It seems hard to imagine 0-10-1, heck 4-8 in 2013 is hard to wrap your brain around.  So dispite the obvious that they were a terrible football team just how did they get to that point...

The main culpruit appears to be a steep decline in recruiting and institutional neglect.  I'm guessing it was a money issue on some levels but it also seems Doug Dickey was not really suited to be a great football coach and had lost interest by the late 1970s.  He would go on to be an athletic director and not a coach.

Peak 1970s Florida football was probably 1975 when the team went 9-3 and had a simple rating system score of 16.59.  Best way to describe that is they would beat an average 1975 college team by 16.5 points.  I had that team rated as the 11th best Gator team since 1960.  They outscored their opponents 302-104 in the regular season.  On offense they scored a point for every 14 yards they gained and made their opponents gain 33 yards to score a point, the difference is still the best mark for any UF team since 1960.

On paper the 1976 and 1977 teams were still good (the 1977 team had 10 future NFL players on the roster) but the play on the field started to slip;

1976 8-4  SRS 12.61, 22nd best Gator team since 1960 L-UNC, UGA, UK, TAM

1977 6-4-1 SRS 8.06, 46th best team.  Didn't beat a team with a winning record, but tied a good Pitt team.

The 1977 team was especially frusrating since observers saw skill player athletes all over the field but UF could not get anything done in the real game.  Dickey was starting to get heat from the fans for not meeting expecations.

For 1978, Dickey scrapped his wishbone offense and decided to install a passing game. Dickey hired Steve Spurrier and Lee McGriff as coaches.  Problem was UF was not real suited for passing with smallish offensive linemen and running quarterbacks.

One of the first decisions was to move highly touted running QB Chris Collinsworth to wide receiver. John Brantley and Tim Grove split time at QB.   It was not a success, UF went 4-7 and lost to all their big rivals UGA, Miami, FSU, LSU, Bama (I think they did beat Auburn). 

Dickey was fired, with the players not even told prior to Dickey getting the axe. Dickey thought he needed three years to transform UF into a passing team but he only got one.

The big rumor was that UF was gong to sign Lou Holtz to be the next coach, and apparently it came down to Holtz and Charlie Pell for the job. Pell had been the head man at Clemson going 8-3-1 in 1977 and 11-1 in 1978 (Clemson would be on probation by 1980). Pell took the UF gig for $45,000.

Pell got to work right away, Gator boosters at the time was more off an idea than a reality. Pell cris-crossed the state drumming up support from alumni and raising cash. Pell got huge donations from Ben Hill Griffin and Dave Thomas (of Wendy's). Pell had Yan Hall gutted at rebuilt, carpet was installed for the first time and the players had a lounge to relax and watch tv.  A new weight room was built complete with a Wendys hamburger logo pained on the wall.

Pell is given a lot of credit for dragging UF football out of the stone ages in its administration and facilities.

There was optimism in the air, UF had a poor record in 1978 but the team was not terrible and their schedule had been rated as the 6th hardest of any Gator team for that season.  But there were some issues.

Gator recruiting had slipped mightely.  Since 1977 opponents had negatively recruited Florida saying Dickey woud be fired any day now. UF had switched offensive styes going from a wishbone to a pro-style passing game and did not have personnel in place toake it work.

With a new coach Pell let go Dickey's staff.  Spurrier was shown the door, McGriff too. Denny Aldridge was brought in to convert the offense back to an option style running attack.  It would be the third new offense in three years.

John Brantley was the nominal starting QB and gave up baseball to be there for the first Spring practices with Pell.  Unfortunately, he broke his leg in the Spring game. A promissing young QB named Bob Hewko (recruited by Spurrier) was also injured and would miss the entire 1979 season.

Most of the recollections I could find say Pell drove his team relentlessly during the Spring and Fall camps leading up to 1979.  Many of the players said they were exhausted before the season ever started.  Pell would later say he was trying to teach them to be tough.

Did Pell sacrifice the 1979 season for the long haul?

UF opened the 1979 season in the Astrodome vs Houston.  The Cougars would go 11-1 that season and play in the Cotton Bowl.   UF lost 10-14.  The UF offense went nowhere.  Brantley had worked to get back in shape but could not move the offense. Tim Groves also played but did not do much better.  On top of the loss UF starting DT David Galloway was injured for the season in the first game (he would eventually play in the NFL for 12 seasons).  In the home opener UF tied Georgia Tech 7-7. The Gator TD was scored by the defense.  Brantey re-broke his leg in this game.  UF had a shot to win on a late FG but it was blocked. Worse news came later as LB Scott Brantley was ruled out for the rest of the season with a head injury.  

Game 3 was vs Miss State and UF with back-up QB Tim Groves led 10-7 at the half.  From this point on things got real bad.  UF ended up losing 10-24 to MSST.

Pell panicked and went with a freshman QB named Tyrone Young who could run but could not throw the ball.  He was not the answer a UF lost to LSU 3-20.  Next up was the #2 team in the nation Alabama, the Tide rolled 40-0.  By the 4th qtr QB Groves was playing defensive tackle.  UF got exposed as a small weak team that could be run over.

UF's next game was homecoming vs Tulsa, a win right?  Pell went with another QB Larry Ochab and it was a disaster. The Gators lost 10-20.  UF went with yet another QB for their next game vs Auburn.  Johnell Brown got the start and UF played one of their better games of the season.  Unfortunately, Brown tossed two picks that set up Auburn touchdowns and the Gators lost 13-19.

If you are scoring at home the QB shuffle went Brantley-Hewko-Brantley-Groves-Young-Groves-Ochab-Brown from the Spring through game number 6.

UF was completely worn down by this point by injuries, bad offense and Pell's practice routines during the week.   UF gave up 33-31-27-30 points in their last 4 games.  They had 28 yards total rushing vs  a 5-6 Kentucky team.  For the season they scored 106 points.  Pell blasted Doug Dickey in the media for his past recruiting.

1979, however, brought changes.  Pell scrapped the option.  He hit the recruiting trail hard (ok maybe he starting cheating I don't know). For 1980 UF signed the top 4 QB prospects in the state of Florida.

Pell went to the Dallas Cowboys and studied up on the latest trends.  He asked around about who was the best up-and-coming offensive coach and hired a mostly unknown at the time Mike Shannanan to run his offense.

UF, of course, won 8 games in 1980.  They scored 41 and 45 points in their first two games.  When Bob Hewko got hurt- a true fresman QB by the name of Wayne Peace stepped in to lead the team.

So you could draw some similarities to UF's late 1970s outcomes to what happened during the Muschamp seasons. And the new coach coming in, recruiting, the facilities blah blah blah.

UF 2015, however, in nowhere near the 1979 team.  At least I dont think so.  UF is an underdog in 7 games going into the season, so 5-7 is not out of the question but 7-5 seems the most likely result. UF 1979 had a SRS score of negative 3.9, they would lose to an average 1979 team by almost 4 points.  UF begins the 2015 season with a projected S&P rating of 10.4.  Stuart Chase's ELO score has them at 47.8 (#29).  Both these ratings correspond real close (.95 correlation throughout all college teams).  This makes UF about 25-30 in rankings prior to the season starting.  UF hould beat an average college team in 2015 by about 8 points (again prior to any games actually being played).  These are sort of predictive numbers and predictions often turn out wrong so who knows.

Opening lines for college football were released last week at betters eventually dumped on Missouri.  The UF line went from +10 to +5.5.  So a game that looked like a sure loss now seems to be in play according to Vegas.

ELO scores seem to indicate the following probabilty for UF wins.  UF is an underdog in all 7 of these games.

Tennessee 51.5%

Mississippi 16%

Missouri 44%

LSU  32%

Georgia 18%

South Carolina 71%

FSU   34%