1973 Florence State Lions football team

The 1973 Florence State Lions football team represented Florence State University as a member of the Gulf South Conference (GSC) during the 1973 NAIA Division I football season. Led by first-year head coach Mickey Andrews, the Lions compiled an overall record of 4–6 with a mark of 3–6 in conference play, tying for seventh place in the GSC. Florence State played home game at Braly Municipal Stadium in Florence, Alabama.

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 8	7:30 p.m.	at Southeastern Louisiana	Strawberry Stadium Hammond, LA	L 0–26	7,000	[1]
September 22	7:30 p.m.	Delta State	Braly Municipal Stadium Florence, AL	W 21–18	5,500	[2]
September 29	7:30 p.m.	Livingston	Braly Municipal Stadium Florence, AL (rivalry)	W 13–12	6,200	[3][4]
October 6	2:00 p.m.	Mississippi College	Braly Municipal Stadium Florence, AL	L 7–26	8,200	[5]
October 13	7:30 p.m.	at Northwestern State	Demon Stadium Natchitoches, LA	L 14-27	6,000	[6]
October 20	2:00 p.m.	at Troy State	Veterans Memorial Stadium Troy, AL	L 7–36	8,300	[7][8]
October 27	7:30 p.m.	at Nicholls State	John L. Guidry Stadium Natchitoches, LA	W 27–11	6,500	[9]
November 3	7:30 p.m.	Appalachian State*	Braly Municipal Stadium Florence, AL	W 21–7	5,500	[10][11]
November 10	2:00 p.m.	at Tennessee–Martin	Pacer Stadium Martin, TN	L 16–17	7,100	[12]
November 17	7:30 p.m.	Jacksonville State	Braly Municipal Stadium Florence, AL	L 12–42	6,500	[13][14]
*Non-conference game Homecoming

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Preparation for the 1973 season began before the 1972 season concluded. Durell Mock, who had led the Lions to a 3–24 record in three seasons, announced that he would resign from the head coach position after the final game of the season at Jacksonville State.^[18] With the resignation, the search for a new head coach began. Unofficial reports suggested that four coaches had been chosen for final consideration. The list of coaches was made up of Southern Miss assistant coach Hamp Cook, Georgia assistant coach Byrd Whigham, and Auburn assistant coach Sam Mitchell.^[19] But, it would be the fourth man on the list who got the job: Mickey Andrews.

Andrews, who had previously been coaching at Florence State rival Livingston, was announced as the new head coach and athletic director on November 30.^[20] In his three years at Livingston, he coached the Tigers to a NAIA National Championship and a Gulf South Conference championship in 1971. He also played defensive back for the Alabama Crimson Tide from 1962 to 1964.

Andrews brought forth multiple changes during the offseason. He brought previous members of his coaching staff at Livingston to join him in Florence. Mike Dean, who Andrews had brought on to Livingston to become a defensive coach, was selected as defensive coordinator. Richie Gaskell, who had been head coach at Carson-Newman before joining Andrews' coaching staff, joined on as the new offensive coordinator.^[16]

Andrews and his new coaching staff quickly became dissatisfied with the state of the team. After the first spring practice, Andrews said in an interview, "We're about as far away from being a football team as any group I've ever seen on the first day of spring practice. The best thing we had was effort."^[21] During the remaining spring practice sessions, the amount of players would drop from the initial seventy to only thirty-four remaining. This along with the record amount of freshman joining the team led to a very young Florence State Lions football team in 1973.

Off the gridiron, plans for a new stadium for the Lions were being drafted. Despite playing in Braly Stadium since 1949, it seemed that the Lions had outgrown the stadium. With the recent move to the Gulf South Conference and the construction of Flowers Hall, it seemed that Florence State athletics was about to grow. Along with this, issues were beginning to arise about sharing Braly with high school teams. There were several instances in the previous years where both Coffee High School and Bradshaw High School would play on Thursday and Friday and then, the Lions would play on Saturday. This would create poor field conditions by the time Florence State took the field on Saturday night.^[22]

With these sentiments, the FSU Alumni Association led by Harlon Hill began to create plans and fundraise for the stadium. By May, the proposal would gain support from the city and optimism for the stadium was high. The proposed stadium would be built west of the Florence State campus and have a capacity of 20,000. The stadium would also have artificial turf. With the optimism, it was believed that the stadium would break ground in 1974.^[23] However, it would not. It would be fifty years later in 2024 when the university broke ground on Braly's replacement, Bank Independent Stadium.^[24]

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