Season summary 1996 Florida Gators football team

1 season summary

1.1 southwestern louisiana
1.2 georgia southern
1.3 tennessee
1.4 kentucky
1.5 arkansas
1.6 lsu
1.7 auburn
1.8 georgia
1.9 vanderbilt
1.10 south carolina
1.11 florida state

season summary
southwestern louisiana


date: august 31
location: ben hill griffin stadium, gainesville, florida
game attendance: 85,050

in season opener @ swamp, florida beat southwestern louisiana 55–21.

bob stoops s gator defense held cajuns scoreless in first half, , scored 4 touchdowns (as offense). cornerback fred weary himself accounted 2 touchdowns.

georgia southern


date: september 7
location: ben hill griffin stadium, gainesville, florida
game attendance: 84,962

in second week of play, gators romped 62–14 defeat of georgia southern. offense after misfiring in opener danny wuerffel had near perfect game, completing 15 of 16 passes , 2 touchdowns.

the defense underperformed, giving 311 yards georgia southern s flexbone attack.

tennessee


date: september 21
location: neyland stadium, knoxville, tennessee
game attendance: 107,608
tv announcers (cbs): jim nantz & terry donahue

the third game showdown between no. 4 florida , no. 2 tennessee. volunteers quarterback peyton manning had not beaten gators in 2 previous attempts, , after second-half meltdown year earlier in gainesville, volunteers looking exact revenge on sec east rival in knoxville. game featured 2 of top quarterbacks in college football, manning , florida s danny wuerffel. both teams featured strong aerial attacks, florida s fred taylor , tennessee s jay graham among sec s best tailbacks. espn s college gameday on hand broadcast pregame show live knoxville.

the tone game set on florida s first drive, spurrier spurned punt team on 4th , 10 ut 35, , wuerffel connected reidel anthony touchdown put gators 7–0. teako brown intercepted manning on volunteers first drive, , took wuerffel 1 play find end zone again, hitting terry jackson out extend lead 14–0. florida doubled lead in 52-second stretch in 2nd quarter, ike hilliard , jacquez green became third , fourth different receivers touchdown receptions on afternoon, sandwiched around james bates interception of manning. anthone lott s fumble return stretched lead 35–0, before manning got vols on scoreboard before halftime on strike peerless price.

with florida switching more conservative offensive game plan in second half, manning cut lead 35–22 8 minutes left 2 more touchdown tosses, including second price. andy mccellough s reception brought vols within 35–29 10 seconds play, florida recovered ensuing onside kick hang on six-point win on rainy knoxville afternoon. florida limited tailback jay graham on 12 carries, while manning threw school-record .

kentucky


date: september 28
location: ben hill griffin stadium, gainesville, florida
game attendance: 85,422

coming off big win in knoxville week before , being ranked #1 first time since 1994, gators looking of easy home game against kentucky wildcats. prove true gators posted first shutout since 31–0 drubbing of tennessee in knoxville in 1994, florida defeating kentucky 65–0.

the gators scored 63 seconds game touchdown pass danny wuerffel ike hilliard. wuerffel have 3 touchdown passes in all, day belonged jacquez green. in 3rd quarter, green took punt touchdown. on kentucky s next possession, punt again , green, still breathing heavy first return, weaved way score. in all, gators amassed on 300 return yards punts , kickoffs. fred taylor made season debut 45 yards on 6 attempts.

arkansas


date: october 5
location: razorback stadium, fayetteville, arkansas
game attendance: 52,318

florida traveled fayetteville , beat arkansas 42–7. gators had abysmal second quarter, recovered , danny wuerffel threw then-school record of 462 yards.

a defensive stand , missed field goal arkansas start second half jolted gators life. wuerffel passed 3 touchdowns.

lsu


date: october 12
location: ben hill griffin stadium, gainesville, florida
game attendance: 85,567

with florida winning convincingly season, next 2 weeks might have proved challenge gators, #12 lsu , #16 auburn coming town. business usual gators. gators proved worthy of #1 ranking first thumped lsu tigers 56–13.

lsu came in undefeated on campaign , featured offense scored 38 points per game. florida, however, not thinking upset, danny wuerffel threw 3 touchdowns, 2 of them ike hilliard, , ran score gators proved have better offense. fred taylor had breakout game, running 107 yards on 16 carries.

their defense came play forced 2 turnovers , recorded 7 sacks , held lsu offense 28 rushing yards.

auburn


date: october 19
location: ben hill griffin stadium, gainesville, florida
game start: 3:30 p. m.
game attendance: 85,697

next ranked team, 16th ranked auburn came gainesville. first half may have been closer have expected, auburn kicked field goal late trail 21–10. tigers gators reeled off 30 unanswered points en route 51–10 win.

like lsu game, gators scored quick , often, amassing on 600 yards of offense , holding auburn 173 yards. danny wuerffel again threw 3 touchdowns , ran red-hot florida offense. taylor ran 110 yards on 14 carries.

georgia


date: november 2
location: alltel stadium, jacksonville, florida
game attendance: 84,103

top ranked florida coming in looking win 7th consecutive game against georgia in world s largest outdoor cocktail party. @ end of day, alltel stadium half teal (teal seats in stadium) , half orange , blue gators won 47–7. point in season, florida bruising opponents average score of 52–12.

danny wuerffel again have outstanding game, bolstering heisman trophy candidacy, 279 yards passing , 4 touchdowns. gators amassed on 200 yards rushing. gator defense held dawgs 272 yards , 1 touchdown on day.

vanderbilt


date: november 9
location: vanderbilt stadium, nashville, tennessee
game attendance: 40,249

hampered penalties throughout, gators survived scare vanderbilt commodores in nashville 28–21.

after injury tackle zach piller, vanderbilt sacked , stripped danny wuerffel, , jamie duncan returned fumble touchdown. 2-point conversion on pass todd yoder brought score 28–14 , inspired commodores. in fourth quarter, vanderbilt jason dunnavant broke off 34-yard touchdown run , score 28–21. vanderbilt missed field goal, , 1 final drive stopped @ own 47-yard line.

overcoming 5 sacks, wuerffel passed 283 yards , 4 touchdowns.

south carolina


date: november 16
location: ben hill griffin stadium, gainesville, florida
game attendance: 85,701

the gators struggled despite 52–25 win on south carolina gamecocks. wuerffel had off-day, late, , never failed find passing rhythm; helped fred taylor lift florida on gamecocks. spurrier became gators all-time winningest coach, surpassing ray graves 70 career wins. spurrier gave graves game ball, gave talk team.

early on in game, wuerffel threw 56-yard touchdown pass jacquez green , 52-yard touchdown pass reidel anthony. taylor ran 139 yards , 3 touchdowns on 21 carries on day.

florida state


date: november 30
location: doak campbell stadium, tallahassee, florida
game attendance: 80,932

the rival florida state seminoles defeated gators 24–21, seemingly ending florida s chance @ national title. first time in series history, both squads undefeated 10–0. seminoles scored 17 straight points in first quarter , warrick dunn rushed career-best 185 yards.

hit echo said fsu coach bobby bowden (pictured)

the seminoles had 1 of best defenses in nation, savage pass rush included all-americans peter boulware , reinard wilson. seminoles had been flagged roughing passer twice during game, , spurrier had uf video staff compile footage claimed showed fsu players tackling wuerffel late half-dozen additional times. gator receiver reidel anthony still managed career bests in receptions (11) , yards gained (193). if danny have had more time, have killed them. getting past them time kinds of routes. florida had 443 yards of offense, wuerffel threw 3 interceptions , sacked 6 times.

the third quarter scoreless both teams played on defense. fsu s pooh bear williams got ball endzone put seminoles 24–14 midway through fourth quarter. down late, florida went 80 yards in 8 plays, including 31-yard pass anthony, down 3-yard line. short pass anthony brought florida within field goal on minute left. subsequent onside kick went out of bounds, , game sealed when dunn ran first down. spurrier continued complain press late hits while fsu coach bobby bowden responded thought hits in question clean while admitting hit echo (of whistle), instead of whistle.

cite error: there <ref group=n> tags on page, references not show without {{reflist|group=n}} template (see page).