Five biggest "What Ifs" for Florida Football over the last ten seasons

It’s been a long decade for Florida Football fans. While the Gators have had pockets of success here and there, they have emerged in the last ten years without a single SEC title and zero berths in the college football playoff since its inception in 2014.

And over the last ten years, there have been moments in time that might’ve changed the directory of the Gators had they gone differently.

The following are the five biggest what moments for the Florida Gators over the last 10 years.

What if the Gators recovered the fumble against South Carolina in 2014?

The 2014 season was a plethora of what-if moments for the Gators. What if Jeff Driskel doesn’t throw an interception against LSU? What if Austin Hardin makes a 42-yard field goal to take the lead against Florida State? 

But the what-if that sealed Will Muschamp's fate came against South Carolina. That game alone had its own list of what-ifs, including a blocked field goal and a blocked punt in the final five minutes. With under a minute to go, South Carolina running back Mike Davis took a toss to the left-hand side and was gonna run freely into the end zone. On the pitch, he fumbled the ball, but he recovered his fumble a split second before Florida linebacker Antonio Morrison could get to it.

South Carolina would go on to win the game in overtime and Muschamp was fired after the game.

But what if Florida had recovered that fumble? Would an eight and four season, with near losses to LSU and FSU, have saved Muschamp for another season? Given the state of the SEC in 2015 and 2016, would Muschamp have won the SEC East, further extending his reign in Gainesville into the 2017 season and beyond?

As we saw with his tenure as head coach of South Carolina, Will Muschamp was never gonna be the guy to lead Florida to the mountaintop. But his stay with Florida might’ve been much longer if Florida recovered just one fumble.