Florida WR Tyrie Cleveland says Georgia is UF’s biggest rival
By Andrew Olson
Published:
The answer to “Who is Florida’s biggest rival in football?” tends to depend on who you ask. Once upon a time, Florida-Tennessee was the SEC East meeting that decided which team went to Atlanta. In-state rival Florida State will always be a popular answer. On Tuesday, Paul Finebaum asked senior WR Tyrie Cleveland if he views Georgia as Florida’s biggest rival.
“Most definitely, because last year, they beat us, you know?” Cleveland responded. “They said they owned us, they beat us, they keep beating us, you know? I feel like that’s a big rivalry, for me, personally. I just want to just go out there and show the world we can beat the Bulldogs.”
Saturday is a chance for Cleveland and the rest of his 2016 classmates still at UF to even their four-game record in the series. The Gators defeated Georgia 24-10 in 2016, but have lost the last two meetings by a combined 78-24 (42-7, 36-17).
Another reason Cleveland might consider the Florida-Georgia game is the site of the annual border war, Jacksonville. Cleveland played high school football in Houston, Texas, but he was born in Jacksonville and lived there until the age of 13, before moving to Houston after his older brother’s murder.
Is Georgia Florida’s biggest rival? @Tyrie_1 says ‘most definitely.’ pic.twitter.com/z8CiiJWzCs
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) October 29, 2019
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.
