When people think of great UF teams, obviously the 3 that come to mind are 1996, 2006, and 2008, with 2008 being the most talented of the bunch.

But 2001 UF just might've been the 2nd best UF team ever, and that team didn't win the SEC. 2001 UF went 10-2, and lost its 2 games by a combined 5 points.

LINK - AlligatorArmy's Blake Edwards did a hell of a job putting this together.

Here is the 2001 Florida Gators season:
vs. Marshall - UF 49-14 (Marshall finished 11-2 that year led by Byron Leftwich at QB)
vs. ULM - UF 55-6
@ UK - UF 44-10 (Tennessee game was pushed back due to 9/11)
vs. #21 Miss State - UF 52-0
@ #18 LSU - UF 44-15
@ Auburn - AU 23-20 (UF dominated statistically, but a strange wind storm limited UF's deep passing game, and UF was without Earnest Graham at RB, who was injured the week before at LSU. UF turned it over 5 times with Grossman throwing 4 picks. Just an all around perfect storm for an Auburn upset.)
vs. #15 UGA - UF 24-10
vs. Vandy - UF 71-13
@ #14 South Carolina - UF 54-17 (Gamecocks had decided to make this a blackout game)
vs. #20 FSU - UF 37-13 (Earnest Graham was again injured after FSU player Darnell Docket twisted his ankle intentionally, which kept Graham out the next week against Tennessee.)
vs. #5 Tennessee - UT 34-32 (Without Graham, UF had no running game, and Travis Stephens went wild. TEnnessee had the # 57th ranked rushing attack that year, but UF could not tackle Stephens.)
vs #6 Maryland - UF 56-23 (Brock Berlin started in place of Grossman, who Spurrier had benched for missing curfew. Grossman came in the game with 4 minutes left in the 2nd Q with UF up 14-10, and finished 20/28 for 248 yards and 4 TDs.)

quote:
The 2001 Gators’ average margin of victory in the regular season was +36.8. That’s five touchdowns and a safety. Per game.

Let’s compare that to some of the great modern Florida teams:

1995: +27.6
1996: +34.6
2006: +18.1
2008: +37.3
2009: +26.7

Bill Connelly took a look at SP+ rankings for 2001 in an article done a few years back, and UF had the #1 ranked offense with the 12th ranked defense. UF ended up #2 in SP+ that year, just behind 2001 Miami, who is argued to be the greatest CFB team ever:

1 Miami-FL 12-0 27.0 99.40% 39.7 3 12.7 1
2 Florida 10-2 24.4 98.86% 42.1 1 17.7 12
3 Tennessee 11-2 19.4 96.48% 34.7 13 15.3 5
4 Texas 11-2 16.2 93.49% 36.0 8 19.7 23
5 Nebraska 11-2 16.1 93.28% 34.5 15 18.5 14
6 Syracuse 10-3 15.1 92.05% 29.8 35 14.7 2
7 Oregon 11-1 14.5 91.11% 35.1 11 20.6 27
8 Florida State 8-4 14.4 91.03% 36.7 6 22.3 36
9 Colorado 10-3 13.8 90.09% 35.0 12 21.2 32
10 LSU 10-3 13.7 89.86% 34.5 14 20.9 29

quote:
It’s well known that Spurrier was never a big recruiter, but in 1999 and 2000, Florida pulled in the No. 1 and No. 2 recruiting classes in the country, respectively. For a guy whose recruiting pitch amounted to “If ya wanna score touchdowns, come here. If not, I’m still gonna win 10 games and play golf,” it was beyond impressive: The talent he brought in from those two classes would be the building blocks of arguably his most talented team ever.

From top to bottom, they were loaded. Some of my favorite Gators of all-time were on this team: Rex Grossman, Alex Brown, Lito Sheppard, Ben Troupe, Keiwan Ratliff, Mike Pearson, Shannon Snell, and Max Starks. Also, two of the more underrated players in school history, Andra Davis and Todd Johnson, were starters on defense. Heck, Ratliff and Guss Scott were backups in a secondary that was rounded out by Marquand Manuel and Bennie Alexander.

Four Gators garnered First-Team All-America honors and eight claimed First-Team All-SEC honors. In the NFL Draft, from 2002 to 2004, 21 players from this team would be selected.

Its scary to think that when Spurrier put a lot of effort into recruiting, he got his 2 best classes in his last few years at UF.

Had Spurrier stayed in 2002, he would've had a chance with a still-loaded UF team that Zook ran into the ground to make a run at his 2nd title.

Aside from Nebraska making it to the Rose Bowl, the other travesty that year was Rex Grossman not winning the Heisman as an underclassman over Eric Crouch. Grossman had 34 TDs and 12 INTs in 11 regular season games, averaging 354+ YPG as a Sophomore.

Had there been a 4 team playoff in 2001, no one in the country could have given Miami a better game than the 2001 UF team.