Dooley’s Dozen: 12 best Gator offenses that didn’t win titles
Sometimes you are scrolling through social media and somebody posts a video of a couple of football plays and you start to get all nostalgic about better times at Florida.
You know, back when Florida couldn’t be stopped on offense and the Gators won championships.
And then you remember that the team from that year didn’t win a title. And you try to remember why not?
It happened to me just recently with the COVID season when the Gators put up record numbers and went home with nothing.
Now, you may consider an SEC East Championship to be important and I do not disagree. But if one week later you lose in Atlanta, it feels like an empty sandwich.
That’s the approach we are taking with the latest Dooley’s Dozen. There are two teams on this list who won East titles and for that they received wins. But they didn’t achieve the ultimate goal.
So, without further ado, the 12 teams who were awesome on offense but fell short of winning the conference or national titles.
2001
As soon as I mentioned this idea to Steve Spurrier he blurted out the 2001 team. It will always be something that haunts the coach, too many field goals and missed tackles in Travis Stephens. Those Gators averaged 43.8 points a game. They embarrassed Maryland in the Orange Bowl. But it will always be lumped in with a lot of great offenses that didn’t quite get it done.
2020
Yes, this is the offense I was talking about with the two Kyles (Trask and Pitts) and so many other great receivers — plus a coach who knew how to run a wheel route. Every time I watch highlights of that team I wonder how they could have lost to anybody averaging 39.9 ppg and setting a school record with 46 TD passes. But they lost in the SEC title game and failed to show up for their bowl game.
2007
This team had it all. Tim Tebow was the star and the Heisman Trophy winner, but think about this – that team averaged 12.8 points more than the previous year’s team that won the national title over Ohio State. A young defense was the culprit, one that would come into its own the following year and had the offense to go with it. But in ’07 a Citrus Bowl loss was the fate of this team.
2009
The second team that did win the East, but faltered in the title game. No soup for you, said Nick Saban, by taking away Tebow in this game. But for the season, despite Dan Mullen leaving for Mississippi State, this team averaged 35.9 points a game and went undefeated during the regular season. It had 30 rushing touchdowns and 28 passing. It lost one game. But that was the difference.
1969
The story I remember from that season was one the late John Reaves told me about the trip to Auburn. The Tigers brought out a different ball (J-6V instead of J-5V) and the field was more crowned than they were used to. Naw, Auburn just unwrapped a new zone defense and handled Florida. That team averaged 32.9 points per game at a time when that was a lot of points. Not enough, however.
1966
Florida had the Heisman winner. The Gators had the SEC’s receiving leader (Richard Trapp). And the leading rusher (Larry Smith) in the conference. But that one bad day in the Gator Bowl kept a championship season from happening. One good thing – it fueled Spurrier’s resolve to beat Georgia as a coach.
2018
In Mullen’s first year, Gators fans were overjoyed to see a big-time offense. They were not so overjoyed to see three conference losses, especially one to Kentucky to break the streak. But this team had an offense that averaged 213.5 yards passing and 213.3 rushing. Now that’s balance.
1997
Some will tell you this was a bit of a lost year after the national title season because Florida lost to Georgia for the only time under Spurrier. Even with the issues at quarterback, the Gators averaged 37.2 points per game (despite only making six field goals). And there was that one game against FSU, although Spurrier is quick to point out it wasn’t for any kind of championship.
2004
Wait a tick, you’re putting a Ron Zook offense in there? Yes, that team could score (averaging 31.4 points a game) and had the SEC’s leading rusher in Ciatrick Fason and receiver in O.J. Small. It also ended up losing in the Peach Bowl to Brock Berlin.
1990
You could make the argument that this team did win the SEC and Coach makes that argument all the time. But the truth is this team knew it was ineligible early in the season so it happens. This was the beginning of the coolest era in Florida football as the Gators went from a ground team to one that averaged 35.2 points per game.
1975
This team has a special place in my heart because it lost by one at N.C. State and three to Georgia. It was so close to being great, but instead, they ended up in the Gator Bowl. Jimmy Dubose was the SEC Player of the Year on a team that averaged 302.4 yards rushing, the most in school history.
2010
Urban Meyer’s last season as Florida’s coach was weird on so many levels. But it was still a few percentage points shy of averaging 30 points a game. And those Gators rushed for 31 touchdowns — the fourth most in school history.
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