, so UF's first several football and baseball squads played their home games at The Ballpark, a primitive municipal facility near downtown Gainesville. In 1911, the school purchased the bleachers from the city and moved them to University Athletic Field, a newly cleared patch of land on the west side of campus along University Avenue. Larger bleachers were installed in 1915, when the facility was renamed Fleming Field.
The football program first gained national recognition in the late 1920s, prompting UF president John J. Tigert to initiate plans for a modern stadium. A shallow ravine just south of Fleming Field was the chosen site, and 20,000 seat Florida Field opened in 1930. The facility underwent major expansions in the mid-1960s, early 1980s, and early 1990s to increase stadium capacity to about 90,000, the largest in the state.Gatorzone.com, Facilities, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field . Retrieved May 22, 2023. Its name was extended to "Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium" in 1989 to honor UF benefactor Ben Hill Griffin, and the field was rechristened "Steve Spurrier-Florida Field" in 2016 to honor Gator player and coach Steve Spurrier. Spurrier also coined the stadium's nickname of "The Swamp" in 1992, early in his tenure as head football coach.
Conference affiliations
Florida's football program is a charter member of the Southeastern Conference, which began play in 1933. Before that, the Gators were affiliated with two different conferences after having founded the program without a conference affiliation.2009 Southern Conference Football Media Guide, Year-by-Year Standings , Southern Conference, Spartanburg, South Carolina, p. 74 (2009). Retrieved August 30, 2010.
Independent (1906–1911) Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (1912–1921) Southern Conference (1922–1932) Southeastern Conference (1932–present)
Championships National championships The Florida Gators have been named national champions five times by NCAA-designated major selectors.
Claimed national championships Florida claims three national championships, for the 1996, 2006 and 2008 seasons. At the end of each season the Gators were ranked No. 1 in both the final AP and Coaches polls and were recognized as consensus national champions after winning a designated national championship bowl game.
1996 Steve Spurrier AP, Coaches 12–1 Sugar Bowl (Bowl Alliance National Championship Game) Florida State W 52–20 No. 1 No. 1 2006 Urban Meyer AP, Coaches, BCS 13–1 BCS National Championship Game Ohio State W 41–14 No. 1 No. 1 2008 13–1 BCS National Championship Game Oklahoma W 24–14 No. 1 No. 1
Unclaimed national championships Florida has been named national champion by NCAA-designated "major selectors" in two additional years, 1984 and 1985. Partially because the football program was on NCAA probation in the mid-1980s, the university has never claimed a share of the national championship for either season.
1984 Charley Pell, Galen Hall DeS, DuS, MGR, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR 9–1–1 No. 3 No. 7 1985 Galen Hall SR 9–1–1 No. 5
Conference championships Florida has won eight officially recognized SEC football championships. The Gators won their first championship with a conference record of 5–0–1 in 1984, but the title was vacated several months after the season by the SEC university presidents because of NCAA infractions by the Florida coaching staff under Charley Pell. The 1985 and 1990 teams also finished atop the standings with conference records of 5–1 and 6–1, respectively, but Florida was ineligible for the championship due to its NCAA probation for rule violations by previous coaching staffs. The Gators won their first official SEC football championship in 1991.
1991 SEC Steve Spurrier 10–2 7–0 1993 11–2 7–1 1994 10–2–1 7–1 1995 12–1 8–0 1996 12–1 8–0 2000 10–3 7–1 2006 Urban Meyer 13–1 7–1 2008 13–1 7–1
Division championships
With the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina to the Southeastern Conference in 1992, the conference split into eastern and western divisions and a game between the division winners determined the SEC champion. Florida has made thirteen appearances in the SEC Championship Game, most recently in 2020. The Gators have a 7–6 record all-time in SEC Championship Games. With the additions of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC in 2024, the conference eliminated divisions that year.
1992† SEC East Steve Spurrier Alabama L 21–28 1993 Alabama W 28–13 1994 Alabama W 24–23 1995 Arkansas W 34–3 1996 Alabama W 45–30 1999 Alabama L 7–34 2000 Auburn W 28–6 2003† Ron Zook – – 2006 Urban Meyer Arkansas W 38–28 2008 Alabama W 31–20 2009 Alabama L 13–32 2012† Will Muschamp – – 2015 Jim McElwain Alabama L 15–29 2016 Alabama L 16–54 2020 Dan Mullen Alabama L 46–52
†Florida tied with Georgia atop the SEC east during the 1992 season and played in the 1992 SEC Championship Game by virtue of its head-to-head victory. Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee ended the regular season in a 3-way tie in 2003, but Georgia advanced to the 2003 SEC Championship Game due to its higher BCS ranking. Florida and Georgia again tied atop the SEC East in 2012 but Georgia advanced to the 2012 SEC Championship Game by virtue of its head-to-head victory.
Current Coaching Staff Florida Gators Name Position Consecutive season at Florida in current position Previous position Buster Faulkner Offensive Coordinator 1st Georgia Tech – Offensive Coordinator Brad White Defensive Coordinator 1st Kentucky – Defensive Coordinator / Outside Linebackers Gerald Chatman Assistant Head Coach / Defensive Line 3rd Tulane – Defensive Line Phil Trautwein Offensive Line 1st Penn State – Offensive Line Marcus Davis Outside Wide receivers 1st Auburn – Wide Receivers Trent McKnight Passing Game Coordinator / Inside Wide Receivers 1st Georgia Tech – Wide Receivers Joe Craddock Quarterbacks 1st Tulane – Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Chris Foster Running Back 1st Duke - Running Backs Evan McKissack Tight Ends 1st Tulane – Co-Offensive Coordinator / Offensive Line Brandon Harris Cornerbacks 1st UCF – Defensive Backs Chris Collins Safeties 1st Kentucky – Co-Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Backs Greg Gasparato Linebackers 1st Tulane – Defensive Coordinator / Safeties Bam Hardmon Outside Linebackers 1st Tulane – Running Game Coordinator / Outside Linebackers Johnathan Galante Special Teams Coordinator 1st Tulane – Special Teams Coordinator Rusty Whitt Director of Football Performance 1st Tulane – Director of Strength and ConditioningReference: