Georgia’s 5 most painful losses to Steve Spurrier

Few things have heaped misery on Georgians quite like Steven Orr Spurrier. When Spurrier arrived at Florida in 1990, the Gators had never won the SEC. One of the instances in which Florida had come the closest was 1966, Spurrier’s Heisman season as a player, when an upset 27-10 loss to Georgia had cost the Gators a shot at the national title.

From the coach’s recollections of the 2007 game, which is included in the list below:

To tell you the truth, I’m proud of the fact I have more wins over Georgia than any other coach in history. I think I got 16, but hey, we’ve lost seven. I’ve coached against them 23 times.

They beat us my senior year in college. They knocked us out; Florida had a chance to win its first-ever SEC title. We went over to Jacksonville, and they beat the crap out of us in the second half and ended up winning, 27-10, something like that. Now they completely outplayed us, wasn’t any flukes or anything like that.

But as a coach, I thought maybe I could get even with them.

When Spurrier arrived, Georgia held a 44-22-2 lead in the all-time series, having won 15 of the last 20. Spurrier would win 11 of 12 meetings against the Dawgs, with nine by multiple scores. Florida was destroying most of its conference foes, but Spurrier had a special zeal for beating Georgia, often leaving Jacksonville only after twisting the knife.

After an unsuccessful stint in the NFL, Spurrier returned to another of Georgia’s division rivals. When Spurrier arrived, South Carolina had won only 13 of 55 games against Georgia. Spurrier then won a respectable five of 11 against against a program with numerous advantages and Mark Richt, one of the best coaches in Georgia history.

Richt, like Ray Goff and Jim Donnan before him, missed out on glory on several occasions because of Spurrier.

Spurrier and Goff joined these programs in 1990. Needless to say, they had differing levels of success.

Florida crushed Georgia in 1990 and 1991 by a combined 83-20. However, Georgia came to Jacksonville in 1992 as the favorite. An excellent team led by Eric Zeier, Garrison Hearst, and Andre Hastings had only one blemish — a three-point loss to Tennessee — and was No. 6 nationally.

All Georgia needed to do was beat No. 22 Florida, a team that had lost by 17 to Tennessee and 24 to Mississippi State. Win the game, and the Dawgs would play Alabama in the first SEC Championship, with the Sugar Bowl and a shot at the national title on the line.

Georgia had an 80-yard touchdown run by Frank Harvey on its first offensive play, but that just raised expectations, making ensuing events even more painful. Florida scored 20 unanswered, and when Georgia got back within two, the Dawg defense could not get the Gator offense off the field.

Georgia would have to wait a decade to make the SEC Championship, after watching Spurrier get there seven times, winning five.

Spurrier lost his first two games against the Dawgs as the South Carolina head coach, getting shut out at home in 2006 after a two-point loss in 2005.

Had Spurrier lost his mojo against his most hated opponent?

2007 showed otherwise. Georgia came in ranked No. 11, but contrived to lose at home to unranked South Carolina. Georgia drove inside the South Carolina 40 five times, but did not score a touchdown and lost 16-12.

This loss would only grow in significance, as the Dawgs caught fire in the second half of the season. Georgia finished No. 2, but did not get a shot at the national title or even the conference because of a home loss to a 6-6 Spurrier team.

No. 5 Georgia visits No. 6 South Carolina, with both teams unbeaten and everything at stake. So what happens?

Spurrier unleashes a beating that felt like one of his ritual humiliations of Goff or Donnan. Georgia came to Columbia with one of Richt’s best teams; it left with a four-touchdown loss.

The only saving grace for Georgia is that the loss was not fatal, as Georgia won the East, thanks in no small part to a favorable schedule rotation (South Carolina had to go to LSU, while Georgia drew weak Auburn and Ole Miss teams from the West) that Spurrier later made sure to reference.

Florida ran the table before getting thumped by Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl. Georgia never recovered after Robert Edwards broke his foot and finished 6-6. Thus, it was not a surprise that Spurrier would move to 6-0 in the rivalry.

What was painful was that the game was in Athens (Georgia-Florida was played on campus in 1994 and 1995 because of renovations to the Gator Bowl), and Spurrier became the first visiting coach to break 50 points in Sanford Stadium. Spurrier later added shade when he downplayed the final touchdown: “it wasn’t that big of a deal at the time because Georgia people had already left the stadium.“

Three weeks prior, Georgia ended a nine-game losing streak to Tennessee. Georgia arrived in Jacksonville knowing that a win would put it in prime position to win the division. The Dawgs led by eight late in the first half and were driving.

As with most games against Spurrier, a little success just made what happened next harder to swallow:

Georgia lost by 11 and collapsed. Spurrier won his sixth SEC championship, another in a series of rings won at the Georgia Dome, a little irony that no doubt makes him smirk.