Florida, Miami add to once-heated series

GAINESVILLE, FLA. >> Even though his father played at Miami and his older brother at Florida, Marco Wilson has little knowledge of the onceheated rivalry involving the two Sunshine State teams.

The Florida Flop? The Peach Pelting? The Bourbon Street Brawl?

Wilson hasn’t heard about any of them.

“All I know is last time that we played Miami we lost,” said Wilson, a starting cornerback for the eighth-ranked Gators.

He’s hardly alone. The series is devoid of trash talk, bragging rights or wounds that haven’t healed.

The coaches, Florida’s Dan Mullen and Miami’s Manny Diaz, are close friends who worked together at Mississippi State. Many of the players crossed paths in high school and on recruiting trails, but they have little angst and even less animosity toward each other.

“They were beating us back in the day, like when they were really good,” Florida receiver Josh Hammond said. “And then I know Florida kind of got rolling toward the later end, the ‘90s and the early 2000s. That’s as much as I know about it.”

What most of the players who will usher in the college football season Aug. 24 in Orlando missed was an annual rivalry that varied from good to great to one of the best in the country.

It’s been one-sided of late, with the Hurricanes winning seven of eight and 12 of 16.

But the teams separated by 300 miles have provided several instant classics and plenty of hard feelings over eight decades.

Diaz, who grew up not too far from the historic Orange Bowl, only attended one Florida-Miami game. It was 1987, the last time the teams played annually. That was a 31-4 Miami romp.