Billy Gonzales has one game to sidestep a piece of Florida history he’ll hate

Including Billy Gonzales, the Florida Gators have had 29 gentlemen who at some point could claim they were the head coach of the Gators. Six of those were interim coaches who finished out their respective season before a new coaching staff was brought in.

Gonzales is currently 0-4 as the interim coach for Florida, and if he loses to FSU, he will go down with a distinction no one in Gainesville has held before.

Billy Gonzales is trying to avoid being winless

Of the previous five coaches who were an interim to finish out that year, only Charlie Strong in 2004 didn't pick up at least one win. And in Strong's case, he only got to coach the Peach Bowl after Ron Zook was carried off the field against FSU.

This means that unless Florida can knock off FSU this Saturday in The Swamp, Gonzales will go down as the first interim coach in Florida history to coach at least two games and fail to pick up at least one win.

Gonzales has tried to say all the right things and has tried to keep the train on the tracks, but the fact that he is winless and Florida was blown out by Kentucky and Tennessee is more of an indictment of the staff that Billy Napier assembled than an indictment of Gonzales.

Outside of running back coach Jabbar Juluke and perhaps Gonzales himself, it's hard to envision anyone else on the offensive staff getting a Power Four job as their next destination.

On the defensive side, Ron Roberts has resorted to his play 18 yards off the ball style of defense that got shredded when he first showed up in Gainesville, and the rest of the defensive staff is filled with guys who had minimal Power Four experience before they showed up in Gainesville.

Florida takes on FSU at 4:30 on Saturday in The Swamp. Much to the shock of everyone, the game will not be played on TruTV and will be featured on ESPN2.

In addition to trying to avoid history, Florida will also be trying to keep FSU from bowl eligibility for the second straight season.