I lifted this from a 1982 SI article I found this morning. The crux of my post is that in 1982, UF was looking for a way out of its annual game with Miami and essentially was being called vaginas for it:
But the insults that most enraged the Gators were cries of "Chicken!" from Miami fans. Florida has indicated that its quest for greatness calls for a review of its schedule. That schedule, which includes six opponents from the Southeastern Conference as well as the state's other big-time football school, Florida State, might not have a spot for independent and private Miami next season, or ever after. It's not that Florida's afraid of Miami, y'understand. Florida wants to play Miami, but it prefers to do what, say,Alabama has always done. That is, load up the non-conference part of the schedule with cream puffs. No, no, not cream puffs, say the Gators. We just want to do what's most beneficial for Florida. Which is why Miami is calling Florida chicken. The Florida game is the biggest by far for UM, while Florida's opinion of the Hurricanes, though no Gator official would be caught dead saying it publicly, is "Who needs these guys?"
Now of course, Miami turned this back around on UF, playing the tried-and-true
tradition card:Before this year's game, Schnellenberger said, "It's inconceivable in a series like this, that's gone 44 years with a one-year interruption for a major war, that suddenly there's a scheduling problem."
To which UF countered with "we don't really give a damn what you think because YOU are not looking out for OUR best interests":
At which Pell snapped, "Howard has never discussed it with me, and I don't like anybody telling anybody else what I think 'cause I'm quite capable of doing that myself." After that retort, Pell deferred all questions on scheduling to Athletic Director Bill Garr, who said, "We traditionally have played six conference games plus two intrastate rivals, and in 48 years we've never won an SEC title. Now, we're doing something wrong, am I right?"Now, here's where I find this analagous to UGA's program. At this point, with 20 years of evidence at our disposal, I'd argue that playing Flordia in Jax every year isn't working anymore. While it would disappoint the people that go down to Jax for a weeklong drunkfest, it is in the best interest of our program to go home and home. Naturally, Florida and the national media, will give us hell if this happens. But, as was the case with Florida playing Miami every year when it already had a tough enough schedule, it doesn't really matter what people outside the program think. Go home and home, beat Florida roughly 50% of the time, and win a national championship after beating Florida either at home or on the road, and NO ONE will give a damn about having left Jax.
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