A rugged rivalry that no one recalls
Gators, ’Canes set to meet in matchup with rich history mostly lost on current players
GAINESVILLE — Long before he became a record-setting receiver for his hometown Gators, Chris Doering would head out to his backyard in Gainesville and take on the hated Hurricanes of Miami.
Florida always defeated its archrival from down south, led, of course, by Doering.
Most days, the clock would be winding down, with Doering backpedaling before falling backward while making a one-handed, game-winning touchdown catch just like James Jones in 1982.
“That was probably the highlight of my Florida-Miami memories,” Doering recalled this week.
The son of two Miami natives and UF graduates, Doering never missed a Gators‘Canes game as a kid and was among the record announced crowd of 71,864 at Florida Field on that steamy September day in 1982. The 9-year-old future Florida star and his folks sat in the east corner of the end zone where Jones capped one of the Gators’ most dramatic wins over the Hurricanes.
But the curtain would fall five years later on a series that had been played 49 of 50 years — interrupted only in 1943 by World War II — and produced its share of
unforgettable moments, along with considerable bad blood in the Sunshine State.
Doering was devastated to see Miami removed from UF’s schedule.
“It was one of the most important games of the season for my entire childhood until they eliminated that game after ’87,” he said.
These days, most of the Gators’ and Hurricanes’ coaches and players, along with many fans under the age of 40, do not have a strong emotional attachment to the one-time rival, much less a stockpile of memories.
That could change beginning Saturday night when Florida and Miami square off at 7 p.m. in Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to kick off the 150th season of college football. The game will mark the two schools’ first meeting since 2013 and only its third during the regular season since 2003.
The stewards of the college game clearly recognize the significance of the Gators and ‘Canes squaring off on Week 0 of the 2019 college football season, even if most of the players on each side are in need of a history lesson.
The left-handed Miracle by right-handed ‘Canes quarterback George Mira Jr. in 1961 in Gainesville, the infamous Florida Flop 10 years later in South Florida, the Peach Pelting in 1980 at Florida Field or the Bourbon Street Brawl leading to the Sugar Bowl after the 2001 season were seminal moments in the series.
No current Gators are familiar with any of them, even cornerback Marco Wilson, whose father, Chad, was a defensive back with the Hurricanes in the 1990s.
“All I know is the last time that we played Miami, we lost,” Marco Wilson said.
Wilson was a ninth-grader and his older brother, Quincy, had just committed to UF when Miami handed the Gators a 21-16 loss in South Florida.
“He was really upset,” the younger Wilson recalled. “And I just thought it was pretty disappointing. So we don’t need that happening again.”
The Hurricanes have a history of disappointing the Gators. Miami holds a slim 29–26 edge in the series, but has won seven of the past eight meetings and 12 of 16 matchups dating to 1977.
Ranked No. 8 and favored by seven points against the unranked Hurricanes, the Gators will look to reassert themselves.
Regardless of the outcome, Saturday night’s game and a home-and-home series between the schools beginning in 2024 in the Swamp is a big step back in time for college football in the state.
“Something’s missing from your college football experience if Miami’s not playing Florida. It’s just special,” said Don Bailey Jr., former ‘Cane and current radio analyst. “For 50 years, both teams just hated each other. It wasn’t a coach. It wasn’t a player. It wasn’t a university.
“It was just a theme.”
The lead-up to the season opener has been an education for a new generation.
“You can go to Winn-Dixie, and a fan will try to give you the illustrious history of Miami and why this game is so important,” Miami linebacker Shaq Quarterman said.
Hurricanes coach and Miami native Manny Diaz, 45, is one of the few people involved in the game who lived the glory days of “The U,’’ along with the other two members of the so-called Big Three. From 1983-2008, Miami, Florida State and UF won 10 national titles.
The days when the best of those schools had the inside track to the national title seems to be a thing of the past.
Top-tier programs invade the state and lure away top talent, while all the state’s three premier programs have fallen behind in the arms race with state-of-the-art facilities.
“It’s probably a little bit of the landscape of college football,” UF coach Dan Mullen said. “But I think when you look at the programs, the local talent that still is here in the state and you look at the history that all three programs have, I don’t see why it couldn’t get that way where you used to have three top-10 programs in the state.”
Whatever the future holds, the next chapter of Florida-Miami should be compelling.
The proximity of the schools and familiarity of the players create a natural rival. The reunion of former teammates and former opponents in high school is sure to stir emotions.
“I know almost half the team,” said UF linebacker James Houston, who grew up in Fort Lauderdale. “All of them from down south.”
Doering hopes the current Gators and Hurricanes truly appreciate the opportunity to square off once again.
Now 46, Doering won three SEC titles and set a school and SEC record with 31 touchdown catches as a Gator. Regretfully, he never got his shot at the Hurricanes.
“If I look back to my biggest disappointments during my time at Florida, [it] was never having a chance to play against them,” Doering said of the Hurricanes.