1994 Florida Gators football team

The 1994 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida during the 1994 NCAA Division I-A football season. The season was Steve Spurrier's fifth as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Spurrier's 1994 Florida Gators posted an overall record of 10–2–1 and a 6–1 record in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), placing first among the six SEC Eastern Division teams and winning the SEC championship.^[1][2]

1994 Florida Gators football
SEC champion SEC Eastern Division champion
SEC Championship Game, W 24–23 vs. Alabama
Sugar Bowl, L 17–23 vs. Florida State
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Division	Eastern Division
Ranking
Coaches	No. 7
AP	No. 7
Record	10–2–1 (7–1 SEC)
Head coach	Steve Spurrier (5th season)
Offensive scheme	Fun and gun
Defensive coordinator	Bob Pruett (1st season)
Base defense	3–4
Captains	Terry Dean Aubrey Hill Ellis Johnson Larry Kennedy Henry McMillian
Home stadium	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
Seasons ← 1993 1995 →

1994 Southeastern Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Eastern Division
No. 7 Florida x$	7	–	1	–	0			10	–	2	–	1
No. 22 Tennessee	5	–	3	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
South Carolina	4	–	4	–	0			7	–	5	–	0
Georgia	3	–	4	–	1			6	–	4	–	1
Vanderbilt	2	–	6	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Kentucky	0	–	8	–	0			1	–	10	–	0
Western Division
No. 5 Alabama x	8	–	0	–	0			12	–	1	–	0
No. 9 Auburn	6	–	1	–	1			9	–	1	–	1
No. 24 Mississippi State	5	–	3	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
LSU	3	–	5	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Arkansas	2	–	6	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Ole Miss	2	–	6	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Championship: Florida 24, Alabama 23
$ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
September 3		New Mexico State*	No. 1	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL		W 70–21	84,721	[3]
September 10	3:30 p.m.	Kentucky	No. 2	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	ABC	W 73–7	85,238	[4]
September 17	6:30 p.m.	at No. 15 Tennessee	No. 1	Neyland Stadium Knoxville, TN (rivalry)	ESPN	W 31–0	96,656	[5]
October 1		at Ole Miss	No. 1	Vaught–Hemingway Stadium Oxford, MS	JPS	W 38–14	38,360	[6]
October 8	12:30 p.m.	LSU	No. 1	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	JPS	W 42–18	85,385	[7]
October 15	1:00 p.m.	No. 6 Auburn	No. 1	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	ABC	L 33–36	85,562	[8]
October 29	7:00 p.m.	Georgia	No. 5	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	ESPN	W 52–14	85,604	[9]
November 5		Southern Miss*	No. 4	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL		W 55–17	85,448	[10]
November 12	12:30 p.m.	South Carolina	No. 4	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL	JPS	W 48–17	85,028	[11]
November 19		at Vanderbilt	No. 3	Vanderbilt Stadium Nashville, TN	PPV	W 24–7	33,508	[12]
November 26	12:00 p.m.	at No. 7 Florida State*	No. 4	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL (rivalry)	ABC	T 31–31	80,210	[13]
December 3	3:30 p.m.	vs. No. 3 Alabama	No. 6	Georgia Dome Atlanta, GA (SEC Championship, rivalry)	ABC	W 24–23	74,751	[14]
January 2, 1995	8:30 p.m.	vs. No. 7 Florida State*	No. 5	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl)	ABC	L 17–23	76,244	[15]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

^[1]

Rankings

Main article: 1994 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
AP	1 (15)	1 (14)	2 (15)	1 (27)	1 (33)	1 (31)	1 (39)	1 (44)	5	5	4	4	3	4	6	5	7
Coaches	1 (17)		2 (23)	2 (18)	2 (20)	2 (22)	1 (34)	1 (43)	6	6	5	5	5	4	6	4	7

Before the season

The Gators were eyeing a national championship.^[16]

Florida received verbal commitments the following recruits in 1994: Amp Campbell, Ed Chester, Jaquez Green, Isaac Hilliard, Michael Jackson, Nafis Kareem, Travis McGriff, Jamie Richardson, Dossy Robbins and Deak Story.^[17] Amp Campbell was considered to be the best signing of the year as he was a top cornerback prospect and part of USA Today's All-America team.^[17]

Game summaries

New Mexico State

New Mexico State at #1 Florida

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Aggies	7	14	0	0	21
• Gators	28	28	0	14	70

• Date: September 3
• Location: Ben Hill Griffith Stadium
• Game attendance: 84,721

Scoring summary

Q1		FLA	Hillard 6 yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 7–0
Q1		NMS	L. Davis 73 yard pass from Ledbetter (Culin kick)	Tie 7–7
Q1		FLA	Jackson 13 yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 14–7
Q1		FLA	Jackson 8 yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 21–7
Q1		FLA	Hill 15 yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 28–7
Q2		NMS	L. Davis 27 yard pass from Ledbetter (Culin kick)	FLA 28–14
Q2		FLA	Palmer 10 yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 35—14
Q2		FLA	Jackson 8 yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 42–14
Q2		NMS	L. Davis 7 yard pass from Ledbetter (Culin kick)	FLA 42–21
Q2		FLA	Jackson 3 yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 49–21
Q2		FLA	Hillard 7 yard pass from Kresser (Davis kick)	FLA 56–21
Q4		FLA	Taylor 9 yard run (Davis kick)	FLA 63–21
Q4		FLA	Malone 13 yard run (Davis kick)	FLA 70–21

^[18]

• Terry Dean tied an NCAA record by throwing for seven touchdowns in the first half.^[19]

Kentucky

Kentucky at #2 Florida

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	0	7	0	0	7
• Gators	14	17	21	21	73

• Date: September 10
• Location: Ben Hill Griffith Stadium
• Game attendance: 85,238

Scoring summary

Q1		FLA	Hill 16-yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 7–0
Q1		FLA	Williams 15-yard run (Davis kick)	FLA 14–0
Q2		FLA	Hill 4-yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 21–0
Q2		KEN	Curtis 36-yard pass from O'Ferral (Sivinski kick)	FLA 21–7
Q2		FLA	Davis 31-yard field goal	FLA 24–7
Q2		FLA	Doering 5-yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 31–7
Q3		FLA	Williams 2-yard run (Davis kick)	FLA 38–7
Q3		FLA	Anthony 65-yard pass from Dean (Davis kick)	FLA 45–7
Q3		FLA	McCray 33-yard fumble return (Davis kick)	FLA 52–7
Q4		FLA	Hillard 25-yard pass from Wuerffel (Davis kick)	FLA 59–7
Q4		FLA	Bowen 15-yard pass from Kresser (Davis kick)	FLA 66–7
Q4		FLA	Baker 15-yard run (Davis kick)	FLA 73–7

See also: 1997 Kentucky Wildcats football team

• E. Williams 13 Rush, 115 Yds

^[20]

Tennessee

Ole Miss

LSU

Auburn

Coach Terry Bowden's sixth-ranked 1994 Auburn Tigers entered the Swamp as 17-point underdogs to coach Steve Spurrier's top-ranked Gators, but, just like the year before, the Tigers offense kept pace with the Gators as its defense forced key turnovers by the Gators.^[21] The Gators' starting quarterback, Terry Dean, threw four interceptions in the first half, and was replaced by Danny Wuerffel, who threw three touchdown passes but was intercepted by Tigers defensive back Brian Robinson with 1:20 left.^[21] Tigers quarterback Patrick Nix engineered a quick drive, and threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to Frank Sanders, winning the game for Auburn, 36–33.^[21]

Georgia

Southern Mississippi

South Carolina

Vanderbilt

Florida State

#4 Florida at #7 Florida State

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Gators	7	17	7	0	31
Seminoles	3	0	0	28	31

• Date: November 26
• Location: Doak Campbell Stadium
• Game attendance: 80,210
• Television network: ABC

Main article: Choke at Doak

See also: 1994 Florida State Seminoles football team and Florida–Florida State football rivalry

In the greatest fourth-quarter comeback of the series, the Gators led the Seminoles 31–3 after three quarters. However, the Seminoles scored 28 points in the final fifteen minutes to tie the game at 31–31.

SEC Championship

Main article: 1994 SEC Championship Game

Florida State (Sugar Bowl)

#7 Florida State vs. #5 Florida

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
• Seminoles	3	17	3	0	23
Gators	3	7	0	7	17

• Date: January 2
• Location: Louisiana Superdome
• Game weather: Indoors (dome)
• TV announcers (ABC): Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil

Main article: 1995 Sugar Bowl (January)

The Seminoles then won a rematch in the Sugar Bowl, 23–17, referred to as "The Fifth Quarter in the French Quarter."

Roster

1994 Florida Gators football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class TE 91 Tremayne Allen Jr WR 15 Reidel Anthony Fr QB 12 Terry Dean Sr WR 28 Chris Doering Jr WR 5 Jacquez Green Fr WR 19 Ike Hilliard Fr WR 1 Jack Jackson Jr QB 10 Eric Kresser So WR 3 Travis McGriff Fr G 71 Jeff Mitchell So OT 74 Jason Odom Jr RB 21 Fred Taylor Fr QB 7 Danny Wuerffel So	Defense Pos. # Name Class DT 67 Mark Campbell Jr DE 57 Kevin Carter Sr DT 61 Ellis Johnson Sr SS 4 Lawrence Wright So SS 20 Sammy McCorkle  Jr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Steve Spurrier Coordinators/assistant coaches Bob Pruett (DC) Charlie Strong (AHC/DT) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt