The days get shorter and the climate will get colder, and pumpkins adorn the stoops of homes. A well-known dread creeps into the guts as I anxiously await the return of a horrific menace. But I’m not frightened about zombies, witches, or some other fictional beasties. It’s a very actual horror that quickens my pulse and makes my palms sweat. For greater than a quarter-century, a specter haunted Georgia soccer: the Florida Gators.
The Nineteen Nineties had been a comparatively down interval for the Georgia Bulldogs. Though Georgia was a respectable sufficient 72-43-1 total in the course of the decade, the staff solely had two 10-win seasons. As if that weren’t dangerous sufficient, the identical decade noticed bitter rival Florida expertise a renaissance due to the arrival of Steve Spurrier and his freewheeling, scoreboard-breaking Fun ‘n’ Gun offense. While the Dawgs stacked season after season of adequacy, the Gators turned one of many nation’s premiere groups with an explosive, pass-first offense that delivered the varsity its first nationwide title in 1996.
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Spurrier, who made unbelievable developments each in offensive soccer and the sphere of being a hater, appeared to take particular pleasure in beating Georgia. The Dawgs had handed his Florida Gators a loss in the course of the in any other case storybook 1966 season by which he gained the Heisman.* In reality, as a participant, Spurrier completed 1-2 in opposition to Georgia. So he appeared to make it his private mission to bother, frustrate, and humiliate Georgia soccer at each flip.
Under Ray Goff and Jim Donnan, Georgia had been 2-10 in opposition to the Gators. The lowlight of this period was the 1995 season. Playing in Athens due to renovations on the Jacksonville stadium, Spurrier ran up the rating so he may lead the primary opposing staff to hold half a hundred on the Dawgs in Sanford. To date, that’s probably the most factors Georgia has ever surrendered at house, and it’s additionally why Goff obtained a pink slip on the finish of that season.
Dawg followers lastly caught a break when Spurrier shocked everybody by saying he was leaving Florida on the finish of the 2001 season. As he headed off to obtain a lesson in humility within the NFL, issues needed to get higher. Right? Right??
Mark Richt revived the fortunes of a largely moribund Georgia soccer program. Unfortunately, Florida remained the thorn in his aspect. After a strong debut season, his Dawgs broke via in 2002 and emerged as one of the best staff within the convention, profitable an SEC championship for the primary time in twenty years. The staff’s lone blemish was a disastrous faceplant in opposition to hapless first-year head coach Ron Zook. His fourth-ranked staff would get upset once more in 2003, dropping 16-13. Richt lastly beat Florida in 2004, however misplaced once more in an upset to a new Florida coach named Urban Meyer — a man who has the social acumen of the sort of mortician no one will go away alone with the corpses — in 2005. Meyer would go on to win two titles at Florida with a few of the most annoying rosters ever assembled by a faculty soccer staff.
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Ultimately, Richt was 145-51 total however went 5-10 in opposition to Florida, probably the most losses he needed to anyone staff. Florida employed three coaches throughout Richt’s tenure at Georgia, and every of them beat the Dawgs of their first yr. Both of Richt’s SEC championships got here in years by which Georgia misplaced to Florida. Richt’s incapacity to beat Florida, like Ray Goff earlier than him, was one of many major causes for his firing. His final two years on the helm featured two of his most crushing defeats by the hands of the Gators. In 2014, a Georgia staff with nationwide title ambitions got here in ranked 11 and misplaced a 38-20 upset to a lame-duck Will Mushcamp by which the Gators rushed for greater than 400 yards. The 2015 sport sealed Richt’s destiny when new head coach Jim McElwain, who appears to be like like he’s within the Before phase of a Flobee industrial, led Florida to a 27-3 rout of the Dawgs. Richt’s choice to start out Faton Bauta at quarterback could have been the worst considered one of his total teaching tenure.
You can see why this sport nonetheless provides me the jitters. I’ve seen dominant Georgia groups have their seasons wrecked by forgettable Florida squads extra occasions than I can rely. Rex Grossman — REX GROSSMAN!!! — saved Georgia from a nationwide title shot. Those bitter recollections aren’t simply shed.
The upside is that I at all times particularly cherished beating the slippery lizards and watching their be-jorted followers slink out of EverBank Stadium because the solar units on the St. Johns. I watched the 2012 version of the rivalry in a small grad pupil workplace in a small midwestern city and screamed on the prime of my lungs when Jarvis Jones stripped the ball out of Jordan Reed’s hands as he tried to be a hero.
One of the advantages of hiring an alum to run the soccer program is that he understands the significance of hating your rivals. Smart solely beat Florida as soon as as a participant, and so he appears to significantly take pleasure in beating them now. Maybe greater than the rest, I respect Kirby Smart restoring order to the Georgia-Florida rivalry.
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The shifting steadiness of energy turned clear within the 2017 season when Georgia heaved Florida into a volcano. My sister was at that sport and stated, by the point she obtained to her seat, it was already 21-0. McElwain was dismissed afterwards, changing into the primary trophy in Smart’s case. Florida is at present out there for the fourth head coach they’ll have employed since Smart arrived in Athens. That’s at the very least partly as a result of they’ll’t discover somebody able to competing with Georgia.
How do you exorcise a demon? You get your individual, meaner one.
*To get an fascinating snapshot of how a lot faculty soccer has modified, Spurrier gained the Heisman with a stat line of two,012 yards, 16 touchdowns in opposition to 8 interceptions and a 132.2 QBR. In 2022, Stetson Bennett completed with 4,127 yards, 27 touchdowns in opposition to 7 picks and a 161.2 QBR. He additionally threw in 10 speeding touchdowns. His Heisman invitation was broadly thought-about a lifetime achievement award since he didn’t have significantly flashy stats.