Bishop Media Sports Network
Greatest Game Ever?
By: Joe Delaney
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
In 1980 the Georgia Bulldogs had a very good football team. They also had an emerging superstar in Hershel Walker.
Who can forget the Georgia Tennessee game to open the 1980 season. Georgia trailed 15-0 when Vince Dooley decided it was time to see what the big freshman running back could do. The rest is history.
“My God, a freshman!” was the legendary Larry Munsons’ call on Walkers first touchdown run in which he ran completely over Bill Bates the Vols safety and scored.
The Dawgs would go on the win 16-15 and a legend was born. Vince had said a few weeks before that he felt Herschel was just a big stiff back. Never was he so wrong.
Fast forward two months and the Dawgs sat at 8-0 with scintillating wins over Clemson and South Carolina. They also held the #2 ranking in the nation. Next up were the hated Gators. The Gators were 6-1 and nationally ranked.
Georgia had run the table with a ground-oriented attack featuring Walker. They did however have a very good offense with Buck Belue, Norris Brown, Nat Hudson, Lindsay Scott and others.
Defensively they were stout with Tim Parks, Eddie “Meat Cleaver” Weaver, Jeff Hipp, Scott “Woerner the returner”, and others.
The kicking game boasted probably the best kicker in the country in Rex Robinson. All the parts were there.
On a sun-drenched Autumn Day in Jacksonville the Dawgs struck first with Walker taking a pitch and blasting 72 yards for the score. He would go on to rush for 238 yards on 37 carries for the day.
Georgia led 20-10 well into the second half when the Gators came back with two scores to take a 21-20 lead with time running out. With little more than a minute to play the Dawgs found themselves 93 yards from the endzone. What happened next was probably the greatest play in Georgia football history and the greatest call by the legendary Larry Munson.
Buck Belue was chased out of the pocket and threw on the run to Lindsay Scott at the 25-yard line. From there Lindsay took it the 75 yards for the touchdown and the lead.
The Gator Bowl went crazy. I can remember Lindsay running down to the corner of the endzone where I was 25 rows up and it was pandemonium. It literally began raining as people threw their cocktails up in the air.
On the Florida sideline there was stunned silence where the Florida players had been dancing the “funky chicken” a minute before.
Munson’s call on the play started with. “Buck back….third down on the eight.” “In trouble, got a block behind him.” “Gonna throw on the run.”
It ended with….“26-21 DAWGS on top!” “We were gone, I gave up, you did too!” “We were out of it and gone……MIRACLE!”
Georgia would go on to win the National Championship taking out Notre Dame 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl.
But the greatest play and call came on that wonderful November day by the St Johns River.
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Buying Time
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Billy Napier is in his third season as head coach in Gainesville but he has not proven himself as the right man for the job.
He was hired as Florida’s head coach on December 5, 2021 from Louisiana. He was 40-12 in his four seasons coaching the Ragin’ Cajuns. In his last three years he was 11-3, 10-1 and 12-1.
He replaced Dan Mullen who coached the Gators from 2018-21. Under Mullen UF went 10-3, 11-2, 8-4 and 6-7. Having a losing record got him immediately fired despite having earlier success.
In the case of Napier, he has not had success yet. They were 6-7 in his first year and 5-7 last season. That 2022 team did advance to the Las Vegas Bowl where they were beaten 30-3 by Oregon State.
This season Florida had a brutal schedule. They started the season with a loss at home to #19 Miami, 41-17. The other losses were to Texas A&M, who is currently ranked #14 and #8 Tennessee. They did play a close game with the Vols and lost in overtime, 23-17.
The Gators are currently 4-3 and had their best win of the season. They beat Kentucky 48-20, snapping their three-game losing streak to the Wildcats. Five-star freshman quarterback DJ Lagway completed seven of his fourteen passes but five of them went for 40-plus yards. He passed for 259 yards and rushed for 46 yards.
Freshman running back Jadan Baugh rushed for 106 yards and 5 touchdowns. The 5 touchdowns in a game tie the school record held by Tim Tebow and Trey Burton.
“That’s pretty good company there,” Napier said.
“For Billy Napier, Florida’s beleaguered head coach, the win kept the lions at bay for another week,” Saturday Down South’s Neil Blackmon wrote. “Napier’s buyout was assembled by Florida’s boosters in September, per multiple media reports. After Saturday night’s blowout win, there’s enough hope swirling around the Florida program to provide a path forward under Napier, albeit a narrow one.”
I want to point out that Georgia struggled against Kentucky, winning 13-12.
UF is going into their bye week before they face #2 UGA in Jacksonville. Georgia has won six of the last seven meetings. They’re currently on a three-game winning streak.
Beating the Bulldogs does not seem likely. The remaining schedule after that game is at #5 Texas, #8 LSU, #18 Ole Miss and at Florida State.
As you know, the Seminoles are historically bad this season. FSU is 1-6 and this will be an easy win for Florida. That will only put them at five wins though. In the other games, where will they find a win?
The most likely scenario is UF loses to those ranked teams and finishes 5-7. If they can upset one of them they will finish 6-6. Beating any of those teams will be impressive but is 6-6 good enough at Florida?
Another aspect to consider is Lane Kiffin has been rumored to be the top candidate to replace Napier if he is fired. Once these teams play November 23rd it is going to be talked about more, especially if Ole Miss wins.
I think Napier’s tenure at Florida is done after this season. The only thing that could save his job are two wins against ranked teams and I think one of those wins would have to be against Georgia.
Jason Bishop Show October 17 2024
Hall Of Fame
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The city of Jacksonville announced on Tuesday that Bill Goldberg, the former University of Georgia defensive tackle who helped the Bulldogs win three of four games against the Gators, will be among the 2024 inductees into the game’s Hall of Fame.
Goldberg will be inducted with Florida cornerback Fred Weary, a Mandarin High graduate, former Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Mike Peterson, and UGA cornerback Mike Fischer of Jacksonville, a Bolles graduate.
Goldberg was a two-time All-SEC player and lettered four years for the Dawgs from 1986-1989. He’s still ninth in Georgia history with 348 tackles.
But when injuries curtailed his NFL career after stops with the Los Angeles Rams and Atlanta Falcons, Goldberg dropped his first name and became one of the dominant professional wrestlers with a career of more than two decades that culminated with his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018.
Using moves such as “The Spear” and “The Jackhammer,” Goldberg was a five-time world champion in World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment and at one point was reputed to have gone on a 173-0 streak.
He wrestled competitively off and on from 1997-2018 and also has dabbled in mixed martial arts and acting. He appeared in Adam Sandler’s remake of “The Longest Yard” and was a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Fisher, who began his college career at Furman, transferred to Georgia as a walk-on and earned a scholarship in 1978. He played on three Georgia teams that went 3-0 against the Gators from 1978-1980 and had an interception against the Gators in the 1979 and two in 1980.
Fred Weary played for the Gators from 1994-1997 and was on three winning teams against Georgia, including the two games that were played on the campuses in 1994-1995 when UF won by combined scores of 104-31.
Weary had 15 career interceptions to lead Florida, six in his senior season. He was first-team All-SEC.
Weary played six years in the NFL, for New Orleans, Atlanta and the St. Louis Rams. He had seven interceptions as a pro.
Mike Peterson, a Gainesville native who played high school football at Alachua Santa Fe, stayed home to play for the Gators and was on three teams that beat the Bulldogs in four years from 1995-1998. Peterson had 249 tackles in four seasons and also was first-team All-SEC.
Weary and Peterson both started for the Gators’ first national championship team under Steve Spurrier in 1996.
Peterson played in the NFL for 14 years, with Indianapolis, the Jaguars and Atlanta. He had 883 tackles and 19 interceptions. He is currently on the Florida coaching staff.
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show w Brandon Derrick October 16 2024
The History
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia-Florida rivalry is one of the oldest and most exciting matchups in all of college football.
Every year, when the University of Georgia Bulldogs are scheduled to face off against the University of Florida Gators, it’s a game both fanbases circle on their calendars.
The two teams have been meeting for over a century, and while Georgia claims the rivalry started in 1904, Florida doesn’t count that game.
That’s because the 1904 Florida team wasn’t from the university as we know it today—it was from a predecessor school, Florida Agricultural College. The official start, according to both schools, was in 1915 when Georgia shut out Florida 37-0.
The game has almost always been played in Jacksonville, Florida, since the 1930s, and it’s become a huge part of the River City’s culture.
Jacksonville was originally picked as a neutral site because it’s between the two schools, and before Interstate 95, it was easier to get to with the modes of transportation available at the time.
Now, it’s an annual event that draws thousands of fans to the city, with plenty of tailgating and partying that turns the weekend into a big celebration. The game itself brings in millions of dollars to Jacksonville’s economy, making it a win for the city as well.
What makes this rivalry unique is that there isn’t a traditional trophy like in other famous matchups. Instead, the winning team takes home a staff made from a tree in the Okefenokee Swamp, which is on the Georgia-Florida border. Right now, that staff is in Georgia’s possession.
Over the years, the game has seen some wild moments. It’s even earned the nickname “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” because of how rowdy the tailgates and celebrations can get.
Fans have been known to party hard, and in the past, things got a little too crazy. In the 1980s, after some alcohol-fueled incidents, including fans tearing down goalposts, Jacksonville had to crack down on the party atmosphere to keep things under control.
They even stopped using the “Cocktail Party” nickname officially, but the fun hasn’t really gone away.
On the field, Georgia dominated the early years, winning most of the games up until the 1950s. Florida didn’t start to gain ground until the ’50s, and the rivalry really heated up when Steve Spurrier became Florida’s head coach in 1990.
Under Spurrier and his successors, Florida went on a tear, winning most of the games in the ’90s and early 2000s. In the last 15 years, though Georgia has won the last three years in a row, the two teams have been more evenly matched.
This game often plays a big role in determining who comes out on top in the SEC East.
Both Georgia and Florida have historically been strong contenders in their division of the conference, so the winner has commonly had a better shot at making it to the SEC Championship.
The rivalry isn’t just a big deal for the teams and their fans; it’s huge for Jacksonville.
The city goes all out to make the weekend special, and it’s a major boost to the local economy.
The game has been played at EverBank Field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, since the old Gator Bowl stadium was torn down in the ’90s.
EverBank offers a modern, NFL-style experience for the thousands of fans who pack it every year.
Despite occasional talk about moving the game to the teams’ home stadiums, it has remained in Jacksonville.
Both schools seem happy to keep it that way, but planned renovations to EverBank Stadium starting in 2026 will force a relocation for at least a couple of years, before a hopeful return to Jacksonville in 2028.
The city offers a big payout to the teams, and the fans love the neutral site tradition.
In the end, Georgia-Florida isn’t just a football game—it’s a massive event that people from all over look forward to every year.
Whether you’re a diehard fan or just there for the tailgate, it’s a rivalry that holds a special place in college football.