The Florida Gators have the 22nd most wins in history of any college football teams with 684 overall. The Gators have three National Championships to their credit, from the 1996, 2006, and 2008 seasons. Florida currently has 8 conference titles, which has them tied for 5th in the Southeastern Conference, with the Auburn Tigers. They are currently in the Will Muschamp era. Although most Gator fans would call it the "Why did Urban Meyer leave us era?" Muschamp hasn't had great success for the orange and blue, going 22-16 during his tenure at the University during this time. Muschamp built a reputation as a great defensive coordinator, and was hired from the University of Texas in after the 2010 regular season. Texas was awful under Mack Brown after Muschamp left, but the success of the Gators has been entirely dependent on whether or not the other side of the ball can do anything. He had some success with Charlie Weis as his offensive coordinator in 2011, going 7-6, and then had his best season in 2012, going 11-2, but was awful in 2013 going 4-8. That led to the hiring of new offensive coordinator Kurt Roper, who is coming to the University of Florida after holding the same position for Duke University for the past 6 seasons. Let's review some of last year's games and then see if there is any way Muschamp can get off the hot seat in Florida in 2014.

2013 Florida Gators 4-8

August 31st--Win - Toledo Rockets, 24-6
September 7th--Loss at Miami Hurricanes, 16-21
September 21st--Win - Tennessee Volunteers, 31-17
September 28th--Win at Kentucky Wildcats, 24-7
October 5th--Win - Arkansas Razorbacks, 30-10
October 12th--Loss at Louisiana State Tigers, 6-17
October 19th--Loss at Missouri Tigers, 17-36
November 2nd--Loss - Georgia Bulldogs at Everbank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, 20-23
November 9th--Loss - Vanderbilt Commodores, 17-34
November 16th--Loss at South Carolina Gamecocks, 14-19
November 23rd--Loss - Georgia Southern Eagles, 20-26
November 30th--Loss - Florida State Seminoles, 7-37

This season was definitely considered a failure for the Florida Gators. Losing to the two in-state rivals, makes the season a failure. Missing a bowl game for the first time since 1990, makes the season a failure. Ending the season on a 7 game losing streak, makes it a failure. But most importantly, recording the first loss in the school's history to a FCS squad from Georgia Southern, makes the season a gigantic failure.

It's obvious that Will Muschamp is on the hot seat, and it's almost more of a surprise that he retained the head coaching position after a season like that. Other coaches before have done better than that and still got axed from the position. He had to have been saved by his excellent 2012 performance, going 11-2, that the administration saw that he can lead them to great season success. He definitely has to turn that around this year in order to keep his home in the swamp.

One clear reason that the Florida Gators struggled last year was the result of a major injury. That injury occurred during the third game of the season, when their starting quarterback, Jeff Driskel, broke his right fibula. That is a major bone in the lower leg, and it will be interesting to see exactly how Driskel is able to bounce back for the Gators this upcoming season. It's difficult for anyone to say that Driskel would be an elite level quarterback in college football, but he did start all 13 games the previous year when they had a good season, so he should be able to help them do it again, assuming he is fully recovered.

The other great player for the Florida Gators is on the other side of the ball. He is being projected as a first round draft pick. He is on the preseason look list for the 2014 Bednarik award. He is Dante Fowler Jr. The defensive end to look on the Gators this season. Last year he led the Gators with 10.5 tackles for loss, and was second with 3.5 sacks. He forced three fumbles, and led all the defensive lineman in tackles with 50 on the season.

The 2014 schedule for the Florida Gators is as follows.

August 30th--vs Idaho Vandals
September 6th--vs Eastern Michigan Eagles
September 13th--vs Kentucky Wildcats
September 20th--at Alabama Crimson Tide
October 4th--at Tennessee Volunteers
October 11th--vs Louisiana State Tigers
October 18th--vs Missouri Tigers
November 1st--vs Georgia Bulldogs at Everbank Field in Jacksonville, Florida
November 8th--at Vanderbilt Commodores
November 15th--vs South Carolina Gamecocks
November 22nd--vs Eastern Kentucky Colonels
November 29th--at Florida State Seminoles

It definitely is nice to have three straight home games to start the season, but having the first road game at Alabama is just plain rough. Will Muschamp has a lot of work to do this year, but the Southeastern Conference has been stronger in the West region in recent years. Getting wins against Georgia and South Carolina is essential since they are both in the SEC East. Athlon sports project them to go 7-5, and 4-4 in the conference. To be honest, that feels about right, but would it be enough for them to retain their head coach? In the state of Florida, that is yet another disappointing season. But where would they get any additional wins from? It seems like they should already have losses marked on the Alabama, LSU, Florida State games, but there are a lot of land mines when playing through the SEC, and Florida will have to look their step and hope to chomp the opposition this season.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Caleb Wahlgren
I will not deny that I am a big fan of the Green Bay Packers. But I love the NFL and want to see the very best for it.