re: BEFORE SPURRIER

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.

I have heard that Florida was caught with over 100 major NCAA violations in the early 80's. Is that true? That's a shockingly high number.

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nope they were famous for cheating that's about it

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Yea but they still cheat.

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Had a nation championship by some publications... (Not exactly nothing)

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Okay. So you're Alabama all of a sudden. Florida didn't have any conference championships before Spurrier. You have to win your conference before you can claim a title for anything else. I'm not saying Florida was a Vanderbilt, but they were a middle-of-the-road SEC program before Spurrier arrived. Almost any team can point to a year or a couple of years where they were "pretty good."

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Hall couldn't win with the ill gotten players that Pell left him after 84.

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I don't remember much about Charlie Pell so I can't give an opinion, but Hall was just inconsistent. He could beat a good SEC team one week and then lose to Vandy the next. They lost to Memphis State one year, if memory serves, when they had Emmitt Smith.

in Hall's defense, he really did get some "Draconian Sanctions", about as bad as you could get. This was right before SMU's death penalty.

As for Emmitt Smith,if I'm not mistaken, he was injured in that Memphis State game. Now,certainly Florida should have been able to still beat Memphis State,but still..

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don't remember much about Charlie Pell so I can't give an opinion,

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I was living and working in Pensacola at the time Pell was the coach. Even though I was a big Bear fan, Charlie made it real easy not to like him - and that was before I knew he was cheating so. He was a good coach, though. Danny Ford at Clemson was easy to dislike, as well. Acted just like his mentor.

LOL....At any SEC school calling us out for cheating in the 80s. Pell's problem was that he wasn't as good at covering it up as his mentor and fellow SEC peers.

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Before Saban, did LSU mean shite?

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Geaux9

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Birth Date: February 12, 1994

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Son, I suggest you go visit the Jack and Priscilla Andonie Museum someday...