Steve Spurrier came to Gainesville for the warmth, but the first time he ever faced LSU he was a little chilly.
A hurricane (stop me if you’ve heard this) postponed the game until the end of the season. Her name was Hilda and the game was Dec. 5, 1964.
“It was cold, for us cold, like 40s or 50s. But the guys played well. Coach (Ray) Graves turned us loose on the town that night to celebrate the win that ended the season.”
That game in Spurrier’s sophomore season and started a dominance for Spurrier against the Tigers as a Gator (we won’t talk about his record against LSU at South Carolina).
“We beat them all three times when I played them,” Spurrier said. “And then when I got down here (from Duke) we started beating them.”
Spurrier was a Bayou Bruiser. It was as if he had Zatarain’s sprinkled on his cornflakes and oysters before every meal. Let’s face it, he owned LSU and in the name of George Edmondson, thank goodness he did.
The numbers don’t lie. Florida is 33-31-3 lifetime against LSU. Without Spurrier, the Gators are 19-30-3.
Yikes.
“They weren’t quite top 10 teams, top 25 I guess,” Spurrier said. “But they did rush the field when they beat us in 1997. That’s always a good thing I guess.
“One thing about that game, though, we were down 28-21 and driving to try to tie it. I had taken Doug Johnson out and put Jesse Palmer in and we hit about a 20-yard pass and the ref dropped a flag. He said my foot was on the sideline so that was a 15-yard penalty. That ruined our chance at a last drive. First time I ever got one of those.”
He never forgets.
But let’s talk about the other games because Spurrier was 3-0 as a player and 11-1 as a coach against LSU.