Florida

With former Gator QB and Tennessee head coach Doug Dickey taking over Graves' vacated position, there was turmoil among the players who felt they were deceived regarding the coaching change and All American receiver Carlos Alvarez was most chagrined. There was also media support for defensive coach Gene Ellenson to take the head spot so Dickey's transition was anything but smooth and he began the season with an injured Alvarez who had hurt both knees during track season and the as-yet-to-be-recovered from knee surgery Andy Cheney, the other wide-out who was hurt in the Miami game of '69. A rebuilt O-line in front of the now-experienced Tommy Durrance and Mike Rich wasn't enough to keep the heat off of Reaves and after opening at 5-1, the 63-14 loss to Auburn set the stage for another pummeling, this time from Tennessee that had the Gators on the wrong end of a 21-101 scoring disadvantage in two games. Perhaps feeling that their orange helmet with white center stripe might be too similar to Georgia's red helmet with white stripe, Dickey switched the helmet design and removed the Gators' white stripe, substituting a blue center stripe. He also stripped off the blue flanking stripes but maintained the unique interlocking "UF" decals and closed the season against Georgia, Kentucky, and Miami in the new helmets. Despite the All American play of DE Jack Youngblood who justified his number one draft status with the Rams by playing a Hall Of Fame career over fifteen seasons for them, this was, once again, not the "Year Of The Gator." They beat Georgia and Kentucky but lost to Miami and limped in at 7-4 to close Dickey's inauguration which was also marked by the appearance of HB Leonard George and WR Willie Jackson, the first two African-American players to represent the university on the football field.