Florida football is one of the most impressive college football programs in the country. The Florida Gators seem to have a bevy of speed at every position each season and have won eight SEC titles and three National titles. Every season the Eastern division of the SEC is met with an onslaught of deep passes and explosive receivers dominating the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (a.k.a. The Swamp), whose short grass gives its team's collective athleticism an advantage over almost any team in the country.
The college began sporting a football team in 1906. Then the college game did not have nicely structured conferences with schedules sure to guarantee a team 11 or 12 games like they are today. Florida football played teams like the Gainesville Athletic Club. The Gators did not join a conference until 1912. That conference was the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. It would be a few years before the Florida Gators would become part of the SEC. Next they joined the Southern Conference in 1922. Finally in 1932 the school became part of the Southeastern Conference.
These early years had ups and down for the fans. The team had winning records in 1923 and 1924 that launched them into the national conscious. The Great Depression and the Second World War put a damper on college football. After the war ended and the roster filled with ease once again, a new coach, Bob Woodruff, took over. He coached for ten seasons, finishing with a winning record in eight of them. The Florida Gators did not manage to dominate their chief rival at the time (Georgia), finishing a mere 6-4 during the Woodruff tenure.
Ray Graves took over for Woodruff and began to develop a tradition of excellence. Three All-Americans played on his teams during his nine years with Florida football, including Heisman winning quarterback Steve Spurrier (who would later coach the team).
Difficult years followed under Doug Dickey, who coached from 1970 to 1978 and scandal plagued years with Charley Pell and Galen Hall from 1979 to 1989. Pell may have won games, but he amassed 107 NCAA infractions in the process. Hall disgraced Florida Gators football by paying his assistant coaches from his own pocket and paying a player's legal expenses in a child support conflict.
This all changed in 1990. Steve Spurrier, the alumnus and Heisman winner took over the head coaching job from 1990 to 2001. During that time everyone wanted Florida football tickets. The team built itself on speed and quarterback friendly systems. The Gators won four SEC titles in a row from 1993 to 1996.
Spurrier left in 2002 to try his hand at the NFL and Ron Zook replaced him. Zook's teams were good, but not great and struggled with inconsistent play. Sometimes they would beat eventual college football champions and sometimes they would lose to bottom feeders. Zook's tenure lasted from 2002 to 2004.
Urban Meyer came in and immediately turned the team's fortunes around. His first season the Gators finished 9-3 and in 2006 (his second season with Florida football) he won the national championship with a 41-14 win over the Ohio State Buckeyes. Two years late the Florida Gators repeated as national champions, this time upsetting the Oklahoma Sooners.
The Florida Gators won the BCS National Championship Game on January 8, 2009 with a 24-14 win over the Oklahoma Sooners. The BCS championship was Urban Meyer's second and the Gators immediately captured the number position in the polls for the 2009 college football season with the quarterback Tim Tebow in his junior (and likely his last) year.
