Florida wide receiver Eugene Wilson III (3) celebrates a catch Saturday against the Georgia Bulldogs at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville. [Matthew Lewis/WRUF]

Bowl or Bust: Florida’s Extended Periods Without Bowl Appearances

With a close loss to Georgia on Saturday, the chances for a bowl appearance for the Florida Gators are increasingly slim.

Sitting at 3-5 with four games remaining, Florida must win three games to earn a bowl bid. Thus, UF must beat either No. 7 Ole Miss on the road or No. 23 Tennessee at home.

If the Gators fail to make it to a bowl, this will be the program’s second year missing a postseason game in the past three years. The last time that Florida missed at least two bowl appearances in a three-season period was from 1977 to 1979 under coaches Doug Dickey (1977-78) and Charley Pell (1979).

The ’77 Gators (6-4-1) could have secured a bowl appearance in their last game of the season, but they fell to Florida State 37-9. The 1978 team finished 4-7, which led to Florida removing Dickey.

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Florida hired Pell in 1979 to replace Dickey. His first season at the helm of the program ended with the team’s worst record since 1946 at 0-10-1, one of three times in Florida’s 119-year history that it has gone winless.

This was the second time in the ’70s that the Gators had a three-year bowl absence, their first coming from 1970 to 1972, the first three seasons of Dickey’s tenure. The team finished with a winning record (7-4) in 1970, but did not make an appearance due to the limited number of bowl games at that time.

The Gators also missed three straight postseason games from 1984 to 1986 when the program faced a three-year bowl game ban due to NCAA violations under Pell. However, each of those teams would have been bowl eligible if not for the ban.

So it’s clear a berth matters for Florida in its final stretch.

“Getting to a bowl game is everything,” quarterback DJ Lagway said Saturday. “Most important is just taking it one day at a time, continue to get better and just focusing on our process and our development.”

Florida’s next game is a must-win, primetime road matchup against Kentucky at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF).

Category: Gators Football