Dan Mullen led the Gators to a 9-3 regular season and No. 9 ranking in this week's College Football Playoff poll. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Gators No. 9 in Penultimate CFB Playoff Rankings
Tuesday, November 27, 2018 | Football
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Florida is ranked ninth in the fifth College Football Playoff rankings of the season.
By: Will Pantages
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gators (9-3) finished the regular season last weekend when they halted Florida State's bowl streak, which began in 1982. In addition, Florida ensured the Seminoles (5-7) of their first losing season since 1976.
The win capped a memorable and exciting first regular season for Dan Mullen and his staff. The final chapter of this campaign will be learned on Sunday when the Gators hope to be selected to an at-large spot in a New Year's Six bowl game.
When asked after last Saturday's game if Florida's body of work this season is deserving of such a national stage, Mullen believes his team is in the conversation.
"That's hard for me to say because only 12 teams get to go do that," Mullen said. "We've certainly put ourselves in the conversation as one of those teams."
Dan Mullen surpassed Ray Graves (1960) for the largest win improvement in school history by a first-year head coach. The Gators went 5-4-1 in 1959 under Bob Woodruff and then 9-2 in Graves.
As it has been well documented, Florida won only four games last season.
First time in school history the Gators bounced back from a sub.-500 season with at least nine wins.
Biggest win turnaround in program history since 1980 (0-10-1, 1979 to 8-4, 1980).
Florida is the only team ranked in the AP Poll Top 15 that won less than seven games last season.
UF is one of five FBS teams to finish under .500 last season and win at least nine games this year.
Florida became just the fourth SEC team in the last 15 seasons with multiple 17-point comeback wins in a season (at Vanderbilt, South Carolina), joining 2016 Tennessee, 2011 Arkansas, and 2010 Auburn.
Prior to defeating No. 5 LSU in October, Florida had lost nine of its last 11 games against top-five teams, a stretch that dated back to the start of the 2010 season. Six of those nine losses were by 21-plus points.
Prior to its win at then-No. 23 Mississippi State, UF was 3-13 in road games against ranked teams since the start of the 2010 season.
With wins over No. 23 Mississippi State and No. 5 LSU, Florida beat consecutive ranked teams for the first time since 2012, when it beat No. 23 Tennessee (Sept. 15), No. 4 LSU (Oct. 6), and No. 9 South Carolina (Oct. 20).
It was also the first time since 2008 Florida defeated ranked opponents in back-to-back games, when it won at No. 23 Florida State (Nov. 29), beat No. 1 Alabama in the SEC Championship Game (Dec. 6), and topped No. 2 Oklahoma in the BCS National Championship Game (Jan. 8, 2009).
Dan Mullen and Galen Hall are only head coaches in school history to win their first two games against ranked opponents. Hall beat his first six ranked foes, with three coming amid his interim season (1984).
Offensive Improvement:
Florida's four 500-yard games this season are more than it had from 2015-17 combined, and are its most such games in a season since 2009, when it posted five 500-yard games.
UF has nine games of 350-plus yards for the fourth time since the start of 2005 it hit that mark that many times in a season (2008 – 12; 2007 – 10; 2009 – 10).
Florida also has five games of 425-plus yards this year; it had five such games combined from 2015-17.
Florida passed the 2010 Gators (43 in 13 games) for its most scrimmage touchdowns in a season since 2009, when it scored 58 in 14 games.
The Gators have 47 scrimmage touchdowns this year.
The Gators rushed for 200-plus yards eight times this season, which matched its combined total from 2015-17.
Jachai Polite
Defensive Standouts:
Florida's defense joined the 1996 and 1997 Gators as the only other UF teams since the start of the 1990 season to record five-plus sacks in four games.
Florida surpassed its 13-game tackles for loss total from 2016 (80) with eight last Saturday.
Florida has eight-plus tackles for loss in six games for only the second time since the start of the 2012 season (they did it six times in 2015 as well).
Jachai Polite has become one of the top pass rushers in the country.
Polite is the eighth Gator—and first since Marcus Maye (2015)—in history to log five forced fumbles in a season. Clifford Charlton (six in 1986) holds the UF record.
Polite's seven career forced fumbles are tied with Marcus Maye (2012-16), Anthone Lott (1993-96), Lawrence Wright (1993-96), and Ben Hanks (1992-95) for the fourth-highest total in school history.
Polite has 11 sacks this season, which ties him with Derrick Harvey (2006), Clifford Charlton (1986), Alonzo Johnson (1984), and Wilber Marshall (1981) for the fifth-highest single-season total in school history.
Polite and Jabari Zuniga have combined to be one of the most lethal defensive line combinations in America.
Polite and Zuniga are the first pair of Gators with at least 11 tackles for loss in a season since the trio of Jon Bullard (17.5), Antonio Morrison (12.0) and Jarrad Davis (11.0) all reached that mark in 2015.
In addition, they are the first pair of Gators defensive linemen to reach that total in a season since Jaye Howard (12.0) and Justin Trattou (11.0) did it in 2010.
C.J. Henderson has become one of the best cornerbacks in America this season.
Opponents have a 36.6 passer rating when targeting Henderson
Opponents are 15-of-36 (41.7 percent) when targeting Henderson
Has five pressures in 11 pass-rush snaps
Has two interceptions and a team-high seven pass breakups (tied for 15th in the SEC)
Evan McPherson
Special Teams:
Florida is tied for 16th among FBS teams with three blocked kicks and punts this year. The three blocks are UF's highest season total since 2012 (six). The Gators had four blocks from 2013-17.
Special team's coordinator Greg Knox has made an immediate impact with the Gators. Knox's Mississippi State teams blocked 15 kicks or punts from 2014-17, which tied for the SEC lead and ranked 3rd nationally.
Since the start of 2014 (and including UF this year) here's where Knox's groups rank among all FBS teams:
Since Florida's recovered blocked punt in the end zone counts as a punt return touchdown, the Gators are one of 17 FBS teams (and one of three SEC teams--Georgia; Tennessee) with multiple punt return TDs.
This is the first time since 2015 and only the second time since the start of the 2012 season the Gators have multiple punt return touchdowns in a season. Florida has never had more than two in a season.
Freshman kicker Evan McPherson was one of the 20 Lou Groza Award semifinalists, and he has shown no signs of nerves replacing Eddy Pineiro, the 2017 FBS leader in field goal percentage (94.4% / 17-of-18).
McPherson is 15 for 17 (88.2 percent) and ranked seventh nationally in field goal percentage.
His 15 made field goals rank tied for 28th nationally, and his only misses this year have been different degrees of controversial, with the ball appearing to go over the top of the uprights both times.
There are plenty of the more statistics to give, but this is the quickest summary that show Florida's resume that the CFB Playoff Committee has to weigh against other schools for New Year's Six bowl bids.
Dan Mullen and C.J. Henderson discuss strategy during Saturday's game at FSU.
Florida debuted at No. 11 in the College Football Playoff Rankings, but fell to No. 15 after its 38-17 loss to the Missouri Tigers three weeks ago. Two weeks ago, Florida bumped up to No. 13 after its come-from-behind victory over South Carolina and the Gators moved up to No. 11 after its thrashing of Idaho.
The Gators now sit at No. 9 as the Gators hope to play in a New Year's Six bowl for the first time since the conclusion of the 2012 season, when the Gators faced Louisville in the Sugar Bowl.
