Dooley’s Dozen: 12 toughest schedules in history for Florida football
You can’t walk into a bar or a meeting or a convenience store in Gainesville these days without someone saying something about Florida’s football schedule in 2024.
Usually, it comes right after something nice the person has said about the Florida program, followed by a “but the schedule …”
Hey, it’s supposed to be hard. The hard is what makes it great.
And it is hard, but not impossible. According to ESPN’s latest rankings, Florida has games scheduled against nine ranked teams.
But it’s not like this is the first difficult schedule and how many of those teams will be ranked at the end of the season? Huh?
The Dooley’s Dozen today looks at the 12 toughest schedules that Florida has faced over the years.
2020 – The COVID year
As many of you remember, there were times that summer when we wondered if there was even going to be a season. Once the SEC decided to go forward, the league decided to restrict the games to SEC opponents. Florida navigated it well until the final three games of the season.
A shoe was thrown, and Florida finished 8-4.
1982 – What a start
If you think this schedule is tough, imagine opening with two top-15 teams. That’s what Florida did in ’82 with home games against Miami (the James Jones catch game) and Southern Cal (the Wilber Marshall game).
The Gators also closed the season with another top-15 team at Florida State and rushed the field when UF won.
That team lost to No. 14 Arkansas in the bowl game and finished 8-4.
1996 – Grown men cried
And that was before the season. They were still getting over the pain of a drubbing the previous year against Nebraska. And with Tennessee and FSU on the road, the Gators were not getting back.
But they did, Florida twice faced the No. 2 team in the country and No. 1 in the national title game. In all, the Gators played six teams who were ranked at the time they played them and six teams who won their bowl games.
2012 – Tell them Willy Boy’s in town
The second year of Will Muschamp’s tenure at Florida was a good one at 11-2 and the Gators were this close to playing for the national title. But to be in consideration, Florida had to go on the road in the second and third games and welcome Texas A&M to the league, then face rival Tennessee.
Four other teams on the schedule were ranked in the top 12 when they faced Florida.
2008 – Who’s next?
The Promise Season was a tough haul just to get into position. Then Florida had to beat No. 1 Alabama followed by No. 1 Oklahoma.
No problem. The Gators had Tim Tebow. They also beat LSU when it was in the top five by 30 points and Georgia when it was in the top 10 by 39. Oh, and ranked FSU by 30 in Tallahassee.
2000 – Another SEC crown
As Florida got ready for the first season of the new millennium, the Gators had not won an SEC title since 1996.
UF got back to Atlanta by storming through a season that included seven teams who were ranked when they played Florida.
The SEC champs finished 10-3.
1985 – A championship (sort of)
Well, we counted it. Florida was on double-secret probation and Galen Hall was the permanent head coach (is it ever really permanent?) as the Gators went 9-1-1.
They did it against a schedule that included road games at Miami, Starkville, Baton Rouge and Auburn (all wins).
2004 – Zooker goes out with a bang
It wasn’t enough that Ron Zook’s best team would have to face five games against ranked teams.
FSU announced before the season it would present the Zooker with the ultimate facial, dedicating the field to Bobby Bowden the night Florida played.
It was the only one of five ranked teams that Florida beat that season.
1987 – Emmitt’s in town
Get your popcorn ready. Emmitt Smith brought a new energy to Gainesville and it showed up in game three against No. 11 Alabama in Birmingham.
Galen Hall’s team was running low on bodies in 1987 and finished 6-6 against a schedule that included seven ranked teams, six of them ranked in the top 10 when they faced UF.
1962 – The beginning
Ray Graves got off to a good start with his career as UF coach and in his third year he got the Gators to a bowl game for the second time since he started at Florida.
But to do that and finish 7-4, he had to face four top-10 teams.
That included the first game I ever saw, a 22-3 win over 10th-ranked Auburn.
2019 – Mac’s farewell
The third year of Jim McElwain’s stint as Florida’s coach was a weird one to say the least. It started with a neutral site game against Michigan, included the Heave to Cleve and the start of singing “I Won’t Back Down” at the end of the third quarter.
It also included death threats and Mac getting fired eight games into the season. The schedule was hard enough.
1972 – Dickey starts building
The first two years of Doug Dickey were not met with a lot of enthusiasm by players or fans. But by ’72, he was finding his way with the players he had.
Florida swamped FSU in Tallahassee when the Seminoles were flirting with the top 10, but the schedule that included five ranked teams caught up with the Gators as they finished 5-5-1.
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