1982 Florida Gators football team

The 1982 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida during the 1982 NCAA Division I-A football season. The season was the fourth for Charley Pell as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. Pell's 1982 Florida Gators posted an 8–4 overall record and a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record of 3–3, tying for sixth place in the ten-team SEC.^[1]

The highlight of the season was a nationally televised September victory over Southern Cal in the Trojans' only visit to Florida Field. Gator linebacker Wilber Marshall had 14 tackles and 4 sacks in the 17–9 victory and was named national defensive player of the week on his way to All-American honors at the end of the season.^[2] On offense, the team was led by quarterback Wayne Peace, who set an NCAA record for completion percentage in a season (70.7%) running offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan's short passing attack.^[3]

Florida played six of their first seven games at home and rode their early season success into a No. 4 ranking in early October, which matched the highest AP poll placement in program history up to that time. However, close losses to LSU and Vanderbilt and a blow-out loss to arch rival Georgia knocked them out of the polls, and the Gators finished the season 8–4 after a loss in the 1982 Bluebonnet Bowl

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
September 4	No. 15 Miami (FL)*	No. 16	Florida Field Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	USA	W 17–14	71,864	[4]
September 11	No. 10 USC*	No. 11	Florida Field Gainesville, FL	ABC	W 17–9	73,238	[5]
September 25	Mississippi State	No. 5	Florida Field Gainesville, FL	ESPN	W 27–17	71,544	[6]
October 2	LSU	No. 4	Florida Field Gainesville, FL (rivalry)	USA	L 13–24	73,152	[7]
October 9	at Vanderbilt	No. 14	Vanderbilt Stadium Nashville, TN		L 29–31	39,726	[8]
October 16	West Texas State*		Florida Field Gainesville, FL		W 77–14	72,885	[9]
October 30	No. 19 Auburn		Florida Field Gainesville, FL (rivalry)		W 19–17	73,532	[10]
November 6	vs. No. 3 Georgia	No. 20	Gator Bowl Stadium Jacksonville, FL (rivalry)	CBS	L 0–44	80,749	[11]
November 13	at Kentucky		Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, KY (rivalry)		W 39–13	53,245	[12]
November 20	at Tulane*		Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA		W 21–14	27,795	[13]
December 4	at No. 15 Florida State*		Doak Campbell Stadium Tallahassee, FL (rivalry)		W 13–10	57,369	[14]
December 31	vs. No. 14 Arkansas*		Astrodome Houston, TX (Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl)	MTN	L 24–28	31,557	[15]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

^[1]