Because the SEC REFS HATED Spurrier. He was a disruptor, and he wasn't a part of the good ol boys club of Bama, Auburn, UT and UGA. Our 97 game vs LSU is a great example. If anyone doubts the officiating bias Spurrier faced vs FSU- please respond to this evidence.... We played FSU at Doak in 96 and lost 24-21. FSU repeatedly hit Danny late without a call. Dirty hits... Thankfully we got a rematch in the Sugar- and this time with Big 8 refs. (Whatever they were called then.) Not only did we beat FSU 52-20, when finally faced with neutral officials FSU was called for SEVEN personal fouls. Seven- in one game!! Most teams don't get that many in a season. Can you imagine if Spurrier had faced FSU with neutral refs for the rest of the games? I'm sure we would have lost a few- FSU was amazing back then- but it was crazy the amount of bias we had to face in those games. ACC or SEC.
Yep they were possibly the best college football team ever. Don’t forget they had that walk on program back then and could recruit whoever they wanted. A huge advantage over the rest of the league
As a final comment I have seen the refs favor us. Someone mentioned South Florida. I would add our final play vs Vandy in 22 as well as the field goal try in 23 vs ARkansas. One of our wins up in Lexington we certainly got the benefit of the doubt- though I thought it was fairly called. UK fans didn't think so.
There was Kentucky at home too. Play clock hit 0 and then some before we snapped it and converted a 4th down play or TD. Can’t remember exactly what it was. Back in the Muschamp days
I used to work with a guy who was an SEC ref back in SOS’ tenure. He admitted he hated Steve. As a USCe grad he couldn’t do their games, but could do our games
C'mon, we who remember all know. It was a combination of SOS putting Danny in the shotgun, along with Warrick Dunn's mother poisoning half the FSU team...
For those interested in the Notre Dame / NIL questionable calls, here ya go. With :43 left in the game, NIL faced 3rd and 3 from the Notre Dame 21. The runner clearly made it past the 18 for a first down. The play was called short, reviewed and upheld. It wasn't just questionable, but an obviously bad call. Now here's my question. After the running play, the clock was at about :36 and ND had one t/o left. They never winded the clock and NIL kicked the FG w/o any time running off. What the heck? Play happens at the 5:17 mark.
Yeah, that actually wasn't a mistake though I think we had some other items go our way that game. So the SEC office explained this- and I've seen it confirmed 100 times since. UK fans won't understand this but the playclock is NOT like a shot clock in basketball. It's not even close to that precise, and missing it by .1 of a second isn't grounds for "waving off the shot" or the play. In that game we snapped it as the playclock hit zero- which is not a penalty- nor should it be a penalty.
About Nebraska- others have answered. Look at other posts for a link to some of NU's malfeasance at that time. About the FSU game- what does Danny being in the shotgun have to do with 7 personal fouls in one game?? It helped us win, but it had nothing to do with FINALLY getting a fairly called game. And FSU being exposed as the dirty team they were.