Greatest backfield UF history-Kerwin Bell, Neal Anderson John L. Williams with Chris Doering host

[Jeff from Jax]

Listen to Kerwin Bell, Neal Anderson, John L. Williams with Chris Doering as host discuss a situation similar to this year - the countdown to kickoff in UF's season opening game versus da U - Miami.

Also watch this 1985 classic UF victory !

 

[PacoGator19]

Wasn’t Lorenzo Hampton on that team as well?

 

[Jeff from Jax]

Wasn’t Lorenzo Hampton on that team as well?

Yes !

From Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Hampton

"...Hampton shared the Gators' backfield with fellow running backs John L. Williams and Neal Anderson from 1982 to 1984,[4] and he was often used as a blocking back when Williams and Anderson were the ball carriers. Memorably, he ran for 138 yards against the Florida State Seminoles in 1982.[3] In his four seasons as a Gator, he compiled 1,993 rushing and 655 receiving yards."

 

[rdgtr]

Kerwin Bell threw for four TD passes against Miami:
- two to Ricky Nattiel
- one to John L Williams
- last one to Franky Neal

Neal Anderson later rushed for a two point conversion to make the score 28-21. Earlier, Miami's defense denied Anderson three times from scoring from the goal line. Ray Criswell scored two FG's that night.

Florida's defense hounded future Heisman winner Vinny Testeverde all night; although, Testeverde did have an impressive rushing TD to rally and give the Hurricanes their first lead at 21-20.

That Florida-Miami game was a battle for four quarters between two top programs.

 

[rdgtr]

Wasn’t Lorenzo Hampton on that team as well?

In 1985, Lorenzo Hampton was not on that team anymore as he got drafted in the first round by the Miami Dolphins.

Florida still had Anderson & Williams. It just shows how deep those mid-80s teams were before the NCAA violations kicked in later that decade.

However, one could see in this game, Bell's impressive wide receiver group of Frankie Neal, Ray McDonald (who was on that SI cover after UF's win over Auburn which made them #1) and Ricky Nattiel (Bell's favorite target). I believe that Bell threw for nearly 3000 yards in that 11-game schedule. Imagine what those stats would have been in a 12-/13+ game schedule. All three of those receivers averaged between 18-24 yards/catch and each of them caught 5 TD's a piece. Anderson & Williams combined for 1300 & 1000 yards from scrimmage, respectively. That 1985 team was very balanced and potent from both the ground and the air.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/florida/1985.html

This was how Florida did in the SEC standings in 1985. https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/conferences/sec/1985.html Even though Florida defeated Tennessee head to head in Gainesville & both had the same SEC records, the vols were named as SEC champs - UF was also ineligible for the title that year because of probation.

In hindsight with what the SEC presidents pulled later with their vote to strip UF of their title (& again in 1990), Florida should have never self-imposed the NCAA penalties on themselves in 1984!

https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/florida/1985-schedule.html
(Note: Florida had the 5th toughest schedule in the country that year!).

 

[bradleygator]

Not to take away from that backfield, because those were some serious ballers and great gators, but I’ll take Tebow and Harvin in the backfield and work with whatever else you want to give me.

 

[sadgator]

sadgator’ll take Wuerff and Taylor...

 

[bradleygator]

sadgator’ll take Wuerff and Taylor...

That’s a good one too.

 

[instaGATOR]

I believe they were the 1st UF 'Committee RB's' to have 3 go over 500 yds rushing in a season. Anderson, Williams, Hampton.

The 2nd to do that was the 2002 committee of Fason, Graham, Carthon. That group had Grossman at QB.

That puts those guys in the Top 5, but not #1 in team rushing stats.

-------

The #1 was 3,236 yards in the 2008 backfield that had 3 over 600 Yds each, with 3 more that combined for another 1,123 Yds.

Percy Harvin 660 Yds
Chris Rainey 652 Yds
Jeff Demps 605 Yds
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Tim Tebow 564 Yds
Emmanuel Moody 417 Yds
Kestahn Moore 142 Yds
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#2 was the 3,105 Yds in 2009
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As far as individual Gator RB's go...
E.Rhett -- 4,000+ Rushing, 1,000+ Receiving.
E.Smith
F.Taylor