Steve Spurrier recalls his success vs. Georgia

The Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs are getting ready to, once again, renew their rivalry. It’s a game that fans and former stars alike from both sides are passionate about, including Gators legend Steve Spurrier.

Ahead of the game, Spurrier made an appearance on Another Dooley Noted Podcast. There, he looked back on his success over Georgia.

“Well, we had a lot better teams than they did,” Steve Spurrier said. “The 12 years I was here, they never won a division. We won seven and Tennessee won the other three [counting from] the third year I was here. So, it was us and Tennessee back in those days. Georgia they didn’t really start winning until — who came there — Mark Richt. Mark Richt got them to some games and so forth.”

During his time as the head coach at Florida, Steve Spurrier had a record of 11-1 against Georgia. That was against coaches Ray Goff, Jim Donnan, and Mark Richt. Later, when Spurrier became the head coach at South Carolina, he led the Gamecocks to a record of 5-5 against the Bulldogs. All of those games while he was at South Carolina came against Richt.

From 1964 through 1966, Spurrier was a star quarterback for the Gators. During that stretch, he went 1-2 against the Bulldogs. In particular, that game in 1966 saw Florida lose by 17 points in a game that, ultimately, was Florida’s only SEC loss and kept them from winning a share of the SEC Championship. That year, the Gators won the Orange Bowl and Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy but Florida would have to wait until Spurrier was the coach in 1991 to win the SEC for the first time.

Steve Spurrier admitted that he may have found some motivation as a coach from that game, but also emphasized that it was more important to win the division. Beating Georgia was always going to be a key piece in doing that.

“Maybe a little bit but our goals were to win the SEC every year because we had teams capable of doing it. We didn’t win them every year. We won seven of 12 and lost two championship games. The other three years, Tennessee beat us for the division,” Spurrier said.

“So, we tried to win them every year and that was the big goal. Obviously, Georgia is in the eastern division and they owned us for a while because we mentally thought they were supposed to own us. Finally, once our team and players said, ‘Hey, we’re better than those guys and there’s no reason why we should lose them. So, let’s go beat them.’ Simple as that the first two of three years. After that, talent. I still think we had a little bit better talent than them most of the time, but we mentally thought we were supposed to beat those guys.”

Lately, Georgia has been in control of the series. In the last eight seasons, or since Kirby Smart took over at Georgia, the Bulldogs are 6-2 against the Gators, including winning three in a row. So, there has been a shift since Spurrier was on the sideline but anything is also possible in this matchup.