Florida football missing a bowl game for second time in three years

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The Florida Gators won't be playing in a bowl game for the second time in three seasons. Florida's 34-24 loss to Ole Miss ensured that the Gators have seven losses and will miss the postseason for the fourth time since 2013.

Florida fired head coach Billy Napier earlier this season and is rebuilding their team. The Gators nearly beat their hated rival, the Georgia Bulldogs a few weeks ago, but came up short. The close defeat may have felt like a bit of a moral victory for Florida, but losses don't help you punch a ticket to the Gasparilla Bowl (the Gators are the defending Gasparilla Bowl champions and had made Tampa-based bowl game in two of the last five seasons).

Of course Florida fans have higher expectations than a Gasparilla Bowl appearance or a 30-3 blowout loss to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. Those expectations combined with poor results on the field are why the Gators are looking for a new coach.

The reality for Florida is a bit harsher. Florida's Gasparilla Bowl win is the Gators' best postseason result over the past five seasons. Florida thinks it will convince Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin to come to The Swamp, but Kiffin is happy at Ole Miss, so luring him away from Mississippi won't be easy or cheap.

"To even talk about it right now would be so disrespectful to our players and how well they played together," Kiffin said after Ole Miss' win over Florida. "We have a lot of things going here, doing really well and I love it here."

Florida could have actually helped their cause for both Kiffin and making a bowl game. All the Gators had to do was win. A win would've made Ole Miss less likely to make the playoff. With Kiffin likely making the playoff and Ole Miss have a postseason run, then it could complicate things for any team trying to pursue him.

We'll see who Florida ends up hiring, but we do know that Georgia fans are loving Florida's turmoil. The Bulldogs have more national championships (two) and SEC championships (two) than Florida has bowl game wins over the past five seasons. Of course of the same time span, Florida does have one more Gasprilla Bowl win than Georgia! Now is a great time to be a Georgia fan.

This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: Florida missing a bowl game after latest loss

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