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 record of 5–0–1, finishing first among ten SEC teams, and won their first-ever SEC title. Before then, the Gators had been one of only two charter SEC members 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.

Schedule

Primary source: 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide.

Personnel

Game summaries

vs. Miami (FL)

LSU

Auburn

at Florida State

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.
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.