On this date in Gators history: Oct. 17, 1998
Wednesday, October 17, 2012 | Men's Tennis, Chris Harry
Steve Spurrier and the Gators ignored a chorus of second-half boos from the home crowd at Florida Field and were content to play conservative in a 24-3 defeat of woeful Auburn.
Doug Johnson threw three touchdown passes, two to Travis McGriff, but was also intercepted twice. The Gators tallied just 13 first downs, but still managed to win by 21 points.
That wasn't good enough, though, for the folks at the "Swamp" that day.
“It's OK to boo me, just don't boo the players,” Spurrier said after his team barely reached 300 yards of offense against a Tigers foe off to the program's worst start (1-5) in 52 years. “We felt like [Auburn' couldn't score two or three touchdowns, so the best thing to do was to play smart.”
Tigers coach Terry Bowden agreed.
“I appreciate Florida realizing 24-3 is just like 50-3,” he said. “Twenty-four was like a million.”
Six days later, Bowden resigned.
