1984 Florida Gators football team

The 1984 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida during the 1984 NCAA Division I-A football season. The season was Charley Pell's sixth and last as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Pell resigned after the third game of the season due to numerous NCAA violations committed by him and his staff over the previous few years. New offensive coordinator Galen Hall served as interim coach for the remainder of the season. After the Gators began the season as a 1–1–1 team under Pell, Hall's 1984 Florida Gators posted a 9–1–1 overall record and a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record of 5–0–1 (8–0 and 4–0, respectively, under Hall), finishing first among ten SEC teams,[2] and won their first-ever SEC title. Before then, the Gators had been one of only two charter SEC members (the other being Vanderbilt) to have never won the conference title. The Gators finished third in the Associated Press Poll and seventh in the Coaches Poll, and were also named national champions by twenty-two publications including The New York Times and The Sporting News.

1984 Florida Gators football
SEC champion (vacated)
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 7
AP	No. 3
1984 record	9–1–1 (5–0–1 SEC)
Head coach	Charley Pell (6th season, first 3 games) Galen Hall (interim, last 8 games)
Offensive coordinator	Galen Hall (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Joe Kines (4th season)
Home stadium	Florida Field (Capacity: 72,000)[1]

1984 Southeastern Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 3 Florida	5	–	0	–	1			9	–	1	–	1
No. 15 LSU $	4	–	1	–	1			8	–	3	–	1
No. 14 Auburn	4	–	2	–	0			9	–	4	–	0
Georgia	4	–	2	–	0			7	–	4	–	1
No. 19 Kentucky	3	–	3	–	0			9	–	3	–	0
Tennessee	3	–	3	–	0			7	–	4	–	1
Vanderbilt	2	–	4	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Alabama	2	–	4	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Ole Miss	1	–	5	–	0			4	–	6	–	1
Mississippi State	1	–	5	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
$ – Conference champion Florida was assessed a postseason ban following an NCAA investigation, and the SEC subsequently vacated any championship. The Sugar Bowl automatic bid for the conference champion was awarded to LSU. Under modern rules, LSU would be credited with the conference championship. Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	vs. No. 10 Miami (FL)*	No. 17	Tampa Stadium Tampa, FL (rivalry)	ESPN	L 20–32	72,813
September 8	LSU		Florida Field Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	TBS	T 21–21	70,197
September 15	Tulane*		Florida Field Gainesville, FL		W 63–21	65,265
September 29	Mississippi State		Florida Field Gainesville, FL		W 27–12	68,186
October 6	Syracuse*		Florida Field Gainesville, FL		W 16–0	70,189
October 13	at Tennessee	No. 18	Neyland Stadium Knoxville, TN (rivalry)		W 43–30	94,016
October 20	Cincinnati*	No. 17	Florida Field Gainesville, FL		W 48–17	73,690
November 3	No. 11 Auburn	No. 13	Florida Field Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	ABC	W 24–3	74,397
November 10	vs. No. 8 Georgia	No. 10	Gator Bowl Stadium Jacksonville, FL (rivalry)	CBS	W 27–0	82,349
November 17	at Kentucky	No. 5	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY	TBS	W 25–17	52,823
December 1	at No. 12 Florida State*	No. 3	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL (rivalry)	ABC	W 27–17	58,930
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

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

Personnel

1984 Florida Gators football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class RB 27 Neal Anderson Jr QB 12 Kerwin Bell Fr RB Lorenzo Hampton WR 89 Ricky Nattiel So   Frankie Neal FB 22 John L. Williams Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DT Tommy Duhart   Ricky Easmon   Mark Korff   Roger Sibbald	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K Bobby Raymond Sr	Head coach Charley Pell Coordinators/assistant coaches Galen Hall (OC) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Game summaries

vs. Miami (FL)

#10 Miami (FL) vs. #17 Florida

1 2 3 4 Total • Hurricanes 3 13 3 13 32 Gators 3 7 3 7 20 Date: September 1 Location: Tampa Stadium, Tampa, FL Television network: ESPN

Scoring summary 1 MIA Cox 29-yard field goal MIA 3–0 1 FLA Raymond 44-yard field goal Tie 3–3 2 FLA Hampton 64-yard run (Raymond kick) FLA 10–3 2 MIA Cox 20-yard field goal FLA 10–6 2 MIA Oliver 21-yard run (Cox kick) MIA 13–10 2 MIA Cox 27-yard field goal MIA 16–10 3 MIA Cox 25-yard field goal MIA 19–10 3 FLA Raymond 30-yard field goal MIA 19–13 4 0:41 FLA Neal 5-yard pass from Bell (Raymond kick) FLA 20–19 4 0:07 MIA Brown 12-yard pass from Kosar (Cox kick) MIA 26–20 4 0:00 MIA Bain 59-yard interception return MIA 32–20

See also: 1984 Miami Hurricanes football team and Florida–Miami football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
23–21	1983	W 28–3

LSU

See also: 1984 LSU Tigers football team and Florida–LSU football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
12–16–2	1983	W, 31–17

Auburn

See also: 1984 Auburn Tigers football and Auburn–Florida football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
24–34–2	1983	L 21–28

at Florida State

See also: 1984 Florida State Seminoles football team and Florida–Florida State football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
19–6–1	1983	W 53–14

Postseason

Despite winning the SEC title, the Gators were barred from going to the 1985 Sugar Bowl due to the violations committed under Pell; runner-up LSU went in their place.[3] On May 30, 1985, the presidents of the ten SEC-member universities voted 6–4 to vacate the Gators' 1984 SEC title and declared the team ineligible for the SEC championship during the upcoming 1985 and 1986 seasons because of the rule violations committed under Pell. The retroactive vacating of the 1984 championship, six months after the 1984 football season ended, drew an angry response from University of Florida president Marshall Criser, as well as Gators coaches, players and fans due to the retroactive nature of the decision and its perceived unfairness.[4]

References

1. University of Florida Sports Information Department. "Florida 1984 Football Guide" (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. "Commentary : What's Florida's Problem? Give the Title Back". latimes.
4. Associated Press, "SEC Presidents swipe Florida of football title", Times Daily, p. 5B (May 31, 1985). See also "Gators Stripped of SEC Title", The Palm Beach Post, pp. A1 & A5 (May 31, 1985). Both retrieved May 5, 2011.