Ranking the Florida Gator Rivalries

[Escambia94]

Six more months until SEC football. In this lull I have been thinking of the Florida Gators’ biggest rivalries. Personally, I root for both Florida and Florida State (yeah, crazy, I know), so it is tough to rank the Noles as rivals. Here is my personal ranking of the biggest rivalries against the Florida Gators.

1. Georgia. This SEC East team is our first obstacle to winning the SEC and they share a recruiting base with us. They lead the all time rivalry 47 – 40 – 2. The fact that the Leg Humpers lead the series annoys me, and this team’s fans have annoyed me the most ever since I started watching football in the 1980s. I miss when this was advertised as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. This rival somehow manages to garner national attention, even when the teams are not ranked well. I think these teams will provide some heated rivalry games in the next few years, since Gator head coach Will Muschamp is a former Bulldog defensive back, and Georgia has been nationally relevant lately.

2. Alabama. Since the SEC championship game was created in 1992, the Tide have become the measuring stick of Florida’s success and this game has determined the national champion on multiple occasions. We just broke a stalemate in the SEC CG era record and are now 6 – 7 since 1992, 4 – 3 in SEC championship games, 3 – 2 in national title chases. I personally hate that Alabama snags NW Florida athletes, such as Trent Richardson. They often come close to snagging game changer athletes like Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow. Other than when the two teams play, I will follow the Tide. Good teams, good coaches, decent fans.

3. LSU. The Bengal Tigers have been our permanent SEC West rival since 1971. Florida leads the series 30 – 25 – 3. LSU has become a good measuring stick for our program, considering their recent success. The fans are usually fun to hang out with, even when we lose.

4. Tennessee. Florida leads 22 – 19, but we pulled ahead only when the Volunteers were weak. When this team gets strong again, I will rank them above FSU where they should be. As a kid, I hated when the Gators lost to UT.

5. Auburn. The Orange and Blue played the Blue and Orange every year from 1945 to 2002 and provided some great games. We are behind in this rivalry 38 – 42 – 2. Personally, I hate seeing NW Florida kids going to Auburn or Alabama, so I take personal interest in this rivalry.

6. FSU. Technically, these teams are not rivals by the dictionary definition, since they are not in the same conference. I count FSU as a rival during recruiting season only. On the field Florida is ahead in this rivalry 33 – 21 – 2, but is falling behind in the modern era. As a kid, I was always torn between Florida and FSU. To this day, I root for both teams.

7. Miami. Just because I hated them as a kid. They hold a 28 – 26 edge in the series. Like FSU they challenge Florida in recruiting. They are a bunch of crack #####, New Jersey transplant thugs. I just want a hurricane to wipe Coral Gables off the map, but only after we pull ahead in the series. The fans tend to be ornery, cantankerous idiots, with 99% having never been associated with the university physically, virtually, or otherwise. Most do not even attend games, which is why the stadium is usually empty.

Is it football season yet?

 

[Leakfan12]

MY RANKINGS
7. The U: mostly because we hardly play them and I hope those A--holes get the Death Penalty (sent letters to the NCAA)

6. Auburn: Don't play them as much as said LSU though it sore losing Cam Newton to them.

5. LSU:

4. FSU: Would put them higher but losing to them doesn't hurt their SEC titles hopes

3. BAMA: Just to the SEC titles games alone

2. UT:

1. UGA: I still think that muscular cheerleader is their best DB. Wouldn't be wrong if I wonder if she's single?

 

[Escambia94]

I bet that muscular cheerleader would be the football MVP.

I am curious about the Cam Newton comment. There were no indications that he would be any good back when he was here. As a native of Georgia, I am glad he went to Auburn instead of Georgia after Blinn College.

 

[DRU2012]

My own--filtered thru' the prev. comments:

1. UGA--close w/#2 here, but the conference-connection PLUS "Cocktail Party" tradition puts 'em at the top (and between alumni fond-memories and continued student pride--not to mention the continued whispered "pass-it-on" nature of its reputation giving it "legs", making it almost "mythological" in its power, something "to live UP to"--it'll ALWAYS be "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party", never mind the Regents, the media, the sponsors OR modern BS about "PC")...Some great games over the years--they used to always break our hearts back when I was an undergrad, but I never regretted one moment of the weekends that began at the train station in Stark, getting on the "Cocktail Party Special" to Jacksonville--at least, those "moments" that I clearly remember (mostly flashes once we somehow got home sometime Sunday...). Have really enjoyed how we've started to catch-up in the series , beginning with the SS-years.
--PS, Lf12: In answer to your Q re "Photoshop Girl": "Yes, that would be wrong..." That's just MY take: I find the whole effect disturbing--no doubt BECAUSE she is oddly attractive...one's imagination immediately goes places one doesn't necessarily WANT it to go...oh, never mind--I just wish B/R would get that picture out of my peripheral vision every time I scroll down!
2. FSU--not in the SEC, but in our State, directly across from us down #10, and not only recruits all the same territory, but divides towns, schools, neighborhoods, kid's childhood cliques, and FAMILIES between us! I tend to despise them as a group but like them individually ("some of my best friends", and all that--I was a KID in north-central Fla., after all)--and, don't spread this around, but will even root for them in certain instances (eg. against Miami, of COURSE, and other big time programs around the nation)--with the sound off so I don't have to listen to that stupid, endlessly and insipidly irritating "Tomahawk Charge" or whatever it's called (and make sure I miss "Chief Osceola" and that silly spear-trick, and so on)...ANOTHER team it has been nice to start beating more regularly (again, we never beat them during MY 4 years as an undergrad until my senior year--when we unexpectedly SLAUGHTERED them--35-to-3, I think it was--on national TV the day after Thanksgiving--a great moment and game that propelled us into our first Bowl game in some while, the "Tangerene Bowl", now "The Citrus Bowl", in Orlando).
3. Alabama--just because: for all the reasons y'all have noted, mostly 'cause they ARE by now the "measuring stick" for us, the team that has reached and remains at a high level of efficient , steady success, and in the dominating tough-defense-and-pound-it-out-at-the-line-of-scrimmage SEC-style that we are ourselves now moving towards. Even when we were Meyer's "Spread Offense Track-Team", ultimate success ('08) and/or "failure" (as in not making the BCS-championship, in '09, going 11-and-1 plus victory in the Sugar Bowl, but STILL not "good enough", even by OUR standards at the time) depended on the outcome of the SEC-championship game with the Tide.
4. (?) Tennessee--where some might put them lower now, I find it kind of disappointing that they aren't at LEAST at #3--and are not LIKELY to be for 2 or 3 seasons yet--they didn't deserve to get "Kiffened" like they did, but then again, when you get in the water with hungry sharks...anyway, great fans, a traditionally important game against a worthy opponent (though MORE so when it was always our first SEC-foe, always the 3rd weekend in September, and always on national network TV--not this year, apparently, for the first time in a LONG time), all changing with the addition of TAMU and Mizzou to our conference, and the fact that we WON'T be the sole "big SEC match-up" that Sat. anymore...join with me in hoping "the real UT" makes it back to "good", even "great" (but not TOO "great"!) soon--meanwhile, we'll take the wins where we can find 'em.
5. LSU--just a great fan base, a fun bunch, and a GREAT roadtrip. Even though they are obviously a talented team that has put together a few great seasons here, in the end I think their coach is a flake in whom lie the seeds of a quick and dramatic fall-from-grace, every bit as much as he has managed to somehow madly brought them to this height to begin with...only above "the OTHER Tigers" because these ones ARE currently the more successful team, while the others made their "deal with the Devil" and are sliding steadily downward now as a result, bringing us to--
6. Auburn--we have always had weird things happen to us against these Tigers, especially when we've gone on the road to Jordon-Haire and had our often more-talented teams face strange extremes of weather, bounces and calls...of course, there was that whole Cam-sucks-and-f*cks-up-at-UF then goes to Siberia and has his dad Cecil "sell" him to the highest bidder, which turned out to be (ta da!) Auburn...I wouldn't really want that whole thing hanging over our heads now, not for one isolated year of success...As for the consequences, well, they could STILL turn out to be onerous, if the NCAA ever turns out to HAVE a set of cojones--which of course brings us to and goes DOUBLE for--
7. Miami--E-, you've already said it ALL...I have only this to add: These slimebags at "the Ewww" do not deserve the term "rival", not just because we don't play them regularly (and never should again, as far as I'm concerned--we MAY "give 'em a game" every few years or so, if they behave themselves, but let's see how this whole ongoing "Nevin"-deal plays out first), but because they are the lowest class, most unworthy program in all of college football. What a fine tradition they have, as a result, right?

 

[Leakfan12]

DRU, would you said the same thing if that was a UF cheerleader?

 

[Escambia94]

Speaking of cheerleaders, why is it that ours rarely rank high on everyone's lists? Why don't we have one like the UGA girl? If we had her, should we put her in at running back last year?

 

[Leakfan12]

Speaking of cheerleaders, why is it that ours rarely rank high on everyone's lists? Why don't we have one like the UGA girl? If we had her, should we put her in at running back last year?

I know that Oregon and USF are favorites. I don't know.

 

[DRU2012]

DRU, would you said the same thing if that was a UF cheerleader?

Speaking of cheerleaders, why is it that ours rarely rank high on everyone's lists? Why don't we have one like the UGA girl? If we had her, should we put her in at running back last year?

At RB--Yes, I'm all for her...
Regarding how I'd feel if she were OUR cheerleader--maybe MORE conflicted: she'd be a Gator, after all...but still, look, I'm sure she's a nice girl and all, but the idea of her flexing like that, whether publicly (as portrayed) or privately, I mean, DAMN, friends...I consider it fortunate that she's NOT a Gator.
As for "who has the best cheerleaders", well, that tends to be a cyclical thing, I think: we have had some real strong squads in terms of across-the-board attractiveness over the years, blown more "hot and cold" at others, and appear to be in a bit of an "ehh" at the moment, no big "highs" or "lows", if you follow...not that they aren't talented and/or enthusiastic in their gymnastic routines--but the official view can be as "PC" as they try to make it, it's no secret what the FIRST attention-getter is--and the magazines looking for eye-candy is what gets a squad noticed and widely spoken of (along with the institution they represent, btw)--and that USED to be US. No one official can say it, but you gotta believe that's what they'll be looking for in the years ahead if they want to regain that splashy "Girls of Florida" (come down and enroll here) media spotlight.

 

[Leakfan12]

As for the RB last year, they could have Jim Brown and Barry Sanders in their prime and I doubt they would have gotten 1,000 yards with that O-Line.

 

[DRU2012]

As for the RB last year, they could have Jim Brown and Barry Sanders in their prime and I doubt they would have gotten 1,000 yards with that O-Line.

(laughing) Well, expecting our "little speedsters", running THROUGH that line, to do much beyond dazzle us a couple of times on their way to having their HEADS handed to them was unrealistic on Weis' part, to say the least! In fact, that pretty well describes Weis' whole approach last season: stubbornly unrealistic. He seemed to have a real aversion to using what tools he had to do the things they could have been doing--that is, simply going with what strengths we HAD after losing the starting quarterback AND scat-backs. We all waited to see what Gillisley, Joyer, and Brown could produce in the running game, what our true-freshman QBs had, and what THEY could do with our TEs, WRs and slot-receivers; we're still "waiting"--we still don't know for sure what we already HAD, let alone what we have coming in.
Thanks, Charlie: you got about as little out of the talent at hand as was humanly possible, AND you wasted a whole season of opportunities to begin to recognize and develop future Gator potential on offense. Now "the future" is here, Weis is gone ("huge" disappointment he was--pun intentional--but good riddance overall), and though our youngest players (most notably the QBs) got needed experience, and we DO appear to have lot of the "right pieces" for an improved, even efficient offense, as far as knowing for sure and putting them all together, to a large degree we're starting over. This will be one important, hard-working spring and summer for coaches AND players--and they'll still likely be "working out the kinks" in the early part of the actual season.
Ready or not, as things stand right now, going into Kyle Field in College Station, TX to face the Aggies in the 3rd week of Sept. (and our 3rd game) will be a slightly tougher test than the current (real)UT team we'll face the following week this year. TAMU's team, fans and tradition are "SEC-worthy", believe me--I'll be there, hopefully in "the Gator section", and I DEARLY want to see us "welcome" them all to the SEC with a real Gator SMACK-down, but of course I'll TAKE "any kind of win"!