Florida Football: Top 5 greatest all-time rivalry games vs. Florida State
By James Bowers
In Part 2 of our look at the best rivalry games between Florida State and Florida football, we break down the top five on the list.
In Part 1 of our look at the 10 greatest games in the history of the Florida-Florida State rivalry, we examined five Gator-Seminole matchups that are still discussed around the tailgate kegs decades after the final gun sounded.
In Part 2, we’ll do the same.
There’s going to be a whole lot of 1990s in the top half of the list, as that was when the Florida-Florida State rivalry amounted to a national championship semifinal. Bobby Bowden and Steve Spurrier had their respective programs firing on all cylinders as the blue bloods of college football during the Clinton administration.
The 1997 season saw “the greatest game ever played in the swamp” as the No. 1 Florida State Seminoles saw Florida pull of a three-play, 80-yard scoring drive and then seal the deal with a turnover all in the span of 2.5 minutes.
The 1994 season saw the two top 10 titans each fail to pick up the game winning score, leaving the game deadlocked at 31 as overtime had not yet into play in college football.
The 1995 Sugar Bowl was almost the scene of a triumphant Gator comeback, only for FSU’s Derrick Brooks to make a game-clicking interception to preserve a 23-17 Seminole win.
We’ll take a look at what in our view are the five greatest UF-FSU contests.