Florida Receives Humbling Overall Ranking at SEC Program
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The Florida Gators were never really a football power until Steve Spurrier arrived at Gainesville in 1990.
The Gators won their first SEC title in 1991, Spurrier's second season with the program. He'd go on to win a total of six SEC championships and win a national championship for the 1996 season.
Spurrier's successor, Ron Zook, had a winning season in each of three seasons with Florida, but never had the Gators in contention to win a national championship.
Urban Meyer brought the Gators back into the spotlight, winning two SEC championships and two national championships when he was with Florida from 2005 to 2010.
Since 2008, Florida has not won an SEC championship, and the program fired Billy Napier last season amid a 3-4 start. New head coach Jon Sumrall will try to get the program back to where it was in the first decade of this century.
Blake Toppmeyer of USA Today ranked Florida as the No. 7 overall program in the SEC, a humbling spot for a program that has had a couple of dominant eras.
"Few individuals mean more to a program than what Steve Spurrier means to Florida," Toppmeyer wrote. "He revolutionized the Gators from an also-ran into one of the premier programs of the 1990s. The Head Ball Coach branded The Swamp and gave the Gators an identity.
"They became SEC championship game regulars. Urban Meyer injected more glory with two titles. Florida lacks the consistency and history of some higher-ranked programs, but its peaks are just as lofty."
Toppmeyer has Florida ranked behind Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, LSU, and Tennessee.
Toppmeyer might have put LSU too low on his list, but the ranking of Florida seems fair in the grand scheme of college football.
The Gators have the potential to be better, and there is hope that Sumrall can bring the program back into the SEC title and national title conversation.
Overall, Florida's record is 772-458-40.
If the rankings had come since the 1990s, the Gators would certainly be higher on the list. However, UF hasn't had enough success since 2011, with Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen, and Napier failing to win elite games.
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