BEFORE SPURRIER

nope they were famous for cheating that's about it

Florida has had its moments forever. They were in line for the '29 Rose Bowl until they lost to Tennessee 13-12 to end the season.Georgia Tech was selected and beat California in the famous 'Wrong Way Riegels' game.

They had some good teams in the 50's and early 60's and some really good teams in the mid 60's when Spurrier was there.They were a curious choice for the 1966 Sugar Bowl and lost to Missouri 20-18 after falling behind 20-0 and then going for two after each td. They did win the '67 Orange over Bobby Dodd's last Georgia Tech team.

They came "oh so close" in the 1970's with Doug Dickey returning to his alma mater after a great run in Knoxville. But Georgia would always seal their fate and to add to the misery ,there'd be an upset or two to a team they should have beaten.

In 1974 after an early upset to a decent Vanderbilt team,Florida recovered and rose to #6 with a 25-14 win over then #5 Auburn in early Nov.The bowls,with few tie-ins an free reign as to when to select teams had the Sugar go ahead and choose the Gators in early November. Florida promptly lost back to back games to Georgia and Kentucky.

'75 was even crueler. Florida had the good fortune of not having to play Alabama from '74'-'77.An opening season upset loss to Lou Holtz' last NC State team, 8-7 in Raleigh in all likelihood eliminated Florida's remote NC hopes,but not SEC title hopes. #11 Florida led nemesis Georgia 7-3 with under 4:00 in the game with the Dogs backed up on their 20. A Florida win would all but give Florida a share of the SEC title with only beleaguered Kentucky (floundering in the midst of a point-shaving allegation)left. QB Ray Goff pitched out to TE Richard Appleby who threw an 80 yd 'flea flicker' to a wide open Gene Washington to pull out a 10-7 Georgia win.



1976 was just as cruel.After an upset loss to North Carolina in Tampa to start the season, #10 Florida went into Jacksonville as the only unbeaten SEC team to face #7 Georgia. Georgia had lost to Ole Miss earlier,and beaten Alabama who had lost to the Rebels,too. A win over Georgia would give Florida at worst a share of their first ever SEC title.

Florida roared out to a 27-13 halftime lead.Georgia scores to cut it to 27-20. Then comes what was known as "fourth and dumb". Florida faced a 4th and one at its 29 and went for it rather than punt. Georgia stuffed the Gators on fourth down and instead of just having momentum,Georgia stole momentum and ran away to win 41-27.

No Florida shot at an SEC title that faltered is as well known as the 1980 Georgia game.

Run Lindsay,Run

Most everyone is familiar with this as Georgia went on to win the National Title.However, Florida game into the game 3-1 in SEC play with only a loss to LSU who was tied with Georgia for first in the SEC. A Gator win would have given them a share of the SEC title,but it wasn't meant to be.

Florida did get its first final top 10 ranking in 1983. (Had the polls been done after the 1966 bowls,they would have been top 10 with a 27-12 win over #6 Georgia Tech in the Orange having been #11 themselves.

Charlie Pell and Galen Hall cheater their arses off.

If you love gatorade then yes they did mean shite.

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DID UF MEAN shite?

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Yeah, obviously there were already pretty good. To anybody saying that UF was nothing before Spurrier, that's dumber than saying that Miami was nothing before Jimmy Johnson.

From 1983-90, the Gators were arguably the best team in the SEC. Yes, they cheated heavily, and yes, it paid off quite well.

From 1983-91, UF had at least one 1st Round NFL Draft pick for every season. Kerwin Bell used to hold the SEC record for TD passes (later broken by Hodson), and then there were other players in the 80's like Wilber Marshall and Emmitt Smith. The '83, '84, & '85 teams were crazy good, and when sanctions put the hurt on the program (from 1986-88), they just started cheating all over again. The 1989 team was an up-and-comer.

The '83 & '84 teams need no description, but just from a quick look ( LINK), I see that the Gators put the hurt on Bo Jackson and the Plainsmen in '85 (holding him to 48 yards, the lowest of the season for him), and also gave Pat Dye the worst loss of his career in 1990, 48-7.

Spurrier was a 1st year coach in 1990, but he had a lot of damn good players (just look at all the players drafted in the springs of 1991 and 1992), and it's not as if people didn't already fear Florida. They were certainly the most professionally run football program in the SEC at that point, with or without Spurrier.

Spurrier just took an already high-flying program, and took it to the next level ... just like Jimmy Johnson with the Canes.