2000 Florida Gators football team

2000 Southeastern Conference football standings
	Eastern Division
	Western Division
	Championship: Florida 28, Auburn 6
	$ – BCS representative as conference champion; x – Division champion/co-champions; Rankings from AP Poll

Florida Gators football
2000 Florida Gators football
SEC champions; SEC Eastern Division champions
SEC Championship Game, W 28–6 vs. Auburn
Sugar Bowl, L 20–37 vs. Miami (FL)
Conference	Southeastern Conference
	Eastern Division
Ranking
Coaches	No. 11
AP	No. 10
2000 record	10–3 (7–1 SEC)
Head coach	Steve Spurrier (11th season);
Defensive coordinator	Jon Hoke (2nd season)
Captain	Alex Brown; Derrick Chambers; Jesse Palmer; Gerard Warren; Alex Willis
Home stadium	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium; (Capacity: 83,000)

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

Sources: 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide,^[2] and GatorZone.com.^[3]

Game summaries

Ball State

^[4]

Middle Tennessee St.

	1	2	3	4	Total
Middle Tennessee State	0	0	0	0	0
Florida	21	17	10	7	55

Tennessee

	1	2	3	4	Total
Florida	0	7	10	10	27
Tennessee	3	9	8	3	23

Kentucky

	1	2	3	4	Total
Kentucky	3	14	7	7	31
Florida	10	28	14	7	59

Mississippi State

	1	2	3	4	Total
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
Florida	7	10	10	14	41

Auburn

	1	2	3	4	Total
Auburn	0	7	0	0	7
Florida	14	21	0	3	38

Georgia

Florida Gators (6–1) vs. Georgia Bulldogs (6–1)

	1	2	3	4	Total
Florida	9	8	10	7	34
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

Scoring summary

Quarter	Time	Drive			Team	Scoring information	Score
Quarter	Time	Plays	Yards	TOP	Team	Scoring information	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
Florida	10	7	19	7	43
Vanderbilt	7	6	0	7	20

South Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
South Carolina	21	0	0	0	21
Florida	3	28	10	0	41

Florida State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Florida	7	0	0	0	7
Florida State	14	0	13	3	30

SEC Championship Game

SEC Championship Game
#18 Auburn vs. #7 Florida

	1	2	3	4	Total
Auburn	0	3	3	0	6
• 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: [1]

Miami (Sugar Bowl)

	1	2	3	4	Total
Miami	10	3	14	10	37
Florida	7	3	7	3	20

Rankings

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. = 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

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.)

Season links

References

^ University of Florida Sports Information Department. "Florida 2000 Media Guide" (PDF). floridagators.com. University Athletic Association, Inc. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
^ 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 112 (2015). Retrieved August 14, 2015.
^ GatorZone.com, Football, History, Florida Football 2000 Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
^ USA Today

Bibliography

2009 Southeastern Conference Football Media Guide, Florida Year-by-Year Records, Southeastern Conference, Birmingham, Alabama, p. 60 (2009).
2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida (2015).
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.

[1] University of Florida Sports Information Department. "Florida 2000 Media Guide" (PDF). floridagators.com. University Athletic Association, Inc. Retrieved 15 March 2018.

[ufmediaguide-2] 2015 Florida Gators Football Media Guide Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, p. 112 (2015). Retrieved August 14, 2015.

[3] GatorZone.com, Football, History, Florida Football 2000 Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 14, 2015.

[4] USA Today

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

2000 Florida Gators football

SEC champions SEC Eastern Division champions
SEC Championship Game, W 28–6 vs. Auburn
Sugar Bowl, L 20–37 vs. Miami (FL)
Conference	Southeastern Conference
	Eastern Division
Ranking
Coaches	No. 11
AP	No. 10
2000 record	10–3 (7–1 SEC)
Head coach	Steve Spurrier (11th season)
Defensive coordinator	Jon Hoke (2nd season)
Captain	Alex Brown Derrick Chambers Jesse Palmer Gerard Warren Alex Willis
Home stadium	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (Capacity: 83,000)^[1]

2000 Southeastern Conference football standings
	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