The 2019 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida in the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Gators played their home games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida, and competed in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They were led by second-year head coach Dan Mullen.

Coming off a 10-win season that ended in a victory in the Peach Bowl in Mullen's first year, Florida began the 2019 season ranked eighth in the preseason AP Poll. They opened the schedule by rekindling their rivalry with Miami in a game played in Orlando, winning 24–20. The Gators won their first six games, including a win over then-No. 7 Auburn, before falling on the road to then-No. 5 LSU. Three weeks later, they fell again to Georgia in Jacksonville. Florida ended the regular season in second in the East Division behind Georgia at 10–2 (6–2 SEC), and were invited to the Orange Bowl to play ACC runner-up Virginia. The Gators won the bowl game, 36–28, to end the season with 11 wins, and were ranked sixth in the final AP Poll.

Feleipe Franks began the year as the Gators' starting quarterback, but he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the third game of the season against Kentucky. He was replaced by Kyle Trask, who finished the year with 2,941 yards and 25 touchdowns, and had the conference's second best passer rating (156.1). Tight end Kyle Pitts was named first-team all-conference. Florida's defense ranked second in the SEC in points and yards allowed, and was led by first-team all-conference defensive end Jonathan Greenard, who led the conference in sacks (10) and tackles for loss (16). Cornerback C. J. Henderson was also named first-team all-conference by the coaches.

Preseason

Recruits The Gators signed a total of 25 recruits in the 2019 recruiting class.

SEC Media Days The 2019 SEC Media Days were held July 15–18 in Birmingham, Alabama. In the preseason media poll, Florida was projected to finish in second behind Georgia in the East Division.

Preseason All-SEC teams The Gators had seven players selected to the preseason all-SEC teams.

Offense

2nd team

La'Mical Perine – RB

Defense

1st team

Jabari Zuniga– DL

C. J. Henderson – DB

2nd team

David Reese II – LB

Specialists

2nd team

Tommy Townsend – P

Kadarius Toney – All-purpose

3rd team

Evan McPherson – K

Schedule Florida announced its 2019 football schedule on September 18, 2018. The 2019 schedule consisted of 6 home, 4 away, and 2 neutral games in the regular season.

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Rankings

Game summaries

Miami (FL)

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UT Martin

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At Kentucky

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Tennessee

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Towson

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Auburn

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Special throwback uniform

At LSU

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At South Carolina

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Georgia

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After its road victory against South Carolina, Florida faced Georgia in the 97th iteration of their rivalry game, played at the neutral site TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. Georgia won 24–17 to extend its series winning streak to three games.

Georgia won the opening coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. On the opening drive, Florida converted a third down, but Georgia took over at their own 40-yard line after an incomplete pass by Kyle Trask on fourth and inches. On their sixteen-play drive, Georgia made four third down conversions and scored first with a field goal by Rodrigo Blankenship. The next Florida drive was a three-and-out, with Trask being sacked once, but Georgia's next drive was stopped by the Florida defense and they were forced to punt. After another three-and-out by Florida, Georgia marched down the field with three third down conversions, ending their drive with a touchdown pass from Jake Fromm to Dominick Blaylock to bring the score to 10–0 with under five minutes left in the first half. Florida answered with an Evan McPherson field goal, but this was negated by another Blankenship field goal near the end of the half, bringing the score to 13–3 in favor of Georgia.

To open the second half, Georgia made a nine-play drive that included a one-handed catch by Brian Herrien of a pass from Fromm, capping it with Blankenship's third field goal of the game to extend their lead to 13 points. Both teams punted on their next drives, but Florida rallied with a nine-play drive that resulted in their first touchdown, made by Van Jefferson off a 23-yard pass by Trask. This narrowed the score differential to a touchdown with just under fourteen minutes left in the game, but on the next drive Georgia pulled away when Lawrence Cager completed a 52-yard pass from Jake Fromm for a touchdown. Together with a successful 2-point attempt, also from Fromm to Cager, this extended the Georgia lead to fourteen points. A 75-yard Florida drive ended with a Trask 2-yard touchdown pass to Freddie Swain with just over three minutes remaining in the game. Returning Florida's punt to their own 32-yard line, Georgia ran out the clock to seal their victory.

After the game, Florida dropped from sixth to tenth in the AP Top 25, while Georgia rose by two spots. Their victory gave Georgia uncontested first place in the SEC East, with now two-loss Florida in second.

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Vanderbilt

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At Missouri

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Florida State

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Virginia

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Personnel

Roster

2019 Florida Gators rosterQuarterbacks  5 Emory Jones – Freshman  9 Luke Matthews – Freshman 11 Kyle Trask – Junior 13 Feleipe Franks – Junior

Running backs  2 La’Mical Perine – Senior  6 Nay'Quan Wright – Freshman 20 Malik Davis – Sophomore 24 Iverson Clement – Freshman 27 Dameon Pierce – Sophomore

Wide receivers  8 Trevon Grimes – Junior 10 Josh Hammond – Senior 12 Van Jefferson – Senior 15 Jacob Copeland – Freshman 16 Freddie Swain – Senior 22 Dionte Marks – Freshman 82 Ja'Markis Weston – Freshman 83 Rick Wells – Junior 89 Tyrie Cleveland – Senior

Tight ends  7 Lucas Krull – Junior  9 Keon Zipperer – Freshman 45 Clifford Taylor IV – Junior 81 Dante Lang – Freshman 84 Kyle Pitts – Sophomore 88 Kemore Gamble – Sophomore

Offensive line 50 Tanner Rowell – Junior 56 Jean DeLance – Junior 60 Da'Quan Thomas – Freshman 61 Brett Heggie – Junior 62 Griffin McDowell – Freshman 64 Riley Simonds – Freshman 65 Kingsley Eguakun – Freshman 66 Nick Buchanan – Senior 67 Christopher Bleich – Freshman 70 Michael Tarquin – Freshman 72 Stone Forsythe – Junior 74 Will Harrod – Freshman 75 T.J. Moore – Sophomore 76 Richard Gouraige – Freshman 77 Ethan White – Freshman Defensive line 17 Zachary Carter – Sophomore 55 Kyree Campbell – Junior 56 Tedarrell Slaton – Junior 66 Jaelin Humphries – Freshman 88 Adam Shuler – Graduate 91 Marlon Dunlap Jr. – Junior 92 Jabari Zuniga – Senior 93 Elijah Conliffe – Junior 98 Luke Ancrum – Senior

Linebackers  4 David Reese – Freshman  6 Brenton Cox Jr. – Sophomore  7 Jeremiah Moon – Junior 11 Mohamoud Diabate – Freshman 28 Ty'Ron Hopper – Freshman 32 Jesiah Pierre – Freshman 33 David Reese II – Senior 34 Lacedrick Brunson – Sophomore 41 James Houston – Sophomore 51 Ventrell Miller – Sophomore 58 Jonathan Greenard – Graduate 90 Andrew Chatfield Jr. – Freshman 97 Khris Bogle – Freshman 99 Lloyd Summerall III – Freshman

Defensive backs  1 C. J. Henderson– Junior  2 Brad Stewart Jr. – Junior  3 Marco Wilson – Sophomore  5 Kaiir Elam – Freshman 12 C.J. McWilliams – Junior 13 Donovan Stiner – Junior 14 Quincy Lenton – Junior 21 Trey Dean – Sophomore 23 Jaydon Hill – Freshman 25 Chester Kimbrough – Freshman 29 Jeawon Taylor – Senior 31 Shawn Davis – Junior Punters 18 Jacob Finn – Junior 43 Tommy Townsend – Senior

Placekickers 19 Evan McPherson – Sophomore 71 Chris Howard – Sophomore

Long snappers 40 Marco Ortiz – Freshman 48 Brett DioGuardi – Junior 49 Jacob Tilghman – Senior

Athletes  1 Kadarius Toney – Junior 17 Nick Sproles – Junior 18 Jack Anders – Freshman 19 Jack Ruskell – Sophomore 25 Erik Askeland – Sophomore 26 Michael Hart – Senior 27 Joshua Tse – Sophomore 29 Isaac Ricks – Sophomore 30 Amari Burney – Sophomore 32 Brayton Hundley – Senior 33 Daniel Cross – Freshman 35 Kyle Engel – Freshman 35 William Sawyer – Freshman 36 Robert Clay – Senior 36 Trey Thompson – Sophomore 37 Patrick Moorer – Sophomore 37 Tyler Waxman – Freshman 38 Nick Oelrich – Junior 39 Michael Weir – Junior 42 Jaylin Jackson – Freshman 42 Umstead Sanders – Junior 43 Nicolas Sutton – Junior 44 Garrett Conner – Senior 46 John Brady – Freshman 46 Will Thomas – Senior 47 Justin Pelic – Freshman 47 Austin Perry – Sophomore 52 Quaylin Crum – Sophomore 53 Chase Whitfield – Freshman 57 Coleman Crozier – Freshman 80 Trent Whittemore – Freshman 86 Andres Saldivar – Senior 87 Dennis Gross – Senior 94 Moses Gordon III – Senior 96 Travis Freeman – Freshman Redshirt Injury

Coaching staff Name Position Joined staffDan Mullen Head coach 2018John Hevesy Co-offensive Coordinator / offensive line 2018Billy Gonzales Co-offensive Coordinator / Wide receivers 2018Todd Grantham Defensive coordinator 2018Brian Johnson Quarterbacks 2018Greg Knox Running backs / Special teams coordinator 2018Larry Scott Tight ends 2018David Turner Defensive line 2019Christian Robinson Linebackers 2018Torrian Gray Cornerbacks 2019Ron English Safeties 2018Nick Savage Director of strength and conditioning 2018Stephen Adegoke Graduate assistant 2019

Awards and honors All-SEC TE 1 1 DE 1 1 CB 1 – LB – 2References:

Players drafted into the NFL

1 9 C. J. Henderson CB Jacksonville Jaguars 2 57 Van Jefferson WR Los Angeles Rams 3 79 Jabari Zuniga DE New York Jets 3 90 Jonathan Greenard OLB Houston Texans 4 120 La’Mical Perine RB New York Jets 6 214 Freddie Swain WR Seattle Seahawks 7 252 Tyrie Cleveland WR Denver Broncos

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