FUN FLASHBACK

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida's rise in its first season under head coachreceived further validation on Monday.If the Gators' significantly improved offense, 10-win season and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl victory over Michigan were not enough proof of a program headed in the right direction, if nothing else, the final national rankings of the season proved how far UF has come in the last year.The Gators finished sixth in the final Amway Coaches Poll and seventh in the AP Top 25 rankings . They finished ahead of LSU (No. 7) and Georgia (No. 8) in the eyes of coaches, which set well with Gator Nation on social media. The media's placement of the Gators a spot behind LSU in the AP poll, as you might imagine, was not as popular considering the Gators' 27-19 home win over the Tigers.Setting aside the minutia in favor of context, Florida's surge in Mullen's first season is historic for the program. Not only was the six-win improvement the second biggest turnaround in school history -- does anyone in Orange & Blue really want to topple the 8-4 reversal in 1980 from 0-10-1 in '79? -- it marked a significant milestone for the program during a turbulent decade.Remember, when the preseason AP Top 25 was released in August, the Gators were on the outside looking in, unranked to start a season for the third time in five years. Even worse, the Gators had finished unranked in the final AP Top 25 in five of the last seven seasons.However, the Gators did something in Mullen's first season they had done only one other time in the AP poll era: finish ranked in the top 10 after starting the season unranked. Florida's climb from outside the AP poll to inside the top 10 is matched only by the 1983 Gators, who finished sixth in the AP rankings that season with a 9-2-1 record. The '66 Gators, quarterbacked by Heisman Trophy winner, nearly became the first.In a brief era when the AP ranked only 10 teams in its final poll, Florida capped a 9-2 season with a 27-12 beating of Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. However, the Yellow Jackets finished eighth that year and the Gators got left out.In Mullen's first season, Florida emerged in the AP poll at No. 25 following its season-opening win over Charleston Southern. However, after losing at home to Kentucky, the Gators dropped from the poll and didn't resurface again (No. 22) until the week of the LSU game. To get there, they had to beat Colorado State at home, Tennessee on the road, and then win at No. 23 Mississippi State in Mullen's much-hyped return to Starkville.Following the win over then-No. 5 LSU, the Gators jumped to 14th in the AP poll and climbed as high as No. 9 prior to back-to-back losses to Georgia and Missouri that dropped them to 15th. From there, the Gators steadily climbed back into the top 10 with wins over South Carolina, Idaho, Florida State and Michigan, earning UF its first top 10 finish in the national polls since 2012.In case you are wondering, the Gators won't be unranked to start Mullen's second season. They are appearing in the top 10 in most of of the way-too-early Top 25s that flood the internet this time of year.The Gators made their first appearance in the Associated Press poll on Oct. 23, 1950, two days after upsetting undefeated and No. 13-ranked Vanderbilt on the road.Florida's 31-27 win over the Commodores earned first-year UF head coach Bob Woodruff recognition as Southeastern Conference Coach of the Week and at the time was one of the biggest wins in program history. When the Gators returned home the next afternoon, more than 15,000 fans greeted them at the Gainesville airport."I certainly appreciate the student body meeting us like this,'' Woodruff said according to newspaper reports.