How Coaches Have Defined Florida–FSU Rivalry for Decades
When the Florida Gators host the Florida State Seminoles, fans are almost always promised something special. But, for one of the most storied rivalries in college football history, there may be more at stake for one program this season.
On Oct. 19, the Gators fired coach Billy Napier. The Seminoles might not be all that far behind.
A day after the Gators let Napier go, Florida State athletic director Michael Alford released a statement stating that the school would stick with coach Mike Norvell until the end of the season, then conduct a comprehensive review of the program and coaching staff.
About a month later, Florida State announced that Norvell would return for the 2026 season. Had Norvell and his staff been fired, FSU would have owed around $72 million in buyout money.
Despite the 2026 guarantee, Norvell is perhaps on the hottest seat in the country, especially after last season’s 2-10 debacle, and especially after Auburn, LSU, and Penn State joined the Gators in firing their coaches. His Seminoles sit at 5-6 (15th in the ACC), after starting the season 3-0 with a massive win over Alabama and rising to No. 8 in the AP Poll.
A win against the Gators on Saturday would be the Seminoles’ sixth win, making them bowl eligible, and potentially serving as a momentum-boosting win to help determine the direction of the program in years to come.
“The rivalry will always have that bragging rights aspect to it, no matter which team is ranked or unranked or both teams are unranked, it doesn’t matter,” said Sean Kelley, “Voice of the Gators” since 2022. “But when the stakes are higher for one or the other or both, that seems to be where we look at the sizzle.”
Big-name coaches have almost always led Florida or Florida State.
Since 1958, the Gators and Seminoles have played 68 times, with the Gators leading the series 38-28-2. The coaches who are successful in this specific game generally stick around longer.
“If Florida went 10-2 every year and lost to Georgia and Florida State, most people would think of that as a bad year,” said Ryan Hunt, former Co-Editor-in-Chief at Sports Illustrated and current lecturer in Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications.
Napier was 1-2 in games against the Seminoles, and 3-12 against rivals FSU, Miami, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee. Norvell sits at 2-2 in this rivalry.
In the last 10 matchups, FSU is up 6-4 and holds the longest winning streak in that time at four games (2014-2017).
Much of that is due to former FSU coach Jimbo Fisher, who has the highest win percentage of any FSU coach in the rivalry at .875 with a record of 7-1.
Although Fisher has the highest win percentage, Bobby Bowden, with 17 victories, has more wins against the Gators than any other FSU coach. His overall record was 17-18-1.
While the Seminoles had a four-game win streak this decade, historically, the Gators hold the longest win streak at nine (1968 to 1976). The two coaches responsible for that streak were Doug Dickey and Ray Graves, who both hold the record for most wins against the Seminoles at seven.
Florida also has the longest winning streak in the rivalry in the 21st century, with six wins from 2004 to 2009. The coach responsible for that success is Urban Meyer, who went 5-1 against the Seminoles.
“It’s rare that they’ve had two elite coaches at the same time, both programs,” Hunt said. “And that’s why the rivalry also fluctuates so wildly.”
While most of the rivalry was dominated by one team or the other, many argue that the “golden age” of the Florida-FSU rivalry played out from 1993 to 1996.
“It all depends on stakes, right?” Kelley said. “So if you’re looking at the golden era of this rivalry, when the stakes have been higher for one side or the other, the game has more impact, more meaning, more bragging rights to it.”
During the 1993 season, No. 1 FSU beat No. 7 UF, 33-21, as a result of the legendary “Ward to Dunn” pass play, where FSU quarterback Charlie Ward had his Heisman Trophy moment. Scrambling from defenders, Ward connected with star running back Warrick Dunn on a 79-yard pass play on 3rd-and-10 late in the fourth quarter. The score put away the surging Gators, who had all the momentum.
Hunt was in the stadium as a UF student.
“It went from one of the loudest moments in the Swamp to one of the quietest moments in the Swamp as Warrick Dunn went down the left sideline,” Hunt said.
The Seminoles went on to win the national championship that year, the first in program history and the first for Bowden. Ward won the Heisman as well, backed by his performance against the Gators, where he completed 38-53 passes for 446 yards and four touchdowns.
The Gators were also led by a legendary coach during this time in Steve Spurrier, who went 5-8-1 against the ‘Noles.
“Spurrier got under everybody’s skin, and everybody wanted to really beat Florida, regardless of the name on the helmet,” Hunt said. “When both coaches have got it like that, it takes the rivalry to a (level) 10.”
During the 1994 season, the first matchup between Spurrier and Bowden that year became known as “Choke at Doak.” Coming into the game, Florida was ranked No. 4 in the nation, and Florida State, the defending national champions, was ranked No. 7. At one point in the third quarter, Florida was up 31-3 before a furious Florida State comeback resulted in a tie.
Thirty-seven days later, the two teams met again in the Sugar Bowl. Florida had won the SEC, and Florida State had won the ACC. In the game dubbed “the Fifth Quarter in the French Quarter,” the Seminoles never trailed and defeated the Gators 23-17.
In 1995, the third-ranked Gators beat the sixth-ranked Seminoles 35-24.
The following year, the two programs again met twice. In the first matchup, the Seminoles were No. 2 and the Gators were No. 1 in the nation, and FSU took UF down 24-21.
“Spurrier clearly got under Bowden’s skin, and some of the things that even Bowden said got under Spurrier’s. There was ‘the echo of the whistle,’” Hunt said.
The Gators had quarterback Danny Wuerffel, who won the 1996 Heisman Trophy. In the first matchup that season, the Seminoles’ defensive line punished Wuerffel with six sacks. Spurrier criticized the officiating and Bowden, arguing that many of the quarterback hits were dirty and late.
Bowden responded by saying his team was told to “hit until the echo of the whistle.”
Spurrier and the Gators got the last laugh. Two years to the day since the Seminoles beat the Gators in “the Fifth Quarter in the French Quarter,” the Gators defeated the Seminoles in blowout fashion in the Sugar Bowl 52-20.
The win gave Spurrier and the Gators their first national championship. Wuerffel accounted for four touchdowns that day.
Whether this year’s iteration of the Florida Gators versus the Florida State Seminoles can reach anywhere close to the same heights of the “golden age” remains to be seen. But one thing remains certain: coaches who do not win in this rivalry game do not last long.
While his job is safe for at least the immediate future, if Norvell wants to remain head coach of the Seminoles for the long term, he had better not lose to this Gators team, especially one led by an interim coach.
“That’s why they’re rivalry games,” Hunt said. “They mean more. They’re special. And so coaches that are unsuccessful in rivalry games aren’t going to be there very long.”
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Football
