2016 Florida Gators football team

Previous season

Going into the season, the Florida football program, under the new leadership of Jim McElwain, was largely thought of as undergoing a rebuilding process. However, the team raced to a 6–0 start to the season, including an upset win versus then-no. 3 Ole Miss 38–10. The following game at Missouri would end up being the last game of 2015 for Will Grier, who was suspended the following week for taking a banned substance. Treon Harris was called to lead the offense for the rest of the season. With Harris as quarterback, the Gators won four out of their next five games, including 27–3 over rival Georgia and losing only to Western Division rival LSU 28–35. With a 9–7 win against Vanderbilt, the Gators captured their first SEC Eastern Division championship since 2012, and earned a berth in the SEC Championship Game for the first time since 2009. Florida's reenergized offense began to struggle toward the end of the season, as did the special teams. The Gators would need overtime to defeat Florida Atlantic, who finished 3–9 on the season. The Gators lost their final three games against rival Florida State, Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, and Michigan in the Citrus Bowl respectively, ending the season with a 10–4 record.

Florida's turnaround season earned McElwain the 2015 SEC Coach of the Year award. McElwain was also in contention for the 2015 AFCA Coach of the Year award by virtue of winning the regional AFCA award.

Schedule

Florida announced its 2016 football schedule on October 29, 2015. The 2016 schedule consists of seven home, five away, and one neutral site games in the regular season. The Gators will host SEC foes Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, and South Carolina, and will travel to Arkansas, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt. Florida will play Georgia in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Gators will travel to Arkansas for the first time since 2008. The team will host two of its three non–conference games, including Massachusetts and North Texas from Conference USA. They were set to play Presbyterian, from the Big South Conference, but the game was cancelled to make room for the makeup game against LSU. Florida will travel to Tallahassee for their final regular season game to play in–state rival Florida State from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

^{^[a]} The game between Florida and LSU was postponed in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Matthew. It was originally scheduled for October 8 at Florida Field in Gainesville but was moved to November 19 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. Schedule source:

UMass

The 2016 season will kick off with a primetime game against the UMass Minutemen, and will be the first all-time contest between the two schools. Before the game, the Gators will conduct a ceremony to honor Steve Spurrier, Florida's winningest football coach, by renaming the playing surface to Steve Spurrier–Florida Field.

Kentucky

Florida's last loss to Kentucky came in 1986. Since then, Florida has defeated the Wildcats 29 years in a row, the longest active winning streak over an annual opponent. The all-time record is Notre Dame's 43-game winning streak against Navy from 1964 to 2006. Last year's game at Commonwealth Stadium was closely contested. Florida did lead 14–3 at halftime, although Kentucky was able to narrow the Gators' lead to 5 with two fourth quarter field goals before time expired.

North Texas

This will be the second meeting between the two schools, with North Texas having won the only prior game, 20–12, in 1947.

Tennessee

Florida engineered a thrilling fourth quarter comeback in last year's contest. Tennessee led 27–14 with 10:19 remaining in the game. The Gators scored a touchdown with 4:09 remaining, and forced Tennessee to punt on the following possession. The next drive ended when Will Grier, facing 4th-and-14 at their own 37-yard line, completed a pass to Antonio Callaway who raced to the end zone to tie the game at 27. Jorge Powell made the extra point to give the Gators a one-point lead with 1:26 remaining. On the ensuing drive, Tennessee's Aaron Medley was able to attempt a game-winning 55-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining, but missed wide right.

Vanderbilt

Florida scored a touchdown in the first quarter of last year's game, but the extra point was missed. Vanderbilt's rush leader, Ralph Webb, ran 74-yards for a game-tying touchdown, and Hayden Lekacz made the extra point to put the Commodores ahead 7–6 to go into halftime. Every drive of the third quarter for both teams ended with a punt. Finally with 3:10 remaining in the fourth quarter, Austin Hardin made a 43-yard field goal to put the Gators ahead 9–7. The defense was able to hold off Vanderbilt on the ensuing drive, and the Gators were able to run off the final seconds to earn a 9–7 escape.

Missouri

Last year's game saw both teams score on their opening drives – Florida with a touchdown, Missouri with a field goal. Florida would score a second touchdown in the first quarter, which after a scoreless second quarter gave the Gators a 14–3 lead over the Tigers. The Gators scored again with their third and final touchdown of the game in the third quarter, and held the Tigers scoreless through the second half, earning the Gators a 21–3 victory and 6–0 start to the season.

Georgia

One of only two neutral-site SEC series (Arkansas–Texas A&M), Florida and Georgia have played a storied series since 1906 (though Georgia contends that they first met in 1904). The game has been held in Jacksonville since 1933, only playing a home-and-home in 1994 and 1995 due to construction of Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.
Florida drew first blood in last year's game when a muffed punt was recovered by Florida in Georgia's end zone at the end of the first quarter. Florida entered the second quarter leading 6–0 after a blocked extra point. The Gators would add to their lead in the second quarter with two touchdowns, one from Harris–Callaway touchdown pass, the other from a 3-yard run by Kelvin Taylor following Georgia quarterback Faton Bauta's second interception and went to the locker room with a 20–0 lead. Georgia would score the only points of the third quarter with Marshall Morgan's 26-yard field goal. Georgia's Faton Bauta threw his third interception of the game in the fourth quarter, and Florida with a 3-minute touchdown drive. Georgia's final drive of the game ended with a fifth interception for Faton Bauta, and Jim McElwain earned his first victory over the Gators' bitter rival in his first year.

Arkansas

In what would end up being a season to forget for both teams – Florida went 4–8 in 2013, Arkansas went 3–9 – Arkansas visited the The Swamp for a primetime game. Arkansas scored first toward the end of the first quarter before the Gators scored 17 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 17–7 halftime lead. Florida scored once more early in the third quarter to extend their lead to 24–7. Arkansas would later make a 30-yard field goal to decrease their deficit to 14, but Valdez Showers earned the game's final score with a 9-yard pass from Tyler Murphy, and the Gators earned what would be their last win of 2013.

South Carolina

Jim McElwain's predecessor Will Muschamp, in his first year as Steve Spurrier's full-time successor at South Carolina, will return to The Swamp for the first time since his 2014 firing from Florida.
Last year, Florida 17–0 lead to enter the fourth quarter before Pharoh Cooper and Perry Orth respectively caught touchdown passes from each other on consecutive drives. On the ensuing drive, however, Florida was able to consolidate their squandered lead, and earned the game's final score as the Gamecocks were unable to answer.

LSU

The game was originally scheduled to be played on October 8 in Gainesville, but it was postponed and moved due to Hurricane Matthew's destructive path up the northeast Florida coast on October 7. Florida's home game with Presbyterian and LSU's home game against South Alabama - both previously scheduled for November 19 - were cancelled to enable the rescheduling. In return for having Florida visit Baton Rouge two years in a row, LSU agreed to play in Gainesville during both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Florida State

The record-breaking crowd at The Swamp witnessed the lowest score Florida has ever attained in the Florida–Florida State series. After a scoreless first quarter, Roberto Aguayo made a 45-yard field goal to give the Seminoles a 3–0 lead. Sean Maguire connected with Jeremy Kerr to extend the lead to ten before the halftime break. 9:39 into the third quarter, Roberto Aguayo made his second field goal, this time from 51 yards to extend the Seminole lead to 13. Florida's offense continued to be ineffective, and it took a safety midway through the fourth quarter to put the Gators on the board, trailing by 11. However, Dalvin Cook ran for 15- and 29-yards respectively for touchdowns, the latter one coming with twenty seconds remaining in the game, and the no. 14 Seminoles embarrassed the no. 10 Gators at home 27–2.

Alabama

Since defeating Alabama in the 2008 SEC Championship Game, Florida has lost the last five games against Alabama. Florida trails 14–26 in the all-time series, but has a 4–4 record when playing the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game.