1979 Florida Gators football team

The 1979 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida during the 1979 NCAA Division I-A football season. The season was Charley Pell's first of six as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Pell arrived in Gainesville with a new plan for building the Gators football program—new offensive and defensive schemes, new assistant coaches, a new attitude and new boosters fund-raising model to support the program and improve the stadium and training facilities. Pell's plan would produce many on-the-field victories over the next five years, but his first campaign as the Gators coach produced the most losses in any single season in Gators football history, ending with a winless 0–10–1 overall record and a 0–6 record in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The team, which was plagued by injuries, placed dead last among ten SEC teams.[2] This was the last time until 2013 that Florida fielded a team with a losing record.

1979 Florida Gators football
Conference	Southeastern Conference
1979 record	0–10–1 (0–6 SEC)
Head coach	Charley Pell (1st season)
Captain	Bill Bennek Nap Green Chuck Hatch
Home stadium	Florida Field (Capacity: 62,800)[1]

1979 Southeastern Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 1 Alabama $	6	–	0	–	0			12	–	0	–	0
Georgia	5	–	1	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
No. 16 Auburn	4	–	2	–	0			8	–	3	–	0
LSU	4	–	2	–	0			7	–	5	–	0
Tennessee	3	–	3	–	0			7	–	5	–	0
Kentucky	3	–	3	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Ole Miss	3	–	3	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Mississippi State	2	–	4	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Vanderbilt	0	–	6	–	0			1	–	10	–	0
Florida	0	–	6	–	0			0	–	10	–	1
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1979 Florida team had 4 starting quarterbacks: Tim Groves, Tyrone Young, John Brown and Larry Ochab, and John Brantley also played at quarterback, though he did not start. Brantley was projected to start at quarterback, but he was injured in the preseason.

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 15	at No. 13 Houston*	Jeppesen Stadium Houston, TX		L 10–14	33,851
September 22	Georgia Tech*	Florida Field Gainesville, FL		T 7–7	60,313
September 29	at Mississippi State	Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium Jackson, MS		L 10–24	38,000
October 6	at No. 17 LSU	Tiger Stadium Baton Rouge, LA (rivalry)		L 3–20	73,073
October 13	No. 2 Alabama	Florida Field Gainesville, FL		L 0–40	64,552
October 27	Tulsa*	Florida Field Gainesville, FL		L 10–20	60,126
November 3	at No. 20 Auburn	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL (rivalry)		L 13–19	58,754
November 10	vs. Georgia	Gator Bowl Stadium Jacksonville, FL (rivalry)	ABC	L 10–33	68,148
November 17	Kentucky	Florida Field Gainesville, FL		L 3–31	55,760
November 23	No. 5 Florida State*	Florida Field Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	ABC	L 16–27	58,263
December 1	at Miami (FL)*	Orange Bowl Stadium Miami, FL (rivalry)		L 24–30	28,051
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Primary source: 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide[2]

Attendance figures: 1980 Press Guide University of Florida.[3]

Roster

1979 Florida Gators football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class QB 12 John Brantley Sr TE 87 Mike Clark Jr WR 21 Cris Collinsworth Jr TE 80 Chris Faulkner Fr WR 18 Darrell Jones Sr QB Larry Ochab Jr WR 19 Johnny Smith Jr   Terry Williams QB 7 Tyrone Young Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DB 43 Thad Adams Fr LB 55 Scot Brantley Sr DB 25 Chuck Hatch Sr DE 50 Yancey Sutton Jr DB 24 Kyle Coburn Sr DB 32 Napoleon Green Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 3 Brian Clark So	Head coach Charley Pell Coordinators/assistant coaches Vince Kendrick (RB) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Postseason

The next year, in 1980, the Florida Gators made a remarkable turnaround. They won the first three games of that season before a loss to Louisiana State crushed Florida's hopes of being undefeated, but they ended the regular season with 7 wins and 4 losses, and in the Tangerine bowl they defeated Maryland 35-20 to improve to 8-4. At the time, this Florida season was an NCAA record turnaround, and this was the first team to make a bowl game after being winless the previous season.

References

1. Sports Publicity Department. "Florida Football '79" (PDF). floridagators.com. University Athletic Association, Inc. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
2. 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 107 (2015). Retrieved August 16, 2015.
3. Sports Publicity Department. "1980 Press Guide University of Florida" (PDF). floridagators.com. University Athletic Association, Inc. Retrieved 15 March 2018.