Florida vs Miami in what will likely be the last regular season game for some time between these two teams. 12 Noon Sept 7, 2013 Florida Game Plan Is Ground Control] Miami Focused On Stopping The Run Florida Fan In Ohio Turns Backyard Into Football Field What's that last article with out a picture of the backyard in Ohio?
I read an article about the history of the game online some place. I had forgotten that the lone loss by Miami in their 1983 championship season was the opening loss to the Gators in Gainesville. It seems that for most of the 80's and 90's the dominant programs in Fla were Miami and FSU, Gators were a distant 3rd. That's all changed now. I've been trying to figure out the game, we played Miami last year and they looked a long way from being a good team, esp on defense as we shredded them on the ground. I don't remember if their RB Duke Johnson played last year in our game, but he's getting a lot of attention. Like ND/Temple game looking at the Gators game vs Toledo didn't really tell you very much. It wasn't a 69-3 beat down that would leave you salivating, it was a win. Your QB had 150 yds passing, you had a rb go over 100yds..but it seems like it was the defense that looked the best. That was sort of like last year, your defense bailed you out of several close games and your offense never seemed to get untracked. Do you guys expect to have a really good offense this year? Driskell is an experienced QB. Do you have WR's?
Terry, we beat Miami 28-3 in the opening game of that season where the Canes won their first NC by beating Nebraska. Miami won so many games by the narrowest of margins that year and things had to really fall their way to win the NC. It was magic for Cane fans and the city of Miami that year. Here's another article. Beating Florida Takes on New Meaning For Miami
It's been a fun week leading up to this game, but let me set the stage first. Everyone and I mean everyone and anyone who has some remote tie into the Agriculture industry in the State of Florida loves the Gators. Using the word love does not do justice to the fanatical orange and blue affection encountered on a daily basis, THEY LOVE THEIR GATORS... Every phone call, email, text message I receive is a reminder I am a pilgrim in a strange land this week....But the nice thing about getting older is its all in fun and even if someone takes it more serious than he or she should it rolls off the back like oil on water. The honest truth is the Gators "should" defeat the Canes on Saturday. Not because they are in the SEC and not because they have more talented players (Both coaches have openly said that most players on the opposing team were heavily recruited by their staff). But the simple fact that at this interlude Florida has an edge in overall depth than Miami does. Golden with what is evidently a permanent NCAA cloud in-tow has recruited beyond the expectations encountered with expected infractions coming. At every turn opposing coaches only have to mention and point to the looming cloud. In spite of this he is competing with the Bama and Noles of the world in talent rich Miami and the remainder of the nation. But he has just recently hit his stride in recruiting with 2014 looking like a banner recruiting year. Muschamp as an example has not had to face the barrage of sports media waiting like buzzards at the upcoming NCAA kill site and has not missed a beat in his three years at UF and has the edge in recruiting and current depth. From Miami's standpoint if they are going to win this game they need to strike early and utilize the entire field and not be one dimensional with Duke Johnson. The Gators will be keying on him the entire game. Rumor has it Golden had to purchase more than a couple Louisville/UF bowl game tapes they have watched them so much... Miami 35 UF 31
24-17 Gators. All I can say Ralph is that most of those Agriculture people in the state of Florida have good judgement.
I'll give Miami the edge over UF in the 80s.... but the 90s? UF a distant third during the Spurrier years?? Something seems out of whack about that statement. I like UF about the same score and margin as Bill..... I'll go 23-17. Miami may have a great offense..... but the Gators control the clock.... limit offensive opportunities by the opponent ..... and generally play great defense.
Terry's question made me curious, so I looked it up. He normally doesn't ask a question like that unless he knows the answer. :wink: From 1990 to 1999, Florida was 3-6-1 vs. Florida State during the regular season. Florida did not play Miami in the 90s. In the Sugar Bowl following the 1996 season, Florida beat then #1 Florida State 52-20.
From 1990 - 1999 Miami was 4-6 vs FSU, but don't forget from 1994 through about 1998 Miami was suffering from severe scholarship reductions at a time when UF was a recruiting machine. Yet they still ended up with a better record. So that's why I say that they were a distant 3rd. If Miami had been at their usual strength during that period I'd say that they would have been at least .500 vs the Noles or maybe better. But I'll retract the "distant" 3rd, Gators were a great program under Spurrier so distant would not be a good characterization.
Correcting and clarifying my above post: From 1990 to 1999, Florida was 3-6-1 vs. Florida State during the regular season. Florida did not play Miami in the 90s. In the Sugar Bowl following the 1996 season, then #3 Florida beat then #1 Florida State 52-20.
Here is an excerpt from an article in Sept 1982 before any Florida school won a championship...I have to laugh because not much has changed, its the same old arguments. Jim Kelly wearing a T-shirt to an interview that says "Gators eat boogers" is a new one on me...These two teams have 52 years of history playing each other in the regular season and this is the last time it will happen for what probably is my lifetime. I understand why buts its a shame, life changes and so does the business of college football. While Florida-Miami may not be made of quite the same stuff as Texas-Oklahoma or even Harvard-Yale, in recent years it has been a marvelously entertaining series, one that has suddenly taken on real significance. Both teams were in just about everybody's preseason Top 20, including SI's, which had Miami 13th and Florida 18th, and Sport magazine picked Florida No. 1. That the Hurricanes came into Gainesville last weekend taunting and teasing as winners of the last four games in the series was even more of an indignity to the faithful Gator fans of north Florida than having to live within the same state borders as the uppity, carpetbagging, ultra-liberal, if not downright sinful, heathens of Miami itself. I'M A GATOR HATER posters were festooned all over UM's Coral Gables campus. Bumper stickers read I BRAKE FOR ALL ANIMALS EXCEPT GATORS. Miami students sported gross T shirts. The Hurricanes' outstanding senior quarterback, Jim Kelly, wore one to an on-camera interview with Dick Schaap of ABC News that read GATORS EAT BOOGERS. "I want everybody to know I hate Gators," said Kelly, in every other respect the all-American boy. "Can you find another shirt?" asked Schaap politely. Kelly obliged. Said Defensive Tackle Tony Chickillo, "The season's not complete unless we get to stomp some Gator meat." But the insults that most enraged the Gators were cries of "Chicken!" from Miami fans. Florida has indicated that its quest for greatness calls for a review of its schedule. That schedule, which includes six opponents from the Southeastern Conference as well as the state's other big-time football school, Florida State, might not have a spot for independent and private Miami next season, or ever after. It's not that Florida's afraid of Miami, y'understand. Florida wants to play Miami, but it prefers to do what, say, Alabama has always done. That is, load up the non-conference part of the schedule with cream puffs. No, no, not cream puffs, say the Gators. We just want to do what's most beneficial for Florida. Which is why Miami is calling Florida chicken. The Florida game is the biggest by far for UM, while Florida's opinion of the Hurricanes, though no Gator official would be caught dead saying it publicly, is "Who needs these guys?" Hurricane Coach Howard Schnellenberger, who came to Miami the same year (1979) that Charley Pell took over at Florida, has declared, "We'll play [Florida] anyplace, anytime." Soon after arriving in Gainesville, Pell asked that, starting in 1981, the Miami game be switched from the end of the season—it usually followed Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky and FSU—to the beginning, so that the Gators would be fresh when they played the Hurricanes. Also, because Florida was tired of playing to quarter-full houses in the Orange Bowl, it demanded a flat $100,000 instead of 50% of the gate. Schnellenberger agreed to both demands. Miami then went out and beat Florida 31-7 in the last game of '80, tacking on an in-your-face field goal on the final play in retaliation for Gator fans' pelting Miami players and coaches with oranges, tangerines and ice cubes during the game. The Hurricanes then beat Florida 21-20 in the first game of the '81 season on a 55-yard field goal with 40 seconds remaining, only because Kicker Danny Miller begged for a chance to try it. By the way, the game drew 73,817 fans to the Orange Bowl, and $100,000 was about what the concessions did that afternoon. Stories of past Miami heroics and dastardly Gator deeds are told and retold by Hurricane fans. The lefthanded pass by righty George Mira that beat Florida in 1961 is in no danger of being forgotten, nor is the infamous Gator Flop of 1971. Florida (3-7) was beating Miami (4-5) 45-8 in the Orange Bowl, with the Hurricanes driving in the final minutes. Gator Quarterback John Reaves needed 14 yards to break Jim Plunkett's NCAA career passing-yardage record. The Florida defense felt the Miami offense was deliberately stalling to deprive Reaves of his opportunity for the record. So with Miami on the Gator eight-yard line, Florida called time out. On the next snap the Gator defense dropped flat to the turf, allowing Miami Quarterback John Hornibrook to trot in for a touchdown. Reaves then got his record, but the stunt stuck in Miami's craw. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125902/
Certainly some significant games have gone by the wayside. Texas/Texas A&M, Notre Dame/Mich, Miami/Florida, I think that the Backyard Brawl...Pitt/West Virginia is done now that Pitt is in the ACC and WVU in the B12. Neb/Texas, Neb/Oklahoma. Pitt/Penn State hasn't been played in awhile. All gone due to money, need more home games.
No matter what happens we have the war canoe and you can't have it back... http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/06/3610161/half-forgotten-tradition-uf-and.html
Interesting story. Two teams fighting over a Seminole Canoe, of course when the tradition started wasn't FSU still a girls school?
Who? Miami? Over UF in those years? :? FSU won some games over UF in the 90s to be sure.....but I don't think too many Seminole fans view the 90s as a dominant era for their team over UF when the Gators won the two most important games between the two that were played then and one of those being the 52-20 asswhippin for the national title and the other being the 1997 upset of noles that literally kept the #1 ranked noles out of the NC game. Florida always had to play the SEC title game the very week after the FSU game ( not the case these days ) and Spurrier devalued beating FSU over winning the SEC..... which he was very adept at doing.
Nope, sorry MCG, Bill, just wasn't a good day for the Gators. Hurricanes in the right place at the right time. :?
Our defense is terrific, our offense really has problems. I have to agree with kp, we did not look well coached. Congratulations to Miami they did what a good football team does, not make mistakes and take advantage of the other teams mistakes. I have to admit that this hurts.