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 (later vacated due to NCAA violations). Before then, the Gators had been one of only two charter SEC members (the other being Vanderbilt) to have never finished the season with the best record in the conference. 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)
ConferenceSoutheastern Conference
Ranking
CoachesNo. 7
APNo. 3
1984 record9–1–1 (5–0–1 SEC)
Head coach
Offensive coordinatorGalen Hall (1st season)
Defensive coordinatorJoe Kines (4th season)
Home stadiumFlorida Field
(Capacity: 72,000)[1]
1984 Southeastern Conference football standings
Conf  Overall
TeamW 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
DateOpponentRankSiteTVResultAttendance
September 1vs. No. 10 Miami (FL)*No. 17
ESPNL 20–3272,813
September 8LSU
TBST 21–2170,197
September 15Tulane*
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL
W 63–2165,265
September 29Mississippi State
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL
W 27–1268,186
October 6Syracuse*
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL
W 16–070,189
October 13at TennesseeNo. 18
W 43–3094,016
October 20Cincinnati*No. 17
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL
W 48–1773,690
November 3No. 11 AuburnNo. 13
  • Florida Field
  • Gainesville, FL (rivalry)
ABCW 24–374,397
November 10vs. No. 8 GeorgiaNo. 10
CBSW 27–082,349
November 17at KentuckyNo. 5
TBSW 25–1752,823
December 1at No. 12 Florida State*No. 3
ABCW 27–1758,930
  • *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.#NameClass
RB 27 Neal Anderson Jr
QB 12 Kerwin Bell Fr
QB Rodney Brewer
OL Phil Bromley
OL Lomas Brown
RB Reggie Corlew
OL Jimmy Davis
OL Jack Gerzina
RB Lorenzo Hampton
RB Joe Henderson
OL Dwayne Hinson
TE Rodney Jones
OL Crawford Ker
RB James Massey
WR Ray McDonald
WR 89 Ricky Nattiel So
WR 21 Frankie Neal So
TE Walter Odom
TE Duncan Parham
TE Tom Peddle
WR Gary Rolle
WR Linzey Smith
WR Bret Wiechmann
RB Anthony Williams
FB 22 John L. Williams Jr
OL Jeff Zimmerman
 Defense
Pos.#NameClass
LB Scott Armstrong
S Vernell Brown
DT Tommy Duhart
DB Ricky Easmon
DL Sam Garland
LB Alonzo Johnson
LB Mark Korff
LB Patrick Miller
LB Alonzo Mitz
LB Ron Moten
DL Tim Newton
LB Leon Pennington
DB Roger Sibbald
DB Curtis Stacey
DT Don Tinny
DB Adrian White
CB Jarvis Williams
DL Keith Williams
 Special teams
Pos.#NameClass
P Ray Criswell
P David Nadone
K Chris Perkins
K Bobby Raymond Sr
Head coach
Coordinators/assistant coaches
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (S) Suspended
  • (I) Ineligible
  • Injured
  • Redshirt

Game summaries

vs. Miami (FL)
#10 Miami (FL) vs. #17 Florida
1 234Total
• Hurricanes 3 13313 32
Gators 3 737 20
See also: 1984 Miami Hurricanes football team and Florida–Miami football rivalry


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

at Tennessee
See also: 1984 Tennessee Volunteers football team
Florida Gators (3–1–1) at Tennessee Volunteers (2–1–1)
1 2 34Total
Florida 13 10 02043
Tennessee 10 3 31430

at Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, Tennessee

  • Date: October 13
  • Game weather: Sunny
  • Game attendance: 94,016
  • [3]
  • John L. Williams led the team in receiving and added 100 yards on the ground.
  • The game featured 1,060 total yards and 47 first downs.

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


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


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.[4] 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.[5]

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. Gainesville Sun. 1984 Oct 14. Pg. 8F. Retrieved 2020-Dec-05.
  4. "Commentary : What's Florida's Problem? Give the Title Back". latimes.
  5. 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.
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