Florida Gators football
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 Eastern Division of 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 Gators football
1906; 118 years ago
Billy Napier
2nd season, 11–14 (.440)
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
(capacity: 88,548)
Steve Spurrier–Florida Field
Grass
East
Independent (1906–1911)
SIAA (1912–1921)
SoCon (1922–1932)
758–445–40 (.626)
24–24 (.500)
Steve Spurrier – 1966
Danny Wuerffel – 1996
Tim Tebow – 2007
34[note 1]
Orange and blue[1]
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 sixteen 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.
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.[7][8][9][10]
Championships[edit]
National championships[edit]
The Florida Gators have been named national champions five times by NCAA-designated major selectors.[11]
Gator helmet logo during the mid-1960s
Primary helmet logo since 1979
Alternate Florida Athletics logo since the early 2000s
Future opponents[edit]
Conference opponents[edit]
From 1992 to 2023, Florida played in the East Division of the SEC and played each opponent in the division each year along with several teams from the West Division. The SEC will expand the conference to 16 teams and will eliminate its two divisions in 2024, causing a new scheduling format for the Gators to play against the other members of the conference.[168] Only the 2024 conference schedule was announced on June 14, 2023, while the conference still considers a new format for the future.[169]
