Tag: Pat Dooley

Pat Dooley reflects on Steve Spurrier’s dominance over the LSU Tigers

The LSU Tigers have long been a thorn in the side of the Florida Gators, but the Steve Spurrier era was the lone exception.

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.

Sunday Hash: Reviewing the Gators’ smothering of the Commodores

Pat Dooley serves up his Sunday Hash looking back at Florida’s shutout win over Vandy.

Florida got the win the Gators needed on Homecoming with a 42-0 drubbing of Vanderbilt.

The game was closer than the final score because Vanderbilt dominated the time of possession but it did the Commodores no good.

Instead, they missed three field goals and Florida was able to make enough plays to keep Vandy out of the end zone.

Now, we know that comparative scores are meaningless, but Georgia beat these guys 62-0. All that really means is that the Commodores are not very good.

Here is the Sunday Hash:

10 things every Gators fan should know ahead of the Vanderbilt game

Take a look at Pat Dooley’s list of 10 fun facts for the Florida vs. Vanderbilt game this weekend.

It’s difficult to say whether the timing is right for Vanderbilt to be on Florida’s schedule Saturday in the Swamp.

In a way, the Gators need to play a team that’s near the bottom of every NCAA statistic known to man. On the other hand, a team that has shown a penchant for being distracted (the f-word is now “false-start penalties”) may notice it has almost no chance to reach the SEC Championship Game and mail it in the rest of the way.

Only the players know for sure, although they were saying all the right things on social media after the Kentucky loss. Certainly, as a 38-point favorite, Florida’s greatest danger is not taking an SEC opponent seriously enough.

Let’s talk a little Vandy:

Florida football’s history against its favorite homecoming opponent: Vanderbilt

Take a look at the history behind this weekend’s homecoming matchup between Florida and Vanderbilt.

The last thing a Florida fan wants to hear this week is that the Gators have a streak against Vanderbilt but the Commodores often play the Gators tough as nails.

That was last week’s opponent. Well, and this week’s, too.

Florida has won 29 of the last 30 games against Vandy, the lone loss coming in Will Muschamp’s penultimate season when James Franklin came to the Swamp and put a whuppin’ on the Gators.

Oh, and Florida hasn’t lost in Nashville since 1988. Of course, this time the game is in Gainesville, but you get the similarities between last week and this week.

And it probably makes you shiver.

This is not an illustrious history between the two schools with Florida winning 40 of the 52 games (two were ties). It’s homecoming, so we’re going to have a heavy lean in that direction as we bring you this week’s history lesson (no chewing of gum).

And remember, the modern era of Florida begins Nov. 3, 1962, because that was the first game I ever saw.

10 things you need to know ahead of Florida’s road game at Kentucky

Take a look at Pat Dooley’s list of 10 fun facts for the Florida vs. Kentucky game this weekend.

Not everyone is going to agree with this premise, but here goes anyway – the Alabama game wasn’t that big a deal for Florida.

Yes, Florida showed it can play with the No. 1 team in the country and the crowd was incredible. That big-game feel was something that used to happen around Gainesville all the time. I get all of that.

But this season is all about October.

And it starts Saturday. At Kentucky. At LSU. Against Georgia in Jacksonville. There’s no point mentioning the home game at Vanderbilt, except that it’s Homecoming.

This is the toughest month on the schedule and how Florida performs will define its season. Kentucky was a game that a lot of people pointed to this summer mainly because the last two times the Gators went to Lexington, they probably should have lost.

Somehow, they won those games and the road streak lives. You know that the crowd will be fired up. You can almost smell the bourbon from here.

So, let’s talk Kentucky:

KENTUCKY (4-0, 2-0 IN SEC)

Looking back on the weird and wild ways Kentucky has lost to Florida

You all know most of the stories because they are part of the Gator DNA. Still, a quick look back at the craziness of a crazy series.

There is one stat, one piece of historical knowledge, that should tell you everything you need to know about Florida’s series against Kentucky in football.

And it is this – Florida has beaten Kentucky more times than it has beaten any other team.

The Gators have won 53 times against the Wildcats, almost all of them on one of the campuses.

That’s more than Florida has defeated Georgia (44), Vanderbilt (42), Auburn (39) or Florida State (36).

But to simply point to the Gators winning 33 of the last 34 games would be a disservice to a team that has often given Florida all it could handle before falling away in a pool of Big Blue misery.

Florida-Kentucky is a weird series, which is why the older you are as a Gator fan, the more trepidatious about Saturday’s game and at the same time wondering how Kentucky will screw it up.

There was a time when the Wildcats could go into this game with a chance to win and certainly one would think they have a chance in this one. Way back when we only had one game to watch each Saturday, Kentucky stayed right with Florida, actually having the lead in the series 16-14 after taking four of six in the late 1970s.

But then Charley Pell happened. And then Galen Hall. And it just kept getting worse.

But, see, you can’t tell the story of this series without talking about the magical way Florida has been able to win some of those games and the way Kentucky has been — for four decades — the gift that keeps on giving.

You all know most of the stories because they are part of the Gator DNA. Still, a quick look back at the craziness of a crazy series.

Sunday Hash: A sunny-side up serving from Florida’s win over Tennessee

It was a close first half but the Gators pulled away with authority in the final frames. Here are Pat Dooley’s Sunday morning takeaways.

This week’s Sunday Hash comes at you after a crazy Saturday of college football, which is to say that it was a typical day of college football. And night. I feel like I watched more overtime than a full season of Bill Maher.

Meanwhile, Florida football stood strong on its home turf on Saturday night, defeating the visiting Tennessee Volunteers, 38-14. Here are my Sunday morning thoughts on the events of the previous evening in the Swamp.

Looking back at one of Florida football’s greatest comebacks of all-time

A look back at a college football game between Florida and Tennesee that was a blowout, then wasn’t, then went in the other direction.

There are some of us old enough to remember when Florida-Tennessee was a rivalry game. That was back when the Vols and Gators played some of the best games in SEC history during the 1990s.

When the Gators went to Knoxville, it was a big deal. And vice versa.

Then, along came Urban Meyer and started winning every year and there went Tennessee. The Vols have now lost to Florida 15 of the last 16 times.

That hardly feels like a rivalry.

But there was a time right after the SEC went to divisions that this was the must-see TV game, not only of September but of the whole conference season. Today, a look back at a game that was a blowout, then wasn’t, then went in the other direction.

Lawrence Wright will tell you neither thing is up for debate. Doesn’t matter anyway. You can’t change history.

Of course, he said, his hit on Joey Kent still would be legal now.

“Although I don’t think I could play in today’s game the way they call it,” Wright said.

And, yes, it changed the momentum of the game.

That depends on how you look at it. But for every action there is a reaction so we’ll go with it.

“We broke their backs,” said Wright, the former Jim Thorpe winner.

Let us go back to give you some perspective here. Florida had won back-to-back SECs heading into the game on Sept. 16, 1995, and like almost every year (9 of the 12), both teams were ranked in the top 10.

Florida-Tennessee has become a must-win game for both teams, even though it was early in the season. The loser would basically fall 1½ out of first in the East and the winner won the division all but one year when Spurrier was at Florida.

It was huge, but Tennessee-Florida was always huge in those days. On top of the usual noises, Sports Illustrated was in town to do a big takeout story on Peyton Manning, the wunderkind of the Smoky Mountains.

Manning had played briefly in the game the previous year (3-for-5, 27 yards) before taking over the job and eventually finishing his freshman season in Gainesville. (The Gator Bowl was played at the Swamp because of renovations to the Jacksonville stadium.)

And for a while, it looked like a pretty good story.

Florida’s defense had no answer for Manning and running back Jay Graham. Suddenly on a hot and steamy day, Florida was down 23-14 near the end of the half and Tennessee — which had scored on every possession so far — wanted more.

Manning scrambled and found Kent down the west sideline. A split-second after he caught it, Wright drilled Kent and shook the ball loose.

The crowd went nuts because of the violence of the hit and the result — Florida’s ball.

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“We wanted to take their hearts,” Wright said. “We wanted them to know it was going to be our house all day long.”

But what happened next was not good for the Gators. Danny Wuerffel tried to scramble out of trouble and was hit with a blindside shot. He fumbled, Raymond Austin picked it up and just like that Tennessee led 30-14.

The crowd was stunned.

“The thing that stood out to me,” said Chris Doering, a senior receiver on that team, “was that there was no panic. We had plenty of time.”

Before the half would end, Steve Spurrier showed patience with a surgical drive down the field for a touchdown.

“THAT was huge,” Doering said.

“We had them right where we wanted them,” said Wright.

That touchdown to end the half started a run that seems almost unfathomable all these years later. Florida scored 48 straight points and Ike Hilliard was the go-to guy catching four touchdown passes while Tennessee kept trying to stop him with soft coverages and strong safeties.

Here is the second-half blitzkrieg:

  • Wuerffel 11 TD pass to Hilliard
  • Tennessee missed 22 FG
  • Wuerffel 5 TD pass to Hilliard
  • Graham fumble returned by Fred Weary to UT 32
  • Wuerffel 14 TD pass to Hilliard
  • Graham fumble recovered by Florida
  • Wuerffel to Reidel Anthony 8 yards TD pass
  • Anthony 20 run on reverse
  • Wuerffel 1 TD run
  • Tennessee fumble
  • Wuerffel to Doering 20 TD

Florida’s final score came as a torrential downpour hit the Swamp.

“I appreciate Coach giving me the opportunity for that last touchdown,” said Doering.

It was an amazing run and even though Tennessee added on a late score, Florida went away with a 62-37 win and Sports Illustrated instead put the Gators on the cover.

“We felt like we could score about every time,” Spurrier said, “and we just about did.”

The Gators went on to go undefeated the rest of the season and win a third straight SEC title. Unfortunately, Nebraska was at the end of the great run by the Gators. Coincidentally, Nebraska scored the same number of points against Florida as the Gators did that sultry day in Gainesville.

Florida would actually score one more point than the 62 in a 63-7 win over South Carolina later in the season.

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10 fascinating facts from Florida football’s matchup with Alabama

Much has been made about Alabama making its first appearance in the Swamp in 10 years. Here are 10 facts to chew on ahead of the game.

This is the Saturday fans and players have been pointing to – Alabama. Of course, sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. The Tide rarely loses a regular-season game and even its younger players have been around some big-time atmospheres. This will be one for sure.

Much has been made about Alabama making its first appearance in the Swamp in 10 years and let’s hope that changes with the new scheduling format once Oklahoma and Texas are brought on board.

And that’s the way we’ll start this look at Alabama both as a program and as the 2021 team, which, as you know, is ranked No. 1 in the country.

Florida handed Alabama one of its worst-ever defeats in 1991

Pat Dooley reminisces one of the Alabama Crimson Tide’s worst losses in history at the hands of the Florida Gators.

Each week we bring you a bit of a history lesson about Florida’s opponent. Today, we go back to 1991 when Florida and Alabama faced off in the second game of the season at a stadium that had not yet been christened “the Swamp.” Florida had christened the new addition to the north end zone the week before with a 59-21 win over San Jose State. At the time, it was the biggest crowd to ever see a game in the state of Florida. That record lasted one week.

There was a time before everything you ever said in front of people ended up on YouTube or Twitter and you needed a quarter to make a phone call.

But somehow, Steve Spurrier still found a way to speak to a group of Gators and tick off Alabama fans.

That is the back story to an unbelievable performance by No. 6 Florida against No. 17 Alabama in 1991, a 35-0 win that announced to the SEC that Florida was here to stay. Well, as long as Spurrier was at UF.

Let Spurrier tell the story – “We played in the SEC Media Days golf tournament, me and Norm (Carlson) and someone from Golden Flakes and we won it. And that night, I was supposed to give a little talk to the Birmingham Gator Club. And I started talking about how Alabama was coming to Gainesville. And I said, ‘We got a chance to beat ‘em, like, 42-7.’ I just felt that good about the team and how we always were able to score points at home. And we had just beaten Auburn the year before at home 48-7.”

On the Monday of the game, Birmingham columnist Charles Hollis – who was a vocal critic of Spurrier’s swagger – wrote that Spurrier was going around predicting Florida would beat Alabama by 30 points.

“I never predicted anything,” Spurrier said. “I said we had a chance.”

Like a Lloyd Christmas chance? Who beats Alabama by 30 anywhere?

The Tide may have used the Hollis column for motivation just like Florida used one of his columns that ripped Spurrier and the Gators a year before. But the Florida players were oblivious to this controversy.

“I never even heard about it,” said quarterback Shane Matthews. “What happened?”

The truth is that it was not a big deal, but to the fans wearing houndstooth, it was a how-dare-you? moment.

And it was hardly a blowout in the first half.

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The score at halftime was 6-0 with the Gators settling for two Arden Czyzewski field goals. The Gator defense knocked starting quarterback Danny Woodson out of the game in the second quarter (he was replaced by Jay Barker) and kept giving the ball to the offense via turnovers.

“Our defense was fantastic that night,” said Spurrier. “And we always felt comfortable in that stadium. We just felt like we would score eventually.”

One of the biggest plays in that first half came on a fourth-and-1 when UF’s Brad Culpepper jumped over Alabama guard William Barger and tackled the running back in the backfield.

“That was a big play and it was funny because I saw Dabo Swinney years later and he said, ‘You don’t remember me, but I remember you?’ Culpepper said.

“He was a walk-on receiver on that Alabama team and he told me they got reamed on the plane home by (Alabama coach) Gene Stallings. Dabo said, ‘You guys stomping us like you did helped us because we didn’t lose a game again until 1993.’ ”

Alabama won the rest of its games in ’91 and all of them in ’92 on their way to a national title.

But back to the stomping.

Matthews hit Tre Everett with a touchdown pass on a corner route and Willie Jackson found his way to the end zone on another pair of TD passes.

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“They blitzed the crap out of us the whole game, but we figured some things out,” Matthews said. “It was electric in that place. I always say the win over Alabama the year before was the most important in Gator history, but this one was pretty special, too.

“To beat them at their place and then come back the next year and do what we did to them, I don’t know if our team expected it.”

Errict Rhett ran for 170 yards in the game and finished off the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run.

Florida by 30? How about 35?

“I don’t know if anyone has beaten them that badly since,” Spurrier said. “Or maybe ever before. Someone should look that up.”

Someone did. You’re welcome.

The loss for Alabama stands as the largest shutout loss since Auburn beat the Tide 40-0 in 1957. That was before a lot of you were born. The only team to beat Alabama worse than the 35-0 score since that 1991 game was Arkansas 42-6 in 1998.

Scores like that don’t happen often to the Crimson Tide.

But one did on Sept. 1, 1991.

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