Florida Football: 10 greatest Florida State rivalry games, Part 1
By James Bowers
8. 1991: Florida 14, Florida State 9
Fast forward 25 years after that disputed day in Tallahassee, and Florida’s star quarterback is now the head coach. He’s in his second season at his alma mater, and the now 46-year-old has won Florida its first ever SEC title. Only a strange road loss to Syracuse blights the 1991 Florida football team’s body of work.
Meanwhile at Florida State, Bobby Bowden, 15 campaigns deep into the FSU section of his coaching resume, is faced with the task of reviving his team’s spirits. The once-No. 1 Seminoles were knocked off their perch by a missed field goal against Miami (they would go on to lose two more games to the Hurricanes in strikingly similar fashion), and the mood in the Florida state capital is not good. The Seminoles are still ranked No. 3 in the country while the Gators poll fifth.
The record 85,461 fans on hand at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium are joined by a national ABC audience as the country’s attention is placed squarely on this game. The Seminoles are looking for their fifth straight victory over the Gators.
The game is a defensive struggle and filled with miscues. Florida State’s Casey Weldon throws 51 passes and completes only 24. Florida’s Shane Matthews throws three interceptions. Punting occurs with regularity. The ‘Noles get one the board first when embattled placekicker Gerry Thomas hit a field goal, then Matthews hit running back Errict Rhett for a touchdown near the end of the second half to give his squad a 7-3 lead.
It was in the third quarter when Florida found a break. Shane Matthews was being pursued by Florida State cornerback Terrell Buckley when the receiver he should have covered, Harrison Houston, easily beat a linebacker to get wide open deep down the field. Matthews hit Houston for an easy 72-yard score, giving the Gators a 14-3 advantage.
Florida State was down but not out.
In the fourth quarter, Weldon found running back Amp Lee from 25 yards out to cut the Gator lead to six, but was shaken up on that play, leaving him unable to attempt the two-point conversion. It fell into the hands of backup quarterback Brad Johnson to try to add the pair of points; he failed. Johnson would go onto bigger and better things, but on this day he watched Weldon, recovered from his earlier shakeup, attempt a last-ditch drive for the game-winning score.
Weldon drove the Seminoles down the field in the closing moments, hitting trusty targets Kez McCorvey and Lee among others along Florida State’s way to the Gators 14-yard-line. Two incompletions gave Weldon one last chance to score. He threw a confident heave to Matt Frier, and for a brief second it looked like the receiver had Florida State’s game-winning touchdown grab. Florida cornerback Will Speer spoiled the party, chopping Frier’s legs and forcing him to cough the football up.
This play gave the Gators their first victory over their in-state foe since 1986, sending them to their first Sugar Bowl in nearly two decades on a positive note. Notre Dame would crash the Gators’ New Year’s party, however.
Florida State had a better start to 1992, besting Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl. The game kicked off a lengthy period where the Gator-Seminole meeting was the most important game of college football’s rivalry week, as the two teams were national title favorites for virtually the rest of the decade.
This status continued until 2001, when Florida State stumbled to an 8-4 record and Steve Spurrier left Florida in favor of a try at professional football, taking the reigns of the Washington Redskins.