Unfortunately for Gator Nation, the past decade for Florida football has been filled with several embarrassing and crushing losses.
Unless 2019 turns out to be a remarkably special season, Florida Gator fans will look back on the 2010s as a decade to forget. Since 2010, Florida owns the mediocre record of 70-44. Having recorded only three seasons with double-digit wins, two losing seasons and equivalent of one BCS bowl win, it’s tempting to drift back to the previous golden eras of Florida football.
In case you’ve forgotten, the 2000s were pretty good to Gainesville – minus the brief tenure of Ron Zook. With an overall record of 108-30, two national championship and five seasons with double-digit win totals, the Gators were living high. All this success came after a decade that saw as much, if not more success under the leadership of Steve Spurrier.
Though this past decade has produced few positive results, Gator Nation can point to the success of the 2018 season – a season that ended in Florida’s only New Year’s Day bowl win of the decade – and the leadership of coach Dan Mullen as a sign that the decade on the horizon will look more like the 90s than the past miserable ten years.
It may not be good to dwell on the negative from the past, but it’s good to be reminded why Gator Nation restlessly clamors for the return of the “Gator Standard” and the results it yielded.
Brace yourself, here are the five worst losses the Gators have experienced in the past decade.