Spurrier proved that the ability to throw a deep pass early opens up all kinds of off. opportuntity

Spurrier used the shotgun before the NC game, hell he used it in Tallahassee in 96, the earliest UF game I've found video of it is the 1992 Southern Miss game.

 

Was there for it all. Noles did prank us by holding their flags and we wan through it right through a giants set of horse dung. It was a good one fair and square but we beat them the next night. But we knew going into the SECCG that what needed to happen happen by my memory and the whole place at the hotel went nuts before the game. We knew before the game started if my memory serves.

edit: wrote this too fast. What I meant up above was walking through streets there was this group of Noles in separate lines holding their flags up on both sides and of course we ran through it and there was horse shit from the cops everywhere. Worst prank I literally (with a bunch of us) walked right into. We had to give our props but beating them the next day after going to Tally, Dockett, stupid late hits, and then demolish them while thinking of what we had to do to get there on the way home, it was all magical.

 

That is interesting. I hadn't even conceived of a way back at that time. However, when I was in Atlanta the next weekend in the hotel bar getting ready to go to the championship game and UTex had Nebraska on the ropes, it suddenly dawned on me that we had a chance to get to the Big Easy after all and even win a natty if one other bowl game came out right. Texas was a huge underdog to Nebraska.

 

It was easy enough to figure, but when you got to the part about Texas beating Nebraska, most ppl crumpled up their paper and just shook their heads, or chuckled at the utter absurdity of the notion, or otherwise dismissed the pie in the sky optimism needed to entertain the laughable prospect...

...enter Mark Twain's famous quip about truth being stranger than fiction...

....and the old cliche about "...why we play the games."

Definitely one of those few *remember exactly where you were* moments.

To this day I pretty much always pull for Texas and harbor a special gratitude to them for pulling off one of the greatest upsets of all time, and clearing the path for one of (if not THE) greatest memories in Gator football history.

(It will actually feel weird pulling against them, when we play them...but hey....that was a long time ago, and Gator love is forever, and complete. C'est la vie).

 

All of Gainesville was watching that Nebraska/Texas game once it stayed a close game into the 2nd half. That was the first domino to fall and everything was pretty much over if Nebraska won. It was pretty well known at the time.

 

IIRC, the QB for Texas was James Brown... and he made some crazy play on 4th down at the end of the game that sealed the deal. I remember where I was and just remember everyone going crazy!

 

Yup. Nebraska had to lose which was very unlikely but then James brown rolled out and threw for a big gain on 4th and inches to seal it. Maybe the biggest non Gator game play in Gator history.

Florida smoked Bama in the SEC title game. It felt like a celebration from the get go as everyone knew our loss to FSU was a fluke and Spurrier wasn't gonna let the team lose.

ASU was ready to screw things up and create a split title controversy if they beat OSU and it looked like they would with a lead very late. Osu won it in the last minute if I recall. Interestingly, OSU used a 2 qb shuffle with Germaine/Jackson to pull off just enough offense to win the game. Good times for gators and a foreshadowing of our next year against fsu.





Not only did we beat fsu for our first title but we stopped fsu from winning back to back titles with our win against them the next year. Never gets old.

 

Take Spurrier at Florida and give him the Bama level sacred cow perks he never got as a coach (e.g., NCAA looking the other way, refs in your pocket) and the results would validate that statement.