2000 Florida Gators football team

2000 Florida Gators football
SEC champion SEC Eastern Division champion
SEC Championship Game, W 28–6 vs. Auburn
Sugar Bowl, L 20–37 vs. Miami (FL)
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Division	Eastern Division
Ranking
Coaches	No. 11
AP	No. 10
Record	10–3 (7–1 SEC)
Head coach	Steve Spurrier (11th season)
Offensive scheme	Fun and gun
Defensive coordinator	Jon Hoke (2nd season)
Base defense	4–3
Captains	Alex Brown Derrick Chambers Jesse Palmer Gerard Warren Alex Willis
Home stadium	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (Capacity: 83,000) [1]
Seasons ←  1999 2001  →

2000 Southeastern Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
Eastern Division
No. 10 Florida x$		7	–	1					10	–	3
No. 19 South Carolina		5	–	3					8	–	4
No. 20 Georgia		5	–	3					8	–	4
Tennessee		5	–	3					8	–	4
Vanderbilt		1	–	7					3	–	8
Kentucky		0	–	8					2	–	9
Western Division
No. 18 Auburn x		6	–	2					9	–	4
No. 22 LSU		5	–	3					8	–	4
Ole Miss		4	–	4					7	–	5
No. 24 Mississippi State		4	–	4					8	–	4
Arkansas		3	–	5					6	–	6
Alabama		3	–	5					3	–	8
Championship: Florida 28, Auburn 6
$ – BCS representative as conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

The 2000 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida in the sport of American football during the 2000 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Gators competed in Division I-A of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and played their home games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on the university's Gainesville, Florida campus. They were coached by Steve Spurrier, who led the Gators to their sixth SEC championship, a Sugar Bowl berth, and an overall win–loss record of 10–3 (.769). The season was the team's eleventh of twelve under Spurrier.

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
September 2	Ball State *	No. 9	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL	PPV	W 40–19	85,095	[2]
September 9	Middle Tennessee *	No. 8	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL	PPV	W 55–0	84,311	[3]
September 16	at No. 11 Tennessee	No. 6	Neyland Stadium Knoxville, TN (rivalry, College GameDay )	CBS	W 27–23	108,768	[4]
September 23	Kentucky	No. 3	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	CBS	W 59–31	85,319	[5]
September 30	at Mississippi State	No. 3	Scott Field Starkville, MS	CBS	L 35–47	43,816	[6]
October 7	LSU	No. 12	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	JPS	W 41–9	85,365	[7]
October 14	No. 19 Auburn	No. 10	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	CBS	W 38–7	85,710	[8]
October 28	vs. No. 13 Georgia	No. 8	Alltel Stadium Jacksonville, FL (rivalry)	CBS	W 34–23	84,404	[9]
November 4	at Vanderbilt	No. 6	Vanderbilt Stadium Nashville, TN	JPS	W 43–21	32,714	[10]
November 11	No. 21 South Carolina	No. 5	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium Gainesville, FL	CBS	W 41–21	85,718	[11]
November 18	at No. 3 Florida State *	No. 4	Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL (rivalry, College GameDay)	ABC	L 7–30	83,042	[12]
December 2	vs. No. 18 Auburn	No. 7	Georgia Dome Atlanta, GA (SEC Championship))	ABC	W 28–6	73,427	[13]
January 2, 2001	vs. No. 2 Miami (FL) *	No. 7	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl, rivalry)	ABC	L 20–37	64,407	[14]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

^{[15] [16]}

Rankings

See also: 2000 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	9	9	8	7	3	3 (1)	12	10	8	8	6	5	4	7	7	7	10
Coaches Poll	7	7	5	4	3	3	9	9	7	7	5	4	4	9	8	7	11
BCS	Not released									6	6	5	5	7	7	7	Not released

Game summaries

Ball State

1 2 3 4 Total Ball St 7 3 9 0 19 •No. 9 Florida 12 14 7 7 40 Date: September 2 Location: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville, Florida Game attendance: 85,095 TV announcers (PPV): David Steele (Play-by-play), Nat Moore (Color) & Larry Vettel (Sideline)

Scoring summary Q1 13:50 FLA Kirk Wells 8 yard pass from Jesse Palmer (kick failed) FLA 6–0 Q1 9:57 FLA Robert Gillespie 13 yard run (two-point conversion failed) FLA 12–0 Q1 6:35 BALL Cornelius Bowick recovered fumble in end zone (Mike Langford kick) FLA 12–7 Q2 14:25 FLA Robert Gillespie 1 yard run (Jeff Chandler kick) FLA 19–7 Q2 13:33 FLA Alex Willis 9 yard pass from Jesse Palmer (Jeff Chandler kick) FLA 26–7 Q2 7:09 BALL Mike Langford 32 yard field goal FLA 26–10 Q3 12:56 FLA Jesse Palmer 1 yard run (Jeff Chandler kick) FLA 33–10 Q3 8:08 BALL Safety, Robert Gillespie tackled by Evan Triggs in end zone FLA 33–12 Q3 :59 BALL Corey Pachman 49 yard pass from Talmadge Hill (Mike Langford kick) FLA 33–19 Q4 11:00 FLA Bo Carroll 75 yard pass from Jesse Palmer (Jeff Chandler kick) FLA 40–19

^[17]

Middle Tennessee St.

	1	2	3	4	Total
Middle Tennessee State	0	0	0	0	0
No. 8 Florida	21	17	10	7	55

Tennessee

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Florida	0	7	10	10	27
No. 11 Tennessee	3	9	8	3	23

Kentucky

	1	2	3	4	Total
Kentucky	3	14	7	7	31
No. 3 Florida	10	28	14	7	59

Mississippi State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Florida	0	10	13	12	35
Mississippi State	5	11	8	23	47

September 30, 2000

The Florida Gators came into Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi ranked third in the nation. The unranked Mississippi State Bulldogs ran for 351 yards, 172 yards and a touchdown for Dicenzo Miller, and 156 yards and a touchdown for Dontae Walker. Bulldogs quarterback Wayne Madkin also ran for two touchdowns. The Bulldogs compiled 517 total yards of offense.

A frustrated Steve Spurrier rotated three quarterbacks including Rex Grossman. Grossman went 13 for 16 with 231 yards and two touchdowns. All together, the Gators had 494 yards and four touchdowns through the air.

Mississippi State won the game 47–35, breaking Florida's 72-game winning streak against unranked teams in front of a crowd of 43,816. After the game, the Mississippi State fans stormed the field and tore down the goal posts, parts of which ended up all over campus.

	Florida	Mississippi State
First downs	26	25
Rushed–yards	22-M78	57–351
Passing yards	494	166
Sacked–yards lost	3–23	6–58
Return yards	73	54
Passes	34–57–1	14–27–2
Punts	1–45.0	7–42.0
Fumbles–lost	2–2	2–1
Penalties–yards	7–46	10–85
Time of possession	25:16	34:44

LSU

	1	2	3	4	Total
LSU	0	3	0	6	9
No. 12 Florida	7	10	10	14	41

Auburn

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 19 Auburn	0	7	0	0	7
No. 10 Florida	14	21	0	3	38

Georgia

See also: 2000 Georgia Bulldogs football team and Florida–Georgia football rivalry

#8 Florida Gators (6–1) vs. #13 Georgia Bulldogs (6–1)

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 8 Florida	9	8	10	7	34
No. 13 Georgia	3	14	0	6	23

at Alltel Stadium • Jacksonville, Florida

• Date: October 28
• Game time: 3:30 p.m. EDT
• Game weather: Sunny • 84 °F (29 °C) • Wind N 3 miles per hour (4.8 km/h; 2.6 kn)
• Game attendance: 84,404
• Referee: Rogers Redding
• TV: CBS
• Automated ScoreBook

Game information
Florida Rex Grossman 12/24, 152 yards, TD, 3 int Robert Gillespie 15 rush, 79 yards, TD Jabar Gaffney 8 rec, 138 yards, TD Georgia Quincy Carter 20/39, 240 yards, TD, 3 int 12 rush, 53 yards Damien Gary 5 rec, 64 yards

Scoring summary

Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP FLA UGA 1 6:36 12 61 5:28 Georgia 24-yard field goal by Billy Bennett 0 3 1 5:23 4 73 1:13 Florida Jabar Gaffney 27-yard touchdown reception from Rex Grossman, Jeff Chandler kick no good 6 3 1 0:10 12 40 3:20 Florida 37-yard field goal by Jeff Chandler 9 3 2 5:23 2 5 0:47 Georgia Musa Smith 4-yard touchdown run, Billy Bennett kick good 9 10 2 4:49 2 42 0:14 Georgia Musa Smith 1-yard touchdown run, Billy Bennett kick good 9 17 2 0:30 3 26 0:39 Florida Robert Gillespie 14-yard touchdown reception from Jesse Palmer, 2-point pass good 17 17 3 11:56 6 19 1:17 Florida 54-yard field goal by Jeff Chandler 20 17 3 4:59 10 82 3:59 Florida Jesse Palmer 1-yard touchdown run, Jeff Chandler kick good 27 17 4 9:50 12 65 5:40 Georgia Jasper Sanks 1-yard touchdown reception from Quincy Carter, Billy Bennett kick no good 27 23 4 4:42 2 29 0:15 Florida Robert Gillespie 2-yard touchdown run, Jeff Chandler kick good 34 23 "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 34 23

Vanderbilt

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Florida	10	7	19	7	43
Vanderbilt	7	6	0	7	20

South Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 21 South Carolina	21	0	0	0	21
No. 5 Florida	3	28	10	0	41

Florida State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Florida	7	0	0	0	7
No. 3 Florida State	14	0	13	3	30

SEC Championship Game

SEC Championship Game
#18 Auburn vs. #7 Florida

1 2 3 4 Total No. 18 Auburn 0 3 3 0 6 •No. 7 Florida 14 7 7 0 28 Date: December 2 Location: Georgia Dome, Atlanta TV announcers (ABC): Brent Musburger (Play-by-play), Gary Danielson (Color) & Jack Arute (Sideline) Source:

Scoring summary 1 FLA Caldwell 10 yard pass from Grossman (Chandler kick) FLA 7-0 1 FLA Caldwell 66 yard pass from Grossman (Chandler kick) FLA 14-0 2 FLA Gaffney 27 yard pass from Grossman (Chandler kick) FLA 21-0 2 AUB Duval 44 yard field goal FLA 21-3 3 AUB Duval 21 yard field goal FLA 21-6 3 FLA Haugabrook 12 yard pass from Grossman (Chandler kick) FLA 28-6

Miami (Sugar Bowl)

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 2 Miami	10	3	14	10	37
No. 7 Florida	7	3	7	3	20

Notable players

• 07 QB Jesse Palmer (Sr.)
• 08 QB Rex Grossman (Fr.)
• 09 QB Brock Berlin (Fr.)
• 05 RB Earnest Graham (So.)
• 33 RB Ran Carthon (Fr.)
• 06 WR Taylor Jacobs (So.)
• 10 WR Jabar Gaffney (Fr.)
• 17 WR Reche Caldwell (So.)
• 78 T Kenyatta Walker (Jr.)
• 91 DE Derrick Chambers (Sr.)
• 57 DE Bobby McCray (Fr.)
• 61 DT Gerard Warren (Jr.)
• 45 LB Andra Davis (Jr.)
• 03 CB Lito Sheppard (So.)
• 04 S Marquand Manuel (Jr.)

References

1. University of Florida Sports Information Department. "Florida 2000 Media Guide" (PDF). floridagators.com. University Athletic Association, Inc. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
2. "Florida hands Ball St. its 18th loss in row". The Indianapolis Star. September 3, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
3. "Florida dominates Blue Raiders". The Montgomery Advertiser. September 10, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
4. "Gators get a break on last grasp". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. September 17, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
5. "Gators run over 'Cats, 59–31". St. Lucie News Tribune. September 24, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
6. "'Dogs take bite out of Gators". The Commercial Appeal. October 1, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
7. "Gators turn it loose in win". The Tampa Tribune. October 8, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
8. "Grossman passes for 5 TDs as Gators rip Auburn 38–7". The Courier-Journal. October 15, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
9. "Defense-minded". The Miami Herald. October 29, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
10. "Florida's defense dominates Vandy". The Jackson Sun. November 5, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
11. "Gator fans thinking Orange". Pensacola News Journal. November 12, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
12. "Seminoles blast Gators". Florida Today. November 19, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
13. "Gators carry on; Florida cruises to SEC title, Sugar Bowl bid". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. December 3, 2000. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
14. "Miami makes case 37–20". The Clarion-Ledger. January 3, 2001. Retrieved October 20, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
15. "2000 Florida Gators Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
16. "2000 NCAA Football Statistics (Florida)". National Collegiate Athletic Association . Retrieved October 20, 2024.
17. USA Today

Bibliography

• 2009 Southeastern Conference Football Media Guide, Florida Year-by-Year Records, Southeastern Conference, Birmingham, Alabama, p. 60 (2009).
• Carlson, Norm, University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators, Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). ISBN   0-7948-2298-3.
• Golenbock, Peter, Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory, Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). ISBN   0-9650782-1-3.
• Hairston, Jack, Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told, Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). ISBN   1-58261-514-4.
• McCarthy, Kevin M., Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football, Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). ISBN   978-0-7385-0559-6.