Florida-Georgia Weekend 2014

 

 

Florida-Georgia Weekend 2014:  Halloween Night

by

Alec Newell

   

 

Anyone remotely familiar with the annual Florida-Georgia classic will tell you that the intense rivalry associated with that game always makes it an odds makers' nightmare to call.   No matter how the season seems to be going for either team,  anything can happen.  Upsets seem to be the rule rather than the exception, and yet, they always seem to leave the fans and the pundits stunned when they occur.

With the Gators fresh off of a Homecoming loss to Missouri, and a tepid performance in the conference standings, UF fans were already grumbling about head coach Will Muschamp's job, and the broadcast sports gurus were predicting that Muschamp would be fired if, and more probably when Florida lost to Georgia.
 

Georgia by contrast, had already beaten everyone on their schedule except South Carolina, and according to Bull Dog  fans, were well on their way to a South East Conference Championship.  And so it all seemed that Halloween night before the big game.

My wife received a call from her old college (UF) roommate with an invitation to meet up with the roommate and her husband's entourage of Bull Dog fans for a pre game dinner at a restaurant in Fernandina.  When we arrived my wife and her former roommate were the only two decked out in Gator garb.   I was the only one in the party of twelve not in costume (Georgia or Florida).

After a round or two of drinks and some polite table chat, the roommate's husband asked me, "Well, who do you like in tomorrow's game?"

I explained that I had technically been born a Gator, and while most of my family (including my wife and in-laws) were all Florida graduates or fans, I had finished up at UNF and wasn't betting on the game.

The man sitting next to the roommate's husband leaned over and asked, "What did he say?"

Roommate's husband:  "He says he's the smartest one in his family."

P.S.  The final score:  Florida 38 - Georgia 20