Once-bitter Florida-FSU rivalry has changed with one-sided dominance
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Twenty years ago, ESPN’s “College GameDay” made its first visit to Gainesville, Fla., featuring Florida State vs. Florida as college football’s game of the week. It was No. 6 vs. No. 3, Bobby Bowden vs. Steve Spurrier and a heated rivalry game between two programs fighting for a national championship.
The faces of “GameDay” at the time – Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso – became accustomed to spending Thanksgiving weekend in the Sunshine State. From 1995-2000, “GameDay” skipped only one of seven UF-FSU meetings (including the 1997 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans). The annual meeting between the Gators and Seminoles had the attention of an audience that reached far beyond the state of Florida.
This Saturday, GameDay will be in Stillwater, Okla. for Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State. It will extend the show’s absence from the UF-FSU game to six years, exceeding the previous streak of five no-shows from 2004-2008.
It’s no coincidence that these absences have come in an 11-year period in which Urban Meyer went 5-1 against Florida State, and Jimbo Fisher has gone 4-1 against Florida. “GameDay” only visited in that period for the 2009 game, best remembered as Tim Tebow’s farewell in The Swamp when an 11-0 Florida thumped 6-5 FSU by a score of 37-10.
With the help of Tebow, Meyer dominated the Seminoles when legendary coach Bobby Bowden was past his prime. Unlike Spurrier, Meyer didn’t lob zingers Bowden’s way, showing respect for one of college football coaching’s elders.
Meyer’s approach to the rivalry was to avoid referencing the Seminoles by name, instead calling them the team or school “out west,” or simply referring to an away game against FSU as “at Tallahassee.” One could argue that during his run of two BCS titles in six years, Meyer’s rivalry focus shifted more toward Mark Richt and Georgia.
When Fisher won his first UF-FSU game, defeating Meyer’s team 31-7 in Tallahassee, the UF coach announced days later that he was stepping down to spend more time with his family. To replace Meyer, Florida hired Will Muschamp, a former assistant of Nick Saban. Muschamp and Fisher, a former colleague during the Saban era at LSU, are co-owners of a beach house in Pensacola, Fla.
In the Muschamp vs. Fisher period, the Seminoles dominated the rivalry, winning three of the last four games. Fisher’s 2013 national championship team delivered the final beating of Muschamp’s disastrous 4-8 season, a 37-7 blowout in The Swamp. The next time Muschamp faced off against his friendly foe, he did so as a lame duck, having been fired two weeks earlier.
Even without a national spotlight, or “GameDay” fanfare, Florida-Florida State will be always an intense rivalry. It’s made up of former high school teammates turned enemies, and divides households watching on TV. A search of hashtags #FSUHateWeek or #UFHateWeek on Twitter leads to a plethora of insults, jokes, memes, trash talk and blunt declarations of hate.
“They talk so much crap on Twitter and now it’s time for them to watch us do work, especially the one running for president who talked crap,” FSU defensive end Demarcus Walker said at a recent media opportunity.
Walker was referring to GOP candidate Marco Rubio, a UF alumnus who used an Iowa radio interview to poke fun at Florida State, saying the university in Tallahassee exists so prospective students who “can’t get into Florida can go to college.”
Rubio’s campaign slogan is, “A New American Century.” As a candidate for a 2016 election, well into the 21st century, Rubio probably should have considered another slogan. Florida coach Jim McElwain might have been of help. McElwain’s slogan for his debut season at Florida has been “Restore the Order.” It has resonated with Gator Nation, and held true for the 2015 season, in which No. 12 Florida is 10-1.
McElwain has already restored order in the SEC East, sending the Gators back to Atlanta for their first SEC Championship Game since 2009. The first-year coach’s next challenge is to restore order in the state of Florida.
If McElwain can lead the Gators to victory over No. 13 Florida State, the Seminoles’ chokehold on the rivalry would loosen, and it just might make Herbstreit and company want to visit Florida in November next year.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
