Is a home-and-home on the horizon for Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs?
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville has been the home of the annual game between the Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs. That could be changing, temporarily, in the near future, according to Jacksonville Mayor, Lenny Curry.
Jacksonville Mayor, Lenny Curry, is exploring options for wholesale renovations to TIAA Bank Stadium with the aim to be able to host Super Bowls in the future. Those renovations could take years and would force the Jacksonville Jaguars to find another home for those seasons. During a radio interview, Curry said that Florida and Georgia would “play at their campuses” during the two-year renovation. Curry said it would be a “two-year deal where they would be out of the facility for two years, most likely 2025 and 2026.”
Spurrier and the Gators hang half a hundred
Fans who were around in the mid-1990s remember the last time something like this occurred. While TIAA Bank was being built, Florida and Georgia played a home-and-home.
In 1994 the Gators hosted Georgia and Steve Spurrier greeted the Dawgs with a 52-14 win. Spurrier was never a gracious host. The Bulldogs were far kinder hosts to the Gators the following season. Florida marched into Sanford Stadium and hung “half a hundred” between the hedges.
Georgia had never allowed 50 points in a game at Sanford Stadium prior to the 1995 Florida-Georgia game. With the game out of hand, Florida scored a meaningless late touchdown to reach the 50-point mark in a 52-17 rout. Spurrier would admit in an interview after the game that he, “wanted to hang half a hundred on ‘em”.
Scott Stricklin addressed the long-term future of the game last October
Speaking again on the issue with Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi, Stricklin had this to say about the Florida-Georgia game.
“You know, there’s been no formal conversations about moving the game. My counterpart at the University of Georgia (athletic director Josh Brooks) seems committed to keeping the game in Jacksonville based on our conversations,” Stricklin said. “Because of the tradition and the fact that the schools benefit financially from having the game in Jacksonville, I would be surprised if it’s ever moved. But, obviously, Coach Smart is coming off a national championship and his voice is listened to by a lot of people in Athens.
“I get the sense there’s a couple of media people in Georgia who are driving this narrative because you’re the first Florida media person who has even asked me this question. Typically, I get that question from one or two particular Georgia media types. I don’t know how much of a story this really is other than obviously Coach Smart brings it up from time to time.
“Honestly, I don’t know how much of a priority (moving the game) is for Georgia. You know, Georgia has scheduled other neutral site games each of the last two or three years. If it were really that big of a priority, I would think they would just be going away from all neutral site games, but they don’t appear to be doing that.”
