With the outcome of UF's matchup with Hawaii being a foregone conclusion, I was all set to write about how this weekend's showdown with Miami is no longer a warranted rivalry.
That is, until wide receiver Louis Murphy waited all of 25 seconds to rip Miami for not recruiting him when he was coming out of high school.
"I don't refer to them as 'The U'. Because 'The U' stands for university and we're the real university."
By all accounts Murphy is a good guy and one of the leaders on the team - certainly the leader of the receivers - but hearing him say those words made me think one thing: "Boy, am I an idiot." Murphy's comments quickly found itself on the walls of Miami's locker rooms and Miami is ready to fight back, 17-point spread be damned.
"If the defensive line comes to play we're going to come out with a victory," Hurricanes defensive tackle Marcus Fortson told the Miami Herald earlier this week.
Once again, 17-point spread be damned.
Now you may say that the Gators and Hurricanes play something like every five seasons and that UF hasn't beaten them in its last six tries dating back to the mid-1980's, and I'll just tell you that doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter that Miami is two years away from legitimacy in the wretched Atlantic Coast Conference. All that matters is that these two teams despise each other, and it's a beautiful thing. There's nothing more entertaining in sports than watching two teams that wouldn't mind settling their differences in a good ol' fashion fist fight on Turlington Plaza rather than Florida Field.
It's what sports is built on. The NBA may not even exist today if the Lakers and Celtics rivalry hadn't been refueled in the '80s with the arrivals of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. And I'm not sure if ESPN realizes there are more teams in baseball other than the Red Sox and the Yankees.
Even more than that, it's the fact that UF and Miami's players are playing against guys that they played with and against for years from Pop Warner all the way up to high school. Guys hate losing to their buddies in Fantasy Football leagues with no entrance fee. If you don't think guys get up to play a football game in which they'll have bragging rights for the rest of their lives, then you're crazy.
"I think it's more of you're playing against teammates," UM coach Randy Shannon said. "It's guys that you've played with and against, more than anything else. You've got guys that can play against guys that grew up together and played against growing up, as well as in high school."
The last time these two teams played at the Swamp it was a 41-16 rout, something Tim Tebow, who may literally bleed orange and blue, wouldn't mind rectifying.
"It'd be cool to switch that up, Tebow said.
With that said, let's clear out Turlington for them.
