Steve Spurrier offers thoughts on Florida-Georgia rivalry, Jacksonville location

Steve Spurrier has plenty of great memories in the rivalry between Florida and Georgia. The former Gators coach posted an 11-1 record against the Bulldogs during his 12 seasons in Gainesville, one of many points of pride in his illustrious career.

The rivalry has shifted in recent seasons, however, with Georgia now having won five of the past six meetings. As the two teams prepare to meet on Saturday, Spurrier joined The Paul Finebaum Show to offer his thoughts on the matchup.

The Bulldogs are set to play their first game without star tight end Brock Bowers, but the coach still knows they’re a dangerous team regardless.

“I always just say you play better than your opponent and you’ve got a chance to beat ’em,” he said. “Don’t have crucial errors and maybe hit a big play here or there. Something like that.”

When Spurrier arrived in 1990, Georgia held a 42-22-2 all-time lead in the series and had won 15 of the past 20 meetings against Florida. He remembers there being some discussion about the neutral site location of the game, which has been played in Jacksonville since 1933 with only two exceptions.

Some Gators fans wanted the game moved to a home-and-home, believing the location of the game had something to do with their string of losses. Spurrier soon put that notion to rest with a 38-7 win in his first season, going on to win seven straight against the Bulldogs.

“Back in ’90, we went over there to play the Bulldogs and the people in Florida were saying, ‘We need to move this game to home and away because we can’t beat ’em in Jacksonville,'” he said. “They had beaten us 15 out of the last 20 years. I said, ‘Wait a minute. We’re playing in Florida in a stadium called the Gator Bowl and they gotta fly down and we bus over. Pretend that we’re playing Georgia in Atlanta in a stadium called the Bulldog Bowl and we have to fly up and they bus over.’ You’d say, ‘That’s not fair, right?’ So I finally got everybody convinced that it’s a little edge for us to play in Jacksonville.

“That doesn’t mean you don’t win. That means you just gotta play better than those guys. The first year, we had a much, much better team than Georgia and won pretty easily. We sort of mentally started thinking we’ve got an edge here. Let’s keep it going.”

Florida enters this game against Georgia on a two-game winning streak and will aim to be the first team to defeat the Bulldogs since the 2021 SEC Championship Game. Kickoff for the game is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in Jacksonville.