An analysis of how Will Muschamp and the Florida Gators will do this season.
OFFENSE:
The most high-profile move Muschamp has made as the head coach at Florida has been bringing in Charlie Weis as offensive coordinator.
“I hired Charlie to run the offense,” said Muschamp of Weis. “I’ve got great confidence in what he’s going to do, what we want to be offensively, what I’ve identified we want to be offensively to be successful.”
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2006 Championship QB Chris Leak
Florida first fielded an official football team in 1906. Since then, the Gators have played in 34 bowl games, won eight Southeastern Conference titles, produced 135 All-Americans coming into the 2006 season, 35 NFL first round draft choices and three Heisman Trophy winners.
The football team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which is frequently referred to by its former designation of Division I-A.
Florida plays an eight-game conference schedule, headlined by annual SEC Eastern division showdowns against Tennessee and Georgia, the latter being held in Jacksonville, Florida every year and formerly dubbed “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.” The SEC West team the Gators face every season is LSU. In addition, the team has a yearly out-of-conference meeting with in-state rival Florida State at the end of the season.
The football team has been one of the winningest in Division I-A/FBS since 1990, the year Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier returned to his alma mater as head coach. The 1996 team, led by another Heisman winner, Danny Wuerffel, went 12-1 and won the national championship game in the Sugar Bowl, avenging an earlier loss to rival Florida State.
Following the 2001 season, Spurrier left the program to try his hand at coaching in the National Football League. Ron Zook, at one time the defensive coordinator under Spurrier, was hired as his replacement. Zook’s squads were known for inconsistency, and he was fired midway through the 2004 season, following a loss to heavy underdog Mississippi State in Starkville, MS.
Urban Meyer was announced as Florida Football’s new head coach in December 2004. His first season in 2005 brought an immediate improvement of Florida’s record at 9-3. The team narrowly missed out on playing for the SEC title due to a shocking loss to Spurrier’s new team, the South Carolina Gamecocks.
