Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Charting courses to get UF, FSU back in title hunt
TALLAHASSEE — A morning fog rolled over Doak Campbell Stadium last Saturday, providing an ominous backdrop for the FloridaFlorida State showdown.
Uneven would be the best word to describe the Florida program during the past eight seasons. The Gators are a decade removed from winning a national title during the Bowl Championship Series era.
Since then, the team has seen its share of highs — double-digit win seasons in 2009, 2012 and 2015 — as well as lows such as four-win seasons in 2013 and 2017.
Dan Mullen’s first season in Gainesville has been a success, with the program bouncing back from a disappointing
2017 season to win nine games and get in the mix for a New Year’s Six bowl game.
“I think it’s heading in the right direction,” Mullen said of re-establishing the Florida Gators brand. “We want to build a program that competes not just for SEC but for national championships every year. [A] 9-3 regular season is solid. It’s a lot we can build off of.
“I think the guys are really learning what we expect out of them in this new program.”
Things were dramatically different across the field for Florida State.
The Seminoles won a national championship in 2013 under former coach Jimbo Fisher, but after a series of successful seasons, FSU suddenly plummeted.
While winning just seven games in 2017, Fisher bolted for Texas A&M and new coach
Willie Taggart was brought in to get the program back on track. His rebuilding efforts haven’t gone smoothly.
“I was brought here to get this program back right, and that’s what we’ll do: let’s get this back right,” a dejected Taggart said following a 41-14 loss to the Gators Saturday, snapping the Seminoles’ 36-year bowl streak and ending FSU’s season at 5-7. It was the first losing season in Tallahassee since 1976.
“Personally, I don’t think it’s as far as it may look,” Taggart said when discussing how far the Seminoles have to go to get back on track. “I think part of it is where we’re at in our program, and our program’s never been in this situation before. It’s something we’re all going through. I’ve been through something like this; nobody here really has. That part of it is frustrating. But we have some pieces in place and we all see areas of where we need help and then we’ve got to fix those things.”
It’s a far cry from the glory days of this rivalry series when legendary coaches Steve Spurrier and Bobby Bowden roamed the sidelines.
For 11 consecutive seasons — from 1990 to 2000 — both programs met in this Sunshine State showdown ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press rankings. That doesn’t include the two Sugar Bowl appearances in 1995 and 1997.
The fans registered their displeasure with the state of the programs, with the game drawing an announced crowd of 71,953. It was the lowest turnout in this series since 1992 (68,311).
Mullen isn’t concerned with the past, insisting he’s focused on helping the Gators contend for championships as quickly as possible.
“I look at them and say, ‘All I know about you guys is in the last three years, really in the last four years, you’ve had two four-win seasons and played for two SEC championships.’ And that doesn’t make any sense, you know?” Mullen said. “So I don’t talk good or bad about what happened. This is what we’re going to do in the future, and there’s a consistency in the standard we need to play with every single game, every single week and how we prepare and how we come out and perform. And I never want to look back.”
While their paths may be different this season, there are signs of better things to come from both programs.
For the Gators, that includes wins over a pair of ranked opponents in Mississippi State and LSU. And five of the six losses by Florida State were against ranked opponents in Virginia Tech, Miami, Clemson, NC State and Notre Dame, with the Seminoles’ biggest win coming against Boston College.
Taggart admits much of the problems facing his team this season were mental, and while FSU fans may be disappointed with the outcome of this season, he has a simple message.
“Tell them to have faith,” Taggart said. “I was brought here to build this program back to where it belongs and I understand their disappointment and I tell all our fans they should be disappointed. This is Florida State University and I tell them all don’t ever lose our expectation.
“It’s not a panic situation; it’s a work situation.”