GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- In their first game under head coach
Dan Mullen to start the 2018 season, the Gators ran onto Florida Field unranked. They've come a long way in the two seasons since.
Following LSU's 42-25 win over Clemson on Monday night in the national championship game, Florida finished sixth in the final
AP Top 25 poll, one spot ahead of where the Gators finished in Mullen's first season
The No. 6 ranking is Florida's highest finish in the AP Top 25 since the 2009 season when it finished third. Mullen, who joined Galen Hall (1985) a year ago as the first coach in school history to lead the Gators to a top-10 finish in his first full season, is the first UF coach to repeat the feat in his second season.
Florida finished tied for seventh with Georgia in the final AP Top 25 of the 2018 season and is one of only five schools to finish ranked seventh or higher the last two seasons. The Gators finished 11-2 and defeated Virginia in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Dec. 30 in Miami to cap their second season under Mullen, who is 21-5 since taking over the program.
"We've got to work harder next year than we did this year and try to get from 11 to 12,'' Mullen said following the Orange Bowl. "Once you get to 12, you might get a couple extra ones in there."
LSU, which finished sixth a year ago, polished off a 15-0 season Monday night and received all 62 first-place votes from the media panel in the season's final AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank. The Tigers also won AP titles in 2007 and 1958.
Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference had four teams finish in the top 10: LSU, Georgia (fourth), Florida and Alabama (eighth). The final poll marks the fifth time a single conference has had four teams in the final top 10, and fourth for the SEC.
For the Gators, it marks the first time since winning their third national title in 2008 that they have finished ahead of the Crimson Tide in the season-ending poll. A loss to Alabama in the 2009 SEC Championship Game shifted power not only in the SEC, but on the national stage as well with Alabama winning five national titles over the next 10 seasons.
Under Mullen, the Gators have their first back-to-back top-10 finishes in the AP Top 25 since 2008-09 and Florida is the only school in the country to be ranked in the top 10 in football and as one of the country's top 10 public universities.
