The 1986 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

1986 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1986 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with Penn State winning the national championship. Coached by Joe Paterno, they defeated Miami (Fl) 14–10 in the Fiesta Bowl. This Fiesta Bowl was the first in the game's history to decide the na ...

. The season was

Galen Hall Galen Samuel Hall (born August 14, 1940) is a retired American college and professional football coach and player. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and an alumnus of Penn State University, where he played college football. Hall was previously t ...

's third as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. The 1986 Florida Gators compiled a 6–5 overall record and a

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 of 2–4, tying for 7th place among Ten SEC teams. This was the last year that Florida lost to the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

until 2018. This was the longest annual win streak of any team over another in NCAA history and the longest such streak in

history.
2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 107 (2015). Retrieved August 16, 2015.

Schedule

Personnel

Season summary

Georgia Southern

Miami (FL)

Alabama

At Mississippi State

LSU

Kerwin Bell Kerwin Douglas Bell (born June 15, 1965) is an American football coach and former player who has been the head coach of the Western Carolina Catamounts football team since 2021. Bell was born in the rural North Central Florida town of Live Oak, ...

was injured during the game.

Kent State

At Rutgers

''at

Giants Stadium Giants Stadium (sometimes referred to as Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands or The Swamp) was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and it primarily hosted sp ...

Auburn

*Source:''

For most of the game, coach Pat Dye's fifth-ranked 1986 Auburn Tigers football team, 1986 Auburn Tigers dominated coach Galen Hall's unranked Gators at Florida Field.Paul Jenkins,
Ask not for whom the Bell tolls: Florida 18, Auburn 17
" ''The Gainesville Sun'', pp. 1F & 10F (November 2, 1986). Retrieved August 18, 2011. The Tigers defense was stifling, and forced Gators substitute quarterback Rodney Brewer to commit four turnovers in the first two quarters. Hall replaced Brewer with starting quarterback

, who had missed two games with a knee injury. Tigers tailback

Brent Fullwood Brent Leanrd Fullwood (born October 10, 1963), from Saint Cloud High School, is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the first ...

gained 166 yards on the ground, including a second-quarter touchdown, to give Auburn a 17–0 lead early in the fourth quarter. Bell then led the Gators on two scoring drives, with Gators placekicker Robert McGinty—a transfer from Auburn—booting a 51-yard field goal to close the Tigers' advantage to 17−10 with 1:45 to play. With thirty-six seconds remaining in the game, Bell directed one final 79-yard drive in ten plays that was capped by a five-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver

Ricky Nattiel Ricky Rennard Nattiel ( ; born January 25, 1966), nicknamed "Ricky the Rocket", is an American former college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons during the 1980s and 19 ...

, who was playing with a separated shoulder. The limping Bell then surprised the Tigers defense by running in the two-point conversion and completing the comeback, with the Gators winning 18–17.

Vs. Georgia

Gainesville Sun. 1986 Nov 9.

At Kentucky

At Florida State

References

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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 ...