GIVE ’EM HELL, PELL: PART III: Pell ends first season 0-10-1
More on the Gators’ oh-fer 1979 season, plus insights from top coaches

[Editor’s Note: This is the third part of an ongoing series covering Charley Pell’s career as the head coach of the Florida Gators. You can start back at the beginning or check out Part II in case you missed it.]

In the last installment, I took us through the first four games of the Gators’ 1979 football season—a disaster by all measures because of a number of factors. We’ve got more to cover this time, if only to learn from past mistakes and set up future events. Let’s pick up where we left off with Charley Pell’s Gators facing the best team in the SEC at the time.

0-4-1.

October 13, 1979
Florida Field (Gainesville, FL)

Bear Bryant and the Crimson Tide, the defending national champions, rolled into Gainesville for the first time since 1973. The winners of six straight games in the series, dating back to the Gators’ monumental 10-6 1963 upset in Tuscaloosa, the unbeaten Tide were a sure bet to win their seventh straight over the winless Gators and bring their record to 5-0.

“This was as bad a whuppin’ as I’ve ever had…They whupped us in every phase of the game.”
-Charley Pell

In their first four games, Bama allowed a garbage-time touchdown to Georgia Tech with just 12 seconds left in a 30-6 opening-day win; shut out Baylor 45-0; mercifully allowed a field goal in a 66-3 demolition of Vanderbilt; and shut out Wichita State 38-0. Consider the Tide an unstoppable force.

Unstoppable force meet immovable object.

Alabama’s defense held the Florida offense to 66 total yards (60 of which came in the first half), yielded only three first downs, and handed the Gators their first shut out in 90 games.

“This was as bad a whuppin’ as I’ve ever had,” Pell said after the game, “I cannot see any weaknesses or soft spots that would prevent them from being national champions. They whupped us in every phase of the game.”

Florida did not make it past Alabama’s 45-yard line that day, causing Bear to dole out this gem: “We had some folks who played well, and I’m sure Florida did, too. I thought we won convincingly in spite of the fact that Charley Pell and his staff had an excellent game plan for us.”

Forty-one years after it was delivered, the quote still lands with the stinging quality of the Southern saying “bless your heart,” and the undefeated Crimson Tide eventually went on to win the 1979 national title, the last of Bear Bryant’s six at Alabama.

In his weekly show with Paul Coleman, Pell expressed that the Gators would use their upcoming bye week to revamp their offense with quarterbacks Tyrone Young and Johnell Brown. And despite the rough start, Pell remained steadfast and upbeat about the future: “I promise you, our recruiting efforts are going to double now. We’re after the quality young people it will take to get our football program reestablished.”

0-5-1.

October 27, 1979
Florida Field (Gainesville, FL)

Finally, some relief for the Gators as Tulsa (3-5) came to town. Not only was it homecoming, but Florida entered the game with the Golden Hurricane coming off of a bye week—a prime spot for Pell to land his first victory in Gainesville.

Coach Pell used the homecoming stage to honor senior captain Scot Brantley by retiring his #55 jersey. Pell and the Florida staff felt that the head injury spelled the end of Brantley’s career, but the two-time first-team All-SEC and two-time honorable mention All-American linebacker ultimately ended up being drafted in the third round of the 1980 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brantley played 114 games over eight seasons in Tampa and delivered “good clean shots” that would result in a hefty fine today.

This would be the second and final time a jersey number was retired in school history. Florida once retired Steve Spurrier’s #11, but the “Ole Ball Coach” reissued #11 and #55 once he become the head coach, and the program currently uses a “Ring of Honor” system that recognizes the player but keeps the number in use.

John Cooper, who would go on to win the Rose Bowl twice as the head coach of Arizona State and Ohio State, was in his third year with Tulsa in 1979. Cooper had led Tulsa to a 9-2 record in a bounce back year in 1978 after his initial 3-8 mark in 1977, the only losing season during his stay with the Golden Hurricane.

Showing little sign of improvement, the Gators’ sluggish offense continued, and they were down 3-0 at the half. Pell pulled starting quarterback Tyrone Young for freshman quarterback Johnell Brown to open the second half. Two minutes into the third quarter, Brown fumbled and Tulsa nose guard Steve Cox recovered the ball at the Florida 34-yard line.

Tulsa quarterback Kenny Jackson would punch it in five plays later to give the Golden Hurricane a 10-0 lead. Florida eventually strung together a nine-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 41-yard field goal from kicker Brian Clark to put the Gators on the board at a 10-3 deficit.

“It only took 16 seconds, but it broke Florida Saturday afternoon as the Gators fell to Tulsa 20-10 before 60,126 homecoming fans,” Orlando Sentinel Star writer Mike Etzkin started his post-mortem in Sunday’s paper. “One 16-second play exemplified what was wrong with the Gators all afternoon. The play was an 83-yard kickoff return by Tulsa freshman Kenneth Lacy in the third quarter. He fielded the ball on the fly on his own 17 and headed for the left sideline. There the action slowed as he was hit by a quartet of Gators. Like a spent top which will wobble but not fall over, Lacy bounced off the pack and out ran for the end zone to give the Tulsa Golden Hurricane a 17-3 lead with 5:51 in the third quarter.”

Tulsa tacked on a field goal at the end of the third quarter to increase the lead to 20-3. Pell then made his second quarterback change of the day, choosing Larry Ochab (aka “Dr. O” among his teammates), a 5’9” junior walk-on from Orlando. Ochab, who was more of a passer, was buried on the depth chart since Pell preferred quarterbacks who were better runners.

Dr. O entered the game and hit wide receiver Cris Collinsworth for a 33-yard completion. A 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalty moved the ball to the Tulsa 32-yard line to close out the third quarter. The Gators would go on to close out the drive with a short touchdown pass from Ochab to Collinsworth to cut the lead to 20-10.

On the ensuing kickoff, a bobble and subsequent booted ball from the Tulsa returner pinned the Golden Hurricane at their own 1-yard line. Tulsa punted and gave the Gators a great field position with nearly nine minutes left on the clock, but the Gators’ offense went stagnant again and was forced to line up for a punt on 4th & 11 from the Tulsa 41-yard line.

“When you’re the underdog on the road, you know the home team is going to make a run,” Illinois head coach Lovie Smith, a senior defensive back for Tulsa in 1979, said in our interview last week, “Florida was getting ready to make a run, but we shut it down.”

Instead of pinning Tulsa deep or just going for it, Pell elected to have punter Bill Conover fake the punt. The punter’s pass attempt was incomplete. For the second time in the game, Florida failed to complete a fake (the field goal unit also attempted a fake in the second quarter). Tulsa would go on to close out the Gators with a 20-10 win.

“Great win for us, no doubt about it,” Tulsa head coach John Cooper said in our recent conversation, “We beat them because we had players that could play for anybody. I coached at Ohio State for a long time, and [Tulsa RB] Ken Lacy was one of the top-five running backs I ever coached.”

That’s high praise coming from Cooper considering he coached great runners like  Heisman winner Eddie George, long-time NFL standout Robert Smith, Pepe Pearson, Michael Wiley, Carlos Snow, Raymont Harris, and Jonathan Wells  during his time in Columbus.

Cooper noted the win was extra-special on a personal level because he was born in Tennessee and “grew up on SEC football.” According to Lovie Smith, “We were entering 1979 expecting big things after going 9-2 in 1978. When you’re having a disappointing season, you aim for a signature win, and Florida had some great players like Cris Collinswoth and David Little. As a defensive back, when you get to play against a player like Cris Collinsworth, you get excited.”

Smith explained that Tulsa was no stranger to going into hostile environments. “Playing at Oklahoma gave us some experience that season, and when I was a freshman [in 1976], we went into Arkansas and won in Frank Broyles’ final season.” Tulsa won 9-3. Smith cited strong personnel, such as future New England Patriots linebacker Don Blackmon, as a key to the Golden Hurricane victory. “We played a great game, one of our better games on defense that year.

“From time to time, big programs have a down year,” Smith expanded on what the win meant, “but Florida still had its mystique. They were one of the top programs in the country, and we got a win.”

First-Year Challenges

I asked both John Cooper and Lovie Smith to speculate on some of the challenges Coach Pell might have faced during his first year on the job.

Cooper, who went 4-6-1 in his first season at Ohio State, said, “Coaches usually get fired because they lose games. They lose games because they don’t have the players. When I arrived at Ohio State [in 1988], we quickly realized we had to improve our recruiting and took more of a national focus. Recruiting is the name of the game, and our approach helped us land players like David Boston out of Texas,” who became a first-team NFL All-Pro player.

Smith said, “You don’t have success right away. Culture change takes time. Experience teaches you a lot.”.

Smith would know. This past season, the Fighting Illini upset Big Ten West champion Wisconsin and achieved bowl eligibility with the largest comeback in school history against Michigan State in just his fourth season after going through a rebuild that Smith described as “starting from the floor.”

In an era where coaches are regularly fired after their first or second season, Illinois wisely gave Smith a chance to truly grow and develop a program.

“When I was the head coach with the Bears, we went from five wins in year one to 11 wins in year two. During my time as head coach with Bucs, we went from two wins in year one to six wins in year two,” Smith said of his NFL days. “In each of those instances, we had to be sure we had the right coaching staff, the right commitment around the program and were able to get key guys on our side.”

Smith, who first coached in college under Cooper at Tulsa, added another layer to Cooper’s sentiment about roster turnover with regards to changing the culture, “Usually there’s a reason why there was a change before you arrived and, based on my experience, it also takes a drastic roster change before the culture can fully shift.”

Fans are always ready to win right away, but these two head coaches know that real change takes time to implement within a program. One could argue that Pell needed 1979 to help take the program to new heights in the future.

0-6-1.

November 3, 1979
Jordan-Harre Stadium (Auburn, AL)

Florida’s offense ran for 417 total yards, but victory still eluded the Gators. “I don’t believe in moral victories, and this doesn’t mean we’ve turned the corner,” Pell said. “But at least we know we’re going down the right street.”

Despite the progress, the ever-present problems remained. Six turnovers undermined the team’s performance. Ochab and Brown threw four combined interceptions, and Collinsworth fumbled twice.

Auburn’s first score came as a result of Ken Luke intercepting a pass from Johnell Brown at the Florida 3-yard line and running it back 36 yards. Tigers running back Joe Cribbs would punch it in on the third down to give Auburn a 7-0 lead with 12:59 to go in the second quarter. That same quarter, Florida would get on the board with a 68-yard drive that included five straight Ochab completions for 50 yards, but ultimately settled for a field goal, which gave Auburn a 7-3 heading into the half.

Early in the third quarter, Brown was once again picked off by Tigers defender James McKinney, but the Gators defense held firm and forced Auburn to kick a 52-yard field goal.

Still down 10-3 in the third, Florida nose guard Robin Fisher recovered in Auburn territory. The offense managed to drive it down to the Auburn 3-yard line but couldn’t find success, and Clark chipped away at the Tigers’ lead with another field goal to make it a 10-6 game with 6:09 left in the third.

Auburn quarterback Charlie Trotman hit split end Rusty Byrd on a 49-yard pass to set up another field goal and give the Tigers some breathing room at 13-6. Then, early in the fourth quarter, when Auburn was lining up for yet another field goal, an offsides penalty on Florida extended the Tigers’ drive and allowed Auburn to run the score up to 19-6 with 12:35 remaining.

Ochab and the Gators responded almost immediately with a drive full of big plays. The five-play scoring drive featured a 15-yard pass to wide receiver Curt Garrett, a 44-yard run by fullback Terry Williams and a touchdown by freshman tight end Chris Faulkner—and it only took a little over a minute. Florida was down 19-13 with 11:34 left in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t believe in moral victories, and this doesn’t mean we’ve turned the corner. But at least we know we’re going down the right street.”
– Charley Pell

Florida got the ball back with 2:38 left in the game, but Auburn would seal the win when defensive back Darryl Wilks intercepted a sideline pass from Ochab intended for Collinsworth. The sixth and final turnover was the nail in the coffin for the Gators as Auburn escaped with a 19-13 win. Another notch in the loss column, but the feeling all around was that progress had been made.

Auburn running backs James Brooks and Joe Cribbs entered the game as the top-two rushers in the SEC. Brooks was held to 66 yards on 18 carries, well short of his 108.1 per game average, and Cribbs was stifled to a nearly identical 65 yards rushing on 17 carries.

Meanwhile, Florida finally got Collinsworth more involved in the passing game and racked up 269 yards through the air.

“Florida came to play,” Auburn head coach Doug Barfield said. “They took away a lot of our offense.”

“I’m extremely proud of our football team today,” Pell said. “They played well. I think our defense shut their offense down as well as anybody has all season. And our offense had by far its best day.”

Collinsworth, who had been the target of a controversial trapping call on a pivotal third down, urged the team not to be satisfied. “We need to build on this one. We can’t just say, ‘Well, we played a good game against Auburn’ and let it go at that. We have to keep improving every game. If we improve just a little bit, we can beat Georgia next week.”

0-7-1.

November 10, 1979
The Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, FL)

Like your regular order at your favorite restaurant, Florida dished out its familiar six turnovers: two fumbles and four interceptions. Three of those turnovers led to three Georgia touchdowns as the Bulldogs tallied all 33 points in the first half to take a 33-10 lead into the locker room.

“Florida played so well last week…they just looked like a different ballclub this week,” said Georgia quarterback Buck Belue. “But we made them look that way. They came out there, turned the ball over early, and we just converted on their mistakes. We forced them to play catch-up ball, and then it was over.”

Georgia’s overall record improved to 5-4 with the win, but oddly enough, its SEC record was 5-0, and the Bulldogs sat at the top of the SEC, tied with Bama. However, the following week, Georgia would fall to Auburn at home and hand the SEC title to Bear Bryant.

As we churn our way through the painful tale of this winless Gators season, Florida fans can take solace in the fact that way back in 1979, Georgia still found a way to collapse late in the season and hand the conference title over to Alabama.

0-8-1.

November 17, 1979
Florida Field (Gainesville, FL)

Florida’s last win had come nearly a year prior to this date against Kentucky. The 18-16 win over the Wildcats in Lexington was a fond memory that now stretched back 11 games in the past.

Coming home to Florida Field to face a 4-5 UK squad fresh off of the toughest part of the schedule seemed, on paper, like a potential spot to notch the first win of the season.

The Kentucky Wildcats are 18-52 in 70 head-to-head meetings with the Florida Gators. Of those 18 wins, 12 of those Kentucky wins occurred before 1956. Of the six remaining wins, four of those victories occurred in the 1970s, a decade in which Kentucky ended with a 4-6 mark against the Gators.

Coming off of a blowout loss to Georgia and a 31-3 beatdown at home against Kentucky, all before hosting the first FSU team to make it to 10 wins with an undefeated record has to fit the saying “The night is darkest before the dawn,” right?

Kentucky fans might tell you they beat Florida 41-24 in 1974, and they might mention that one time in 1949 where the Cats eviscerated the Gators 35-0 in Tampa. Some may have even memorialized the 1917 game where Kentucky won 52-0 in the teams’ inaugural meeting, but outside of these rare occasions, the Kentucky Wildcats aren’t exactly known for pounding the Gators.

For additional context, Kentucky was in the mix for a league title in 1976 (later claimed due to sanctions) and 1977, so this was a respectable era for UK football. However, the 1978 and 1979 Cats were a ways off of those teams, and each finished with losing records.

No matter how bad the Gators were in 1979, a blowout loss to Kentucky was not something to take lightly.

Please excuse the negativity, but I think it’s important to fully consider just how ugly this moment appears to be on the surface before we dive into the game.

This loss hit on several layers of suck. It’s not just about the big loss to Kentucky…it’s a combination in which this series of events took place.

It’s the ongoing rot of an oh-fer season mixing with a fresh loss to Georgia, which is always terrible in its own right, no matter the record.

It’s the up-and-down nature of the performances from week to week that fans fought through in hopes of seeing this team turn the corner.

It’s Pell’s continuous insistence on pumping sunshine, which likely felt unfounded into a dark, dark hour.

What would your mood have been as a fan in this situation? Stop and take note. Don’t just brush a four-touchdown defeat to Kentucky off as another loss in a winless season.

This home loss may have been the toughest to bear in an already miserable year.

Once again, the Florida offense failed to do much, gaining 28 yards rushing on 27 carries. Pell tabbed Johnell Brown as the starting quarterback. Brown, a Gainesville native, completed one pass and rushed for 10 yards on seven carries. He was booed and later pulled in the second quarter in favor of Ochab.

Down 10-3, Ochab stepped in and connected with Collinsworth on a 27-yard pass, but the drive fizzled out and Florida punted. At times dominant, the Gators leaned on their defense for much of the year, but on this day, injuries to linebacker David Little’s ankle and cornerback Derrick Burdgess’ ribs left Florida without multiple starters for much of the game.

Kentucky senior wide receiver Felix Wilson scored on two first-half touchdown receptions on passes from Coral Gables High School product Juan Portela. The sophomore quarterback hit Wilson for 62 and 43 yards on the scores, respectively, both coming on what Pell described as “mental errors” by UF free safety Juan Collins, and Kentucky took a 17-3 lead into the locker room.

The Cats would add two second-half scores from freshman running back Chris Jones, and the Cats cruised to a 31-3 victory over the offensively inept Gators to improve their record to 5-5 on the year. Kentucky’s head coach, Fran Curci, said, “This was the most complete game we’ve played all year, in all phases—offense, defense, and kicking. I’ve heard us described as a physical team. Perhaps we are. It amazes me how as the game got on, we got stronger. I don’t know the reason.”

“We didn’t block anybody early to get a running game established,” Pell said. “Our game plan was to slow down their pass rush. When that didn’t work, we were forced to go to the air.

“We’re not crying about the situation,” Pell started. “We’re in a strong situation. We just haven’t done much with it. One game, one week, one season doesn’t change the things we’re working to build. It changes the record, but it doesn’t change the overall program.”

Pell continued, “We’re in focus, we know where we’re going, and we know how to get there.”

A reporter suggested to Cris Collinsworth that the team seemed deflated on the field and had accepted the defeat inevitable. “It still hurts,” he replied, shaking his head from side to side. “But how many tears can you cry?”

0-9-1.

November 24, 1979
Florida Field (Gainesville, FL)

Florida wore orange jerseys for the first time ever, a look they would embrace in the 1980s, as they welcomed Bobby Bowden and the 10-0 #5 Seminoles into Florida Field.

“It has been more than a year since Florida State University has lost a football game. It has been more year since the University of Florida has won one,” Jim Lampley said, opening the ABC broadcast with a nod to A Tale of Two Cities.

FSU wasn’t quite the well-oiled machine that took off in 1987, but this undefeated season was a sign of what was to come under Bobby Bowden. The Noles had scored 24 or more points in seven of their 10 games leading up to their finale in Gainesville and were headed for their first Orange Bowl in school history.

Florida State rode a two-quarterback rotation of Jimmy Jordan and Wally Woodham on the offensive side and leaned on the stellar nose guard Ron Simmons up front on defense. Not many expected the 0-8-1 Gators, who had tabbed Larry Ochab as the starter, to hang with the Seminoles, but Florida showed some fight.

FSU opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 42-yard field goal from David Cappelen, and a second-quarter touchdown pass gave the Noles a 10-0 lead heading into halftime. In the third quarter, Florida’s Yancey Sutton sacked Jordan for a 10-yard loss at the FSU 14-yard line. The sack set the Gators up midfield, and the offense managed to tack on a field goal to cut the lead to 10-3.

UF halfback Carl Prioleau scored Florida’s first rushing touchdown since the opener at Houston later in the third, and the winless Gators headed into the fourth quarter tied 10-10 with unbeaten FSU.

Florida State was up 17-10 early in fourth, when Ochab dropped back and was pressured by Ron Simmons as he started to throw. The ball came loose and was recovered by FSU, but video replay clearly showed Ochab’s arm going forward. Florida State was awarded possession on what should’ve been an incomplete pass, and the Noles went on to add a field goal to increase their lead to 20-10.

Florida would tack on a late touchdown on a 25-yard strike from Ochab to tight end Chris Faulkner with 2:21 left. Perhaps due to the kicking struggles, Pell elected to go for the two-point conversion, but the offense failed.

Then came an onside kick attempt where wide receiver Darrell Jones recovered the ball. But since there was enough hang time from the kick, FSU’s Gary Henry called for a fair catch, and officials ruled that the Gators had interfered, giving the Noles the ball at the Florida 40-yard line.

FSU running back Mark Lyles would cap off the day with a 3-yard touchdown run to give the Seminoles the clinching score in a 27-16 survive-and-advance type of victory.

The Gators dropped back 54 times in 77 plays and racked up 270 passing yards through the air. However, Ochab only managed to complete 22 passes and tossed five interceptions. Florida managed to lose a fumble to hit six turnovers in yet another game.

But, despite the five interceptions, there were some positives. The Gators scored a season-high 16 points, and for the first time all season, they had scored more than one touchdown in a game.

The one consistent piece of the Gators offense had an off day as a windy Florida Field tortured both kickers. FSU kicker David Cappelen missed three field goals while the normally reliable Brian Clark missed four field goals for Florida.

“Their defense was much better than I thought it would be,” said Wally Woodham. “They put more pressure on the passer than just about anybody we played.”

After 25 years, FSU had not only caught Florida, but it also seemed to create a sizable gap between the two programs. “We can look ‘em in the eye,” Bowden said about FSU’s new foothold in recruiting.

Despite another loss, Florida’s postgame mood remained upbeat. It may have been a loss, but the Gators were proud of the effort. “The sharp, mature player isn’t going to make his decision on the basis of one game, or even one season,” Pell said about future recruits. “It’s the most important decision of his life. It’ll determine just about everything else he does.

“I’ve got a plane to catch so I can get to the playoffs,” Pell said, and he hurried away to Orlando in search of blue-chip Lakeland quarterback Wayne Peace.

“It was the greatest day of my life,” Ochab said after the loss. “We gave it heart. But, oh yes, we have plenty of heart left for Miami.”

0-10-1.

December 1, 1979
Miami Orange Bowl (Miami, FL)

Miami head coach Howard Schnellenberger’s team sat at 4-6, but a young quarterback by the name of Jim Kelly led the Canes to an early November road upset against #19 Penn State in his first start, providing the Hurricanes with a glimmer of hope for the future.

The excitement of that upset was followed by a 30-0 loss at #1 Alabama, and Kelly was knocked out of a 40-15 loss to Notre Dame in Tokyo just one week before the Gators traveled down to the Orange Bowl for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. “I expect the Miami game to be a wide-open affair,” Pell said. “We’ll go at them much like we attacked FSU last week.”

Pell’s instincts were spot on, and after a 3-3 deadlock at the end of the first, both teams started moving the ball in the second quarter. Miami put together an 80-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Lorenzo “Smokey” Roan that gave the Canes a 10-3 edge. Miami would add another field goal to make it 13-3.

Gators quarterback Johnell Brown had switched to running back and was instrumental in UF’s scoring drive in the second quarter, with three passes and running for 8 yards as Florida marched to Miami’s 19-yard line. On 3rd & 10, Ochab hit wide receiver Darrell Jones for a touchdown that would cut the lead to 13-10.

Unfortunately for the Gators, Kelly and the Miami offense started to click in the third quarter. The Canes scored on a 9-yard pass to wide receiver Larry Brodsky to extend the lead to 20-10. An Ochab interception would be followed up with a 1-yard touchdown run by Kelly later in the quarter that would drive the score up to 27-10 in Miami’s favor.

Ochab threw for 273 yards with two touchdown passes, but he also threw three interceptions, all to Miami safety Gene Coleman, who had two other interceptions nullified by penalties. Each of the three interceptions came in the second half on passes intended for Collinsworth.

Florida scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including one late score to make the 30-24 loss appear closer than it had played out on field. “I’m not at all embarrassed right now,” Collinsworth said. “I know I played my hardest, and I do feel most other guys did, too. I’ll never feel bad when I’ve given 100 percent. Me and the rest of the guys who’ll be seniors next year are going to take over. Coaches can’t provide all of the leadership. It’s got to come from within. The University of Florida will be back.”

Looking Toward The Future

For the first and only time in school history, the Florida Gators had lost 10 games in a single season. They had only scored 11 touchdowns in 1979, and were outscored by a total of 265-106. The offense only managed to score more than 10 points in three games, with the two highest point totals coming in the last two games of the season against FSU (16) and Miami (24).

Almost every account of Charley Pell, the coach, includes the word “businesslike,” so it’s hard to imagine the winless 1979 adding an extra urgency to succeed at Florida.

Pell was hard at work building the program on-and-off-the-field. 0-10-1 had been viewed by many as a fluke and the hungry fanbase was still sold on his bright vision of the future.

Tom Jackson, assistant sports editor of the Tampa Tribune, provided some hope for weary Florida fans heading into 1980: “All but nine of the first 44 Gators listed on the two-deep depth chart Friday will return in 1980. They will be rejoined by a half-dozen others who were hurt early in the season who otherwise would have played instrumental roles—perhaps record-changing roles.”

The record would change in 1980 and Pell’s off-the-field build began to take shape as well. Stay tuned for our next installment of the Give ’em Hell, Pell series, “Part IV: The Build.”