Dooley's Dozen: Florida football's 12 biggest rivals right now (2024)

The younger you are, the more of a rivalry game this feels like. Mostly because of the Cotton Bowl two years ago, but certainly because of what happened in gymnastics, basketball and baseball. Still stings, Gator fans. And now, you have to welcome them into your conference.

This was no rivalry at all. Then, UCF tried to claim a fake national title. And Danny White started a newspaper argument with Scott Stricklin. And then, of course, the Gasparilla Bowl. One would think the game next year in the Swamp will feel like a rivalry game even if Gator fans don’t want to admit it.

It’s a new rivalry because of the spat the teams and coaches got into at halftime two years ago. It’s a bigger deal to Dan Mullen and Eli Drinkwitz, but don’t forget Missouri has beaten Florida as many times as Florida has beaten the ‘Zou since the Tigers joined the league.

The SEC might have quashed this as a real rivalry with its bizarre scheduling, but if you were in the stands for the game two years ago, you know what the hair standing up on the back of your neck feels like. There is also this: Auburn is a good bet to become a Florida permanent opponent again if the schedule goes to nine games.

Last year’s game was the revival of the rivalry and the SEC title game the year before was certainly a huge game. But this is a rivalry birthed by two coaches: Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. Also, every school in the SEC is a rival of Alabama’s.

It meant nothing for years. Then the Aggies hired one of the most despised coaches in Gator Nation. Also, Texas A&M spoiled the night of the camouflage uniforms. Of course, the game two years ago nearly drove Mullen crazy, and the Gators have to go back to College Station again this season.

Despite the hatred some Gator fans have for the basketball program at UK, it wasn’t much of a rivalry while Florida was winning 31 in a row. But Mullen made it one by losing half of his games against the Wildcats. It was the game that wrecked last season and might be the biggest this season.

Now, we are getting into vicious territory. I don’t know if any fan base hates Florida as much as Miami fans. Personally, I would never schedule them. This is a deep-seated hatred, too, going back to the Florida Flop and Jim Kelly wearing a T-shirt that said, “Gators eat boogers.”

You can make the argument the rivalry has lost some luster because of Florida’s dominance. OK, go to Neyland Stadium on the fourth Saturday of this season and tell me what you think. It was huge in the 1990s and it still matters, especially this year. There always seems to be some kind of war of words between these two teams.

There was nothing like this rivalry during the 1990s, even though it didn’t go Florida’s way often enough. Except for that one night in New Orleans. I’m not sure there is a rivalry with more memorable games, so many that left one side or the other crushed.

Yeah, I said it. I think LSU is a bigger rival right now than either Tennessee or FSU. It all goes back to the hurricane game. It was already a great rivalry with the students vs. Tim Tebow and “Shiny Pants” and Fourth-and-Hester. The hurricane game changed the intensity, and it will not go away.

Only one of the games has its own Hall of Fame. The rivalry has been amped up by Georgia’s resurgence as a college football power. But the history of the game is so rich that even when the results were lopsided it was a big deal. Move it out of Jacksonville? That would be the dumbest idea since “The Hangover Part III.”

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