It was until Spurrier proved that the State of Florida had enough talent for all 3 programs to be national championship caliber. The current (decade old) problem is out-of-State programs hoovering up the large majority of the cream of the cream of talent in Florida. Whether this is due to the major FL programs falling on hard times, or the cause of the major FL programs falling on hard times is open for conjecture.
And over the last 10 years or so the big three regressed for different reasons, opening the door for persistent domination by others. Nature abhors a vacuum.
No doubt, we dropped the ball after 2009 and got passed by not only Bama, but also now UGA. I am a Florida Gator since the lean years in the 70s. As a little kid in Jacksonville in 1980, I literally held back the tears that day. Yeah, like many others here, I could write a book on why and how much I loathe UGA. But one thing is for sure and true, my brothers and sisters. UGA will NEVER be UF and carry our poise or our refinement. We know it, and they know it. We shall return to the top of the SEC. And it shall be under Billy Napier. In us marches Florida, always and forever..........
I agree with another poster that Georgia has had a lot of thing go their way lately. Two of Alabama’s star receivers didn’t play last year, and this year Harrison didn’t play in the fourth quarter. The OSU kicker missed a field goal, and Smart questionably got that timeout called. Any one or all of those events could have resulted in failure for Smart. His program is not dominating. They are just extremely blessed!
This narrative that Georgia has only won due to injuries makes us come across as bitter, jealous fans. Injuries are a part of the game, you can either accept them or use them as an excuse. Harrison was absolutely a loss for Ohio State...but so was Darnell Washington for Georgia (who actually went out early in the 2nd quarter, Harrison played until the end of the 3rd). Do you see any Georgia fans making excuses? Besides, I am not sure the Harrison loss was as crucial as everyone is making it out to be. Harrison's last reception was at the 8 minute mark in the 2nd quarter, and had no receptions in the 3rd quarter (3 targets)...seems like Georgia had made the necessary adjustments. Does that mean he still couldn't have been an effective decoy? Sure...but this idea Ohio State only lost because of the injury isn't fair to the other 70+ kids playing offense and defense. Did you not watch the game? Georgia missed two FG's themselves. I can't believe I am defending Smart, but this post is just absurd. He is 5-2 vs the Gators, 6-1 vs Tennessee, 7-1 vs Auburn, and 6-1 vs South Carolina. He has now won 16 games in a row, is 28-1 over the last two seasons, and is about to play in his 3rd National Championship game since '17. And by the way, trying to do something that has only been down twice in the last 50 years...win two National Championships in a row (which simply hasn't been done in the CFP era). What, exactly, is your definition of "dominance"? Hell, maybe Florida can catch some of these blessings you're selling.
If we cannot show respect for the accomplishments of even our hated rivals, we seem petty and insecure. I was 0-4 against UGA in my years at UF, and 1-3 for FSU. I take a back seat to no man in my deep and bitter detestation of both of those programs. But I give them respect for what they are doing. Smart is an obvious success story but Norvell has shown far more, faster, than I expected. Both have physical talent, but also demonstrate a commitment to a strategy for competing and winning. I saw no such thing from us this year. Whip-sawed back and forth, week to week. "The trend is your friend"; FSU had a positive, upward trend as the season progressed. I saw no sign of a coaching vision or trend from UF's current staff. Napier has a rep as a CEO-type staff-builder. He damn sure needs to earn that by making executive decisions about the staff he has that will move the program measurably forward in 2023 or things will get dicey pronto for him. My impression of the two teams in the Peach Bowl was amazement at the calibre of athletes all over the field, and the evidence of offense and defense having a plan and working the plan. It'd be nice to see from our Gators next year.
Thanks for the link. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Mullen and his staff weren’t meeting with recruits at midnight
It is obvious we lost so much with Dan Mullen. The guy dropped the ball on his head coaching duties. He's a savant when it comes to coaching offenses but did nothing in recruiting and we are feeling it now. Bama recruited the best players and had a coach who knew how to run a program. It is no mystery that Georgia is about to win it's 2nd title in a row as they have stood toe to toe with Bama recruiting and Kirby learned how to run a program from the best! We have a coach who also learned from Saban how to run a program. The facilities are improving and I believe we will start seeing top recruiting classes. We WILL be back. Go Gators!
Respectfully disagree; your time line doesn't really gel. UF was put on probation in 1984 (Pell canned, Hall tapped to succeed mid season); UF went 0-10 in 1979 under Dickey--which I believe was the impetus for UF's desperation to make a power move, and tap Charley Pell for immediate results, NCAA be damned (UF knew that Clemson was under investigation due to Pell's doings while HC there (which of course, he learnt from the master cheater of all cheats ever--Bear Bryant/Bama)). Miami won its first natty in '83--before our (first) probation, which came in the wake of UM and FSU rising--therefore not the cause of it (though certainly UF's probation helped facilitate UM's and FSU's rise (and exacerbate our demise--making Spurrier's success under those circumstances, that much more legendary)).
This. Though I would put it as Florida programs' collective failure to keep talent in state. Same thing, just different perspective. But they damn sure aren't beating us with Georgia talent. (which btw, stings that much more).
The 1979 0-10-1 nightmare was Pell's first year. We got going in 1980, whupping that crap place in College Park, Md down in Orlando 35-20 to close it out.
Spot on except Dickey's last year was 1978, a 4-7 campaign I believe. Pell went 0-10-1 his first season and followed that up with an 8-4 campaign in '80.
We were hell to play under Pell. We had some defenses that just flat out brought the noise. I was a little kid in heaven back then watching us get it right at Florida Field with the heat and humidity. Loved every second of it then, just like now.
Brain fart; you are correct. I was just reminding a buddy of mine about that earlier this season, in the context of Coach Napier (i.e.--reminding him that Pell went ofer season, as part of a huge institutional trun around, therefore to be patient with CBN). (though 0-10, being as low as one can go in '79, still preceeds '83, when the 'canes hit the height of CFB, which also preceeds '84, when the probation bomb hit (albeit retroactively)).
Pell could recruit a 5 star RB to sign to be one of four 5 star RBs. Think about this, in one year he signed 4 RBs with Lorenzo Hampton already on the team. He signed John L Williams, Neal Anderson, Joe Henderson and Leon Pennington. Leon became a MLBer. Henderson a FB, then the combo of John L and Neal. The lowest rated was Neal Anderson. He also signed OL to the point where one year our back up OL guy was Scott Trimble. Trimble played in NFL, but couldn't get to start at UF. A few years ago, I watched a replay of the 85 game vs Miami at Miami. The scum defense had Jerome Brown and a slew of NFL starters. It was an experienced NFL defense on a college team. UF beat the crap out of them and Vinny Testaverde something like 35-23. On 3rd and 4 we'd run right at them and get 5, 6, 7 yards. The worst part of the NCAA penalty was not the loss of the SECC or not playing in a bowl game, it was the loss of players. Back then a team had a max of 95. But we were limited to something like 65, 70. Way too many FL guys would have signed with UF but there was no room.
I have a friend that played OT on that UM team. He told me that Alonzo Johnson was a beast and the toughest player to block that he encountered in 2 years of starting at UM. That was a really good UF team, but it had a rebuilt OL from 1984 with only Jeff Zimmerman returning.
I think it's the latter, but the ceiling for at minimum FSU and Florida (maybe Miami) has not changed, it just takes an elite coach.
