The 1978 Florida Gators football team represented the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

during the

1978 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1978 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first season of Division I-A college football; Division I-A was created in 1978 when Division I was subdivided into Division I-A and Division I-AA for football only. With the exception of seven ...

. The season was

Doug Dickey Douglas Adair Dickey (born June 24, 1932) is an American former college football player and coach and college athletics administrator. Dickey is a South Dakota native who was raised in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida, where ...

's ninth and last year as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The 1978 Florida Gators finished with a 4–7 overall record and a 3–3

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) record, tying for fourth among ten SEC teams. After a disappointing 1977 season, Dickey had been under pressure to shake up his coaching staff, and he decided to abandon the run-oriented wishbone offense his teams had used for several seasons in favor of a more pro-style system. Former Florida quarterback

Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former American football, football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often ...

, who had lived in Gainesville since wrapping up his NFL career in 1976, was tapped by Dickey to be the Gators' quarterback coach, his first coaching job. However, without the proper talent to run the new scheme, Florida's 1978 scoring output was almost identical to 1977's output – about 22 points per game. Florida struggled with consistency, never winning consecutive games, losing to traditional rivals Georgia and Florida State, and enduring their first losing season since 1971. Days before the final game, Dickey (along with Spurrier and the rest of the coaching staff) were told by University of Florida president

Robert Q. Marston Robert Quarles Marston (February 12, 1923 – March 14, 1999) was an American physician, research scientist, governmental appointee and university administrator. Marston was a native of Virginia, and, after earning his bachelor's, medical and ...

that they would be let go after the season. Days after the season finale, Florida announced that Clemson coach

Charley Pell Charles Byron Pell (February 17, 1941 – May 29, 2001) was an American college American football, football player and coach. Pell was an Alabama native and an alumnus of the University of Alabama, where he played college football. He is most ...

had been hired to coach the Gators.

Schedule

Primary source: ''2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide''
2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 107 (2015). Retrieved August 16, 2015. Attendance figures: ''Florida Football '79'' (media guide).

Postseason

After leaving Florida, Dickey went into private business for several years before becoming the athletic director of the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

Volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

sports program in 1985. He was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

as a coach in 2003. After a dozen years spent as an offensive assistant and head coach in college football and the

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

, Spurrier would return to become Florida's head coach in 1990.

References

Additional sources

* {{Florida Gators football navbox

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Florida Gators football seasons

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of ...