2017 Florida Gators football team

The 2016 season opener was highlighted by the rededication of Florida Field to honor Steve Spurrier, the all-time winningest head coach in Florida history, as the field was rebranded as Steve Spurrier-Florida Field.[3] Florida yielded only 14 points over the first three games of the 2016 season, including a 38-point domination of SEC East rival Kentucky, and a shutout victory over the North Texas Mean Green. In the latter game, Gators starting quarterback Luke Del Rio exited the game with a knee injury and would not return. Austin Appleby was called to lead the offense for the next two games at Tennessee and Vanderbilt respectively. Tennessee, seeking revenge for the previous year's comeback by the Gators at The Swamp, quickly fell behind as the Gators entered halftime with a commanding 21–3 lead. However, the Gators experienced a colossal collapse in the second half as Tennessee stormed back with 35 unanswered points before Florida could score a touchdown late in the game, and the Gators left Knoxville with a stunning 28–38 loss on their record, the first of the season. At Vanderbilt, the Gators struggled to a 13–6 victory over the Commodores. The Gators' next game was to be against the LSU in Gainesville. However, it became apparent that week as the date of the game approached that Hurricane Matthew would likely devastate Florida's Atlantic coast. Because only a small deviation in the storm's destructive projected path would have brought severe weather to the immediate Gainesville area, the Saturday game was indefinitely postponed on Thursday.[4] In the week that followed, heated negotiations between athletic directors Jeremy Foley of Florida and Joe Alleva of LSU. LSU refused to concede a home game in order to make up the game, so Florida agreed to travel to LSU on November 19. In exchange, LSU agreed to play the Florida game in Gainesville for the next two seasons.[5] After an unplanned bye week, Florida cruised to a 40–14 victory over Missouri, a game in which Luke Del Rio made his return, as the Gators led into the originally scheduled bye week before the annual rivalry game against Georgia in Jacksonville. Florida led 14–10 after a back-and-forth first half before shutting out the Bulldogs 10–0 in the second half to earn their third consecutive victory over their rivals with a 24–10 win, earning a 6–1 record on the season. With Tennessee losing their third consecutive conference game the same day, Florida moved into November with a 2-game advantage over the Volunteers.[6] However, the Gators would pick up their second conference loss the following week after a 31–10 blowout by the unranked Arkansas Razorbacks. Florida returned home for senior day against South Carolina the next week, defeating the Gamecocks 20–7 in Will Muschamp's first time back to The Swamp since his firing after the 2014 season. The Gators were now poised to secure the Eastern Division championship in the conference finale, the makeup game at LSU. The defense capitalized on numerous LSU turnovers while the offense put on a solid performance which included a 98-yard touchdown pass to put the Gators up 10–7 entering the fourth quarter. The game eventually came down to a fourth-and-goal play for LSU with three seconds remaining in the game, a play which was stuffed by the Gators defense, preserving an emotional 16–10 win in Death Valley to guarantee a berth in the 2016 SEC Championship Game against undefeated Alabama. Florida lost for the fourth straight year to rival Florida State 13–31 to close out the regular season, and was trounced 54–16 by Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Florida accepted a berth in the 2017 Outback Bowl against Iowa, which the Gators easily won 30–3 to end the season at 9–4, earning Jim McElwain his only bowl victory at Florida.

The spring game, dubbed the Orange and Blue Debut, took place on April 7, in Gainesville.

The Gators' 2017 schedule consisted of 6 home games, 3 away games, and 2 neutral site games in the regular season. The Gators hosted SEC opponents Tennessee, Vanderbilt, LSU, and Texas A&M. They traveled to Kentucky, Missouri, and South Carolina. They faced Georgia at a neutral site.

Florida's non-conference schedule consisted of two home games: UAB and their rival Florida State. A third was scheduled for Sep 9 vs Northern Colorado, but was canceled due to inclement weather caused by Hurricane Irma. The season was opened against Michigan in the Advocare Classic.

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 2	3:30 p.m.	vs. No. 11 Michigan*	No. 17	AT&T Stadium Arlington, TX (Advocare Classic)	ABC	L 17–33	75,802
September 16	3:30 p.m.	No. 23 Tennessee	No. 24	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	CBS	W 26–20	87,736
September 23	7:30 p.m.	at Kentucky	No. 20	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY	SECN	W 28–27	62,945
September 30	12:00 p.m.	Vanderbilt	No. 21	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL	ESPN	W 38–24	84,478
October 7	3:30 p.m.	LSU	No. 21	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	CBS	L 16–17	88,247
October 14	7:00 p.m.	Texas A&M		Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL	ESPN2	L 17–19	86,114
October 28	3:30 p.m.	vs. No. 3 Georgia		EverBank Field Jacksonville, FL (rivalry)	CBS	L 7–42	84,107
November 4	12:00 p.m.	at Missouri		Faurot Field Columbia, MO	ESPN2	L 16–45	49,154
November 11	12:00 p.m.	at South Carolina		Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, SC	CBS	L 20–28	79,727
November 18	4:00 p.m.	UAB*		Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL	SECN	W 36–7	84,649
November 25	12:00 p.m.	Florida State*		Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	ESPN	L 22–38	89,066
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to the game

^{^[a]} The game between Florida and Northern Colorado was originally scheduled for September 9 at 7:30 p.m. On the Wednesday before the game, the kickoff time was moved up to noon, as forecasts for Hurricane Irma had the storm approaching the east coast of Florida on Sunday. On Thursday, updated forecast tracks (correctly) predicted that Irma would move up the middle of the Florida peninsula as a major hurricane, prompting both schools to agree to cancel the game altogether due to safety and traffic concerns. This cancellation marked the third time in four seasons that Florida had to cancel or move a home game due to inclement weather and the second season in a row in which a scheduled home game was affected by the threat of a hurricane.[8]

Schedule Source[9]