[Editor’s Note: This is the second part in an ongoing series all about Charley Pell’s escapades as the head coach of the Florida Gators. You can check out Part I here.]
A sense of optimism was in the air around the Florida football program heading into the 1979 season.
“Charley Pell is a coach who’s had great success in the business,” Florida Athletic Director Bill Carr stated in a state-of-the-art preseason hype video/propaganda piece narrated by Pat Summerall that doubled as a recruiting pitch for the school.
“He knows what to do,” Carr continued, “he knows how to do it, and he’s the hardest-working coach I’ve been around. I’ve told our administrative staff that if we can keep up with Coach Pell and his assistants, we’ll be doing well.”
Key returning pieces helped fuel the positive outlook heading into the ’79 season. Returning starters, quarterback John Brantley and wide receiver Cris Collinsworth, had experience on the offensive side of the ball and senior linebacker Scot Brantley [John’s brother] combined playmaking ability and leadership as evidenced by his preseason letter sent to the defense.
An unfortunate series of injures, all the quarterback shuffling of Steve Spurrier with none of the magic, and a brutal schedule quickly shifted the focus of the program from winning the SEC title to a full-on rebuild. And that would have to take place while recruiting against Bobby Bowden, Howard Schnellenberger, Vince Dooley and Bear Bryant.
The Competitive Landscape
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In-state rivals were showing signs of the budding dynasties they would soon become within the next decade.
Bobby Bowden was entering the fourth year of his tenure in Tallahassee. He dropped his first matchup with Florida in 1976 in a 5-6 campaign but bounced back to lead the ‘Noles to their first back-to-back wins over the Gators in 1977 and 1978 in series history. (Florida led the series 15-2-1 when Bowden was hired). Bowden’s short-term rebuild was even more impressive considering Florida State had gone 0-11 in 1973 and 1-10 in 1974.
Aside from two one-point victories over Florida in 1970 and 1978, the Gators had dominated the 1970s in their annual rivalry game against Miami. Fellow Bear Bryant disciple Howard Schnellenberger, who played under Bryant at Kentucky and served as Alabama’s offensive coordinator during Pell’s playing career and early coaching days in Tuscaloosa, kicked off his tenure with the Hurricanes in 1979.
Schnellenberger spent the latter half of the 1960s and most of the 1970s in the NFL, notably under Don Shula on the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins staff. Despite the fact that his resume was loaded with connections to coaching legends, not many could’ve predicted the rapid rise that would occur at Miami heading into the early 1980s.
Some highlights along the SEC battlefront heading into the 1979 season: Georgia was only a year away from meeting a running back named Herschel; the Bear and Bama were on cruise control, winning seven of the last eight SEC titles; Auburn was an annual rival for the Gators, while Tennessee was only an occasional opponent; Kentucky weirdly declared itself the 1976 SEC champion in 1978 thanks to the NCAA forfeiting Mississippi State games of 1976 and 1977, but the Cats co-championship in 1977 was not recognized due to NCAA troubles of their own; and LSU was steady year in and year out, but Charles McClendon’s Tigers were eight years into an 11-year losing streak to Bryant and the Tide.
On a national level, Ohio State, Texas, Alabama and Pittsburgh all laid claims to a national title from 1970 to 1978 while Devaney’s Nebraska, Switzer’s Oklahoma, USC under McKay and Robinson, and Notre Dame under Parseghian and Devine each won multiple national titles.
In All Kinds of Weather
0-10-1.
It’s a season you may’ve heard about, but, even after the humbling 2010s, it’s hard to wrap your mind around a winless record.
How in the hell did 0-10-1 happen at Florida?
No, 1979 wasn’t the first winless season in UF football history, but the other winless seasons are buried deep in the program’s early history, each occurring before the invention of color television. In 1916, Florida went 0-5. In 1918, the team lost the only game it played, and in 1946, head coach Raymond Wolf went 0-9 in his first season. But since Bob Woodruff stabilized the program in the 1950s, UF had suffered only three losing seasons heading into Charley Pell’s first season in Gainesville.
The schedule was tough. Florida played five ranked opponents in 12 games and it lacked a true cupcake.
Florida played only five home games (Georgia was a neutral-site game in Jacksonville) and two of those home games pitted the Gators against unbeaten opponents ranked in the top five: eventual national champion Alabama and eventual Orange Bowl loser FSU.
Georgia Tech had beaten UF 17-13 in 1978 and a tough Kentucky program had won three of five games overall in the series.
Some may point to Tulsa as inexcusable loss, but the Golden Hurricane were coming off of a 9-2 record in 1978.
“We had some other big wins while I was at Tulsa and most were on the road,” ex-Tulsa head coach John Cooper said in our recent interview, “We beat Jimmy Johnson and Oklahoma State at home [1982] and went on the road to upset Virginia Tech [1978], Texas Tech [1983], Kansas State [1978-1981], Air Force [1979], and Florida [1979].”
Road contests featured trips to the Houston Astrodome, in front of the cowbells against Mississippi State, Death Valley, Jordan-Hare Stadium and the Orange Bowl.
“You won’t see too many more days when the Gators fight like they did tonight and come out on the short end. You can be sure of that.”
– Charley Pell
0-1.
September 15, 1979
Houston Astrodome (Houston, TX)
The Gators kicked off the season in front of 33,851 spectators at the Houston Astrodome against head coach Bill Yeoman and the 11th-ranked Houston Cougars, who had beaten UCLA in the week prior.
Entering his 18th season at Houston, Yeoman, who is credited with developing the Veer option (sometimes referred to as a “triple option”), and his established program stood in stark contrast to the new beginnings on the opposite the sideline. Houston was in the midst of a dominant run within the late 1970s Southwest Conference. The Cougars won SWC titles in 1976 and 1978, and the 1979 team would go on to capture Yeoman’s third conference title en route to a fifth ranked finish with an 11-1 record that included wins at UCLA, vs Florida, at Texas A&M, at #4 Arkansas, and 17-14 Cotton Bowl victory over #7 Nebraska.
Pell’s Gators entered the game as the underdogs and jumped out to an early 7-0 lead with a 15 play, 86-yard drive that saw quarterback Tim Groves connect with junior wide receiver Cris Collinsworth to take the ball inside the Houston five-yard line and ended with a four yard Groves touchdown run.
Sloppy play kept Houston off of the scoreboard until the Cougars were able to tie things up with a late first half touchdown.
Houston replaced injured QB Delrick Brown with Terry Elston with the score still tied 7-7 in the third quarter. Elston pumped life into the Houston offense, and the bend-but-don’t-break effort from the Florida defense finally gave way as the Cougars went up 14-7, their first lead of game. Florida could only manage a field goal with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter, but Houston would ultimately hold the Gators off for a 14-10 win.
Despite the loss, Pell was upbeat in a postgame interview, “I have no misgivings at all about the way our players tried, the way they performed, the way they represented us, their families, each other, and the University of Florida. I have no doubts that we’ll continue to improve and [this] is a foundation that we build from.”
0-1-1.
September 22, 1979
Florida Field (Gainesville, FL)
A game that featured 23 punts was decided by a blocked field goal in the final seconds.
In the first quarter, Florida defensive end Tim Golden scored on a 49-yard return on a pick-six off of Georgia Tech QB Mike Kelley’s swing pass in the first quarter to put the Gators up 7-0.
Once again, the Gators’ defense proved to be stout while the offense struggled. Florida held the Yellow Jackets to 26 yards rushing on 24 carries along the way to a first-half shutout, but the UF offensive attack only managed 57 rushing yards and 38 yards through the air.
On top of the struggling offense, Florida’s senior All-SEC linebacker Scot Brantley was knocked out during a collision near the end of the first half. This injury would cost Brantley, the Gators’ leading tackler in 1976 and 1978, the reason of his senior season, and his absence would go on to be a huge blow for a young roster.
In the third quarter, the Jackets blocked Bill Conover’s punt and recovered it inside the Florida 10-yard line. Two plays later, GT tailback Ronny Cone ran it in from 4 yards out to tie the game at 7-7.
Gainesville Sun sports columnist Pat Dooley shared a story about quarterback John Brantley in our conversation last week that helps illustrate how much of a factor Murphy’s Law played into this season: “After the singing [‘We Are the Boys from Old Florida’] in the third quarter, the students would take the caps off their sodas and send them flying onto the field. Brantley, who was seeing his first action since being injured in the preseason, rolled out and injured himself after stepping on one of caps on the field.”
Dooley continued, “John told me that he and [his brother] Scot were side-by-side in the training room.”
Brantley’s injury put an end to the cap tradition.
Florida wound up playing three quarterbacks that day: starter Tim Groves finished with a 4-17 passing record; John Brantley finished 0-3 on the day; and sophomore Tyrone Young would go 0-1.
One notable individual was unimpressed with the Gators quarterbacks. According to a post-game column by Orlando Sentinel Star sports editor Larry Guest, Steve Spurrier—then the quarterback coach at Georgia Tech after being swept out with Dickey in 1978—had phoned old friend UF defensive backs coach Charlie Lyle during the week to catch up.
“Lyle asked Spurrier what he thought of Florida quarterback Tim Groves in films of last week’s Gator-Houston game,” Guest reported. “Gator coaches are convinced Groves has Spurrier potential, but Spurrier shrugged and replied, ‘Same old Timmy.’”
After two more quarters of offensive ineptitude, third-string quarterback Tyrone Young spent the final three-and-half minutes of the game driving the Gators down to Georgia Tech’s 22-yard line. On 4th & 5 with 13 seconds left in the game, Florida kicker Brian Clark trotted out for the tying field goal. After a timeout, according to reports, the snap and hold were perfect. The kick appeared to be heading straight down the middle until Georgia Tech’s 6’4” defensive back, Lawrence Lowe “took five giant steps and jumped straight up,” blocking Clark’s game-winning attempt and leaving the Gators with a disappointing moral defeat.
Georgia Tech head coach Pepper Rodgers celebrated after the game. “When you’re nine-point underdogs and come out with a tie, I’d say that’s a win. And anytime you block a field goal attempt with just seconds left to preserve a tie, I’d say that’s a win.”
“Our defense played well enough to win,” Pell said. “We had a blocked punt and blocked field goal, both coming in the second half. The blocked punt came at a critical time ’cause it came on our first possession after the break when we were trying to get something started offensively.”
0-2-1.
September 29, 1979
Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium (Jackson, MS)
“It is a football impossibility, in my opinion, to have a chance to be successful when we turn the ball over as many times as we did,” a fired-up Pell told a group of reporters in his postgame interview.
Mississippi State’s new head coach, Emory Bellard, credited with the invention of the “wishbone” formation, had made his way over to Starkville after a seven-year stay at Texas A&M that included a 10-win Southwest Conference championship season in 1975 and another 10-win season in 1976.
Bellard’s Bulldogs were seeking their first win after a one-point loss at home to Memphis State and a three-touchdown shellacking at the hands of the Terrapins in College Park.
“It is a football impossibility, in my opinion, to have a chance to be successful when we turn the ball over as many times as we did.”
– Charley Pell
Once again, the game went down to the wire. Gators wide receiver Cris Collinsworth had five catches in the game, including his first touchdown reception of the season. Florida started the fourth quarter up 10-7 despite six MSU turnovers. The Gators would ultimately reciprocate with seven turnovers on the day to offset any hospitality offered to them by the generous Bulldogs.
But MSU proceeded to score 17 points in the fourth to seal the win. The first was an 83-yard, nine-play drive that ended with a 1-yard score from running back Donald Ray King to give MSU a 14-10 edge. A Florida fumble on the next drive gave MSU prime field position, and the Bulldogs tacked on a field goal to drive their lead to 17-10. MSU free safety Kenny Johnson recovered another fumble on the next UF possession to give the Bulldogs possession on their own 43-yard line.
On third down, MSU quarterback Tony Black hit wide-open wide receiver Mardye McDole on a pass down the middle to the Florida 10-yard line. MSU would punch in the final touchdown of the game to go up 24-10 and clinch its first victory over Florida since 1973.
0-3-1.
October 6, 1979
Tiger Stadium (Baton Rouge, LA)
A hangover almost allowed Florida to sneak out a win in Death Valley with only a field goal on the scoreboard. LSU entered the game a week after a heartbreaking 17-12 loss at home to the defending co-national champions, USC Trojans. The Tigers held a 12-3 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but USC head coach John Robinson (who spent 2019 as the senior consultant to the head coach for national champion LSU) and the eventual 1979 Heisman Trophy winner, USC running back Charles White, pulled out a last-minute victory in what some call, “the greatest game ever played in Tiger Stadium.”
Tigers head coach Charles McClendon, who played under Bear Bryant at Kentucky in 1949-50, was in his 18th and final season in Baton Rouge. LSU had won the SEC championship in 1970 and posted several great seasons under McClendon, but the program hit a bit of a lull since the mid-1970s, dropping three of the last five games to the Gators.
Tom Jackson painted a spectacular picture of this game in the Monday, October 8, 1979, edition of the Tampa Times:
For instance, a typically sized (73,073) Tiger Stadium crowd sat atypically in near silence as the Tigers matched the Gators ineptitude-for-ineptitude offensively for almost three quarters; there was almost a move to change the stadium nickname from Death Valley to, simply, Death. But there was apparent justification: Florida’s battered-but-belligerent defense repelled every LSU surge for 44:25 of the game, and though the Gators never threatened to run the Tigers into the Mississippi River, they proved—again—they could stay on the field with a veteran, highly talented team worthy of national recognition.
And if those occurrences weren’t enough, a moon full enough to suggest limitless lunacy hung over the stadium throughout the evening.
Surely it would be lunacy to suggest Florida’s bruised Gators could match the same LSU team that had chased No. 1 ranked USC to the wire at Tiger Stadium a week earlier. And there is the rub, the great equalizer. For the better part of three quarters, LSU was not the same team that had lost the battle of alphabets to USC in the last 32 seconds the previous Saturday. This LSU team walked on the ground, fumbled and threw interceptions; last week’s Tigers scarcely touched the turf, so inspired was their play.
On this most recent Saturday night, McClendon’s worst fears were realized. Try as they might to forget, the Tigers found themselves playing the ghosts of Saturdays past and the spectre of Charles White.
More from Jackson in a moment. The Gators were up 3-0 in the second quarter after a 48-yard field goal by Brian Clark. Following the season’s script, the Florida defense had forced two fumbles and two interceptions, but the offense couldn’t muster more than a field goal, and for the fourth time in four games, the Gators held the lead at the half.
Much like the opener in Houston, Florida forced their opponent into a second-half quarterback substitution. Back to Jackson:
In most areas of organized athletics, when the starter isn’t producing and is replaced, the team is in trouble. But as far as LSU followers are concerned, when Steve Ensminger [offensive coordinator of the 2019 national champion Tigers] replaces David Woodley at quarterback, troubles aren’t starting, they’re over. Indeed, one of the lone shows of enthusiasm Saturday’s mammoth-but-mute gathering showed was when Ensminger answered the offensive call instead of Woodley. Tiger fans obviously think he’s the best thing since gumbo; the Gators came away thinking they should call him “Professor.”
“He picked us apart,” Pell said.
“He was so smart,” defensive end Bubba Pratt marveled. “So often he’d audiblize, check off and catch us in a bad situation.”
Ensminger went on to lead the Tigers to three touchdown drives, two of which came in the fourth quarter, finishing the game 10-13, passing for 125 yards with 36 yards on the ground.
Pell thought the defense ran out of gas, but he was pleased with the progress overall.
Florida had trotted out quarterback Tyrone Young for his first action of season and, while Pell felt Young provided a spark through the air, the first-year head coach turned his attention to a running game that only managed to produce a total of 80 yards on the night.
After the game, Pell stayed upbeat: “You won’t see too many more days when the Gators fight like they did tonight and come out on the short end. You can be sure of that.”
Pell’s mind was in the right place, but, unfortunately, those words would not apply to the 1979 Gators.
In the next installment of our Give ’em Hell, Pell series, we’ll pickup where we left off with defending national champion, #2 ranked Bear Bryant and Alabama rolling into town.
