Travis Taylor caught 11 passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns -- and was the second-best receiver in the Citrus Bowl.
Citrus Bowl History Lesson 4 -- Gators vs Michigan State (1999)
Tuesday, December 29, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Heading into the final week of the regular season, the Florida Gators were smack in the middle of the national-championship conversation, ranked third in the nation with No. 1 Florida State coming to town.
Unlike two years earlier, the Seminoles drained "The Swamp" with a 30-23 victory.
UF, though, still had the Southeastern Conference Championship Game against Alabama to salvage its season.
Unlike the previous four trips to the game, the Gators were absolutely bludgeoned in a 34-7 debacle when they gained a measly 112 yards of offense.
At the 9-3 and ranked 10th, though, Florida looked great for the Citrus Bowl. So did Michigan State, which opened the season 6-0, including a huge win over rival Michigan, only to be popped by Drew Brees and Purdue, then bowled over by eventual Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne of Wisconsin. The Spartans, coached by Nick Saban, won their final three games, two of them wins over ranked Ohio State and Penn State. At 9-2, the Spartans were there for the taking by the Orange Bowl, but the Bowl Championship Series bypassed them for Michigan. That really steamed Saban. More on him later.
The Citrus Bowl was all too happy to claim them, thus matching UF and MSU for the first time the programs' histories.
To the time machine we go.
FOR HISTORICAL CONTEXT (Elsewhere in the news on Jan. 1, 2000)
Yeltsin* From East to West and North to South, the world welcomed the new millennium in a shimmering tapestry of song and light that ripped around the globe. Along with the choreographed spectacle came high drama -- reminders in Russia and Asia of the turmoil of the dying century. Woven together by satellite-TV, the world's nearly 200 countries in their 24 time zones became a jamboree of disparate cultures -- South Sea islanders singing Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus, Buddhist monks praying for peace in Japan, a German Choir singing in a church in Nazareth, Israel and a huge French-made bell tolling a welcome in Newport, Ky., for each time zone entering 2000.
* In Moscow, pleading for forgiveness, Boris Yeltsin resigned as president, clearing the way for his hand-pinked successor to take Russia into a new age and fix the mistakes he admitted having made through eight chaotic years. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the country's most popular politician, took control of the government and would serve as acting president until elections were held in 90 days. Waterston* At the movies: "The Green Mile," starring Tom Hanks; "The Talented Mr. Ripley" starring Matt Damon; "Man in the Moon" starring Jim Carey.
* On television: CBS on Tuesday, it was "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," hosted by Regis Philbin, at 8 p.m., followed by "Dharma & Greg," starring Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson opposite "Will & Grace," starring Eric McCormick and Debra Messing, on NBC at 9. At 10 p.m., "Law & Order" starring Sam Waterston.
* On the radio: The Billboard Top 100 countdown ended like this: No. 3 -- "Angel of Mine" by Monica; No. 2 -- "No Scrubs" by TLC; No. 1 - "Believe" by Cher.
THE SETUP Saban with his '99 MSU team. On Nov. 20, the No. 15 Spartans defeated 13th-ranked Penn State 35-28. Over the course of the next week, Saban was conspicously absent from the campus, as reports surfaced he was being courted to replace fired Gerry DiNardo at LSU. There were the perfunctory denials, but on Nov. 29 -- with the Orange Bowl's dissing of the Spartans very much still a sore subject in East Lansing, Mich., LSU announced Saban had agreed to a five-year, $6 million deal to go to Baton Rouge.
None of his assistants went with him.
Including running backs coach Bobby Williams.
On Dec. 9, the MSU Board of Trustees voted to promote the loyal Williams, in his 10th season with the Spartans, to the head-coaching post. His first game would be in Orlando against Steve Spurrier and the Gators, a program desperately looking to rediscover its swagger after back-to-back losses and staring at the prospects of a first three-game losing streak since 1988 (two years before Spurrier had arrived in Gainesville).
Spurrier was actually very hard on his players in the aftermath of their horrific performance in the SEC title game. So tough, in fact, he apologized to them in private and in his first pre-bowl media opportunity did so publicly in hopes of getting them redirected toward the goal of winning 10 games for the seventh straight season.
THE GAME
Burress hauls in one of his 13 catches against the Gators.In a wild game that featured seven lead changes and two receivers that combined for well over 300 yards and six touchdowns, Michigan State got a 39-yard field goal from Paul Edinger as time expired to shock Florida 37-34 in front of mostly bummed partisan crowd of 62,011.
Spartans wideout Plaxico Burress, named the game's MVP, caught 13 passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns, including a 33-yard strike from quarterback Bill Burke to tie the game at 34 with 10:46 to go. Burress outdid UF wideout Travis Taylor, who hauled in 11 catches for 156 yards and three scores of his own.
A kicker -- from 40 minutes down Interstate-4 in Lakeland, no less -- made the difference.
Worth noting: Burress, out of Norfolk, Va., had originally commited to play for the Gators, but his scholarship offer was rescinded by UF under scruntiny of his academic transcript.
The Gators trailed 17-7 early, battled back to take a 21-17 lead, fell behind again 26-21, but scored a pair of second-half TDs -- a 39-yard pass from Doug Johnson to Taylor late in the third quarter, then a 1-yard run by Robert Gillespie early in the fourth -- to go up 34-26 with 13:27 left.
The Spartans tied it less than three minutes later, then won it at the horn after quarterback Bill Burke drove his team 33 yards in six plays to set up the kick.
Burke finished 21 of 35 for 257 yards, the three touchdowns and two interceptions. Johnson went 24-for-50 for 288 yards and the three TDs.
One of the most entertaining games of the bowl season, however, was marred by several fights, including a third-quarter melee when both UF tackle Kenyatta Walker and MSU defensive end Hubert Thompson were ejected after Walker went to his QB's defense after Johnson slammed was slammed to the turf late. On the next play, UF safety Demetrius Jackson weighed on a special teams during a special teams play and got ejected.
All told, officials called 17 penalties for 180 yards. Florida players said afterward the bad blood was initiated when Michigan State players ran through their drills and did some jawing during pregame warmups. The Spartans denied doing so.
THE QUOTES
Spurrier* "I was really disappointed in some of our players. We haven't had that kind of raucous [behavior] all year. It's sad it had to happen." -- Spurrier
* "I'm just really happy for Michigan State because of the excitement that was stimulated from being named head coach. I know there are a lot of proud Spartans out there and really hope this is something we can build on." -- Williams
"I just pray the guys here never have to go through something like this again. We're not losers, but we don't even know what it feels like to win anymore." -- UF senior offensive guard Cheston Blackshear
"It was fun ... until the end." -- Johnson
"Their kicker had ice in his blood. He kept his composure and did his job." -- UF defensive end Alex Brown
* "They were just using that as an excuse to fuel themselves. We came out with the 'W," so there's nothing more to say." -- Michigan State linebacker Julian Peterson on the Gators claiming the Spartans ran through their pregame warmups.
THE FALLOUT
The loss gave Spurrier his first three-game losing streak in 10 seasons at Florida, while also assured UF would not finish in the Top 10 of a season's final rankings for the first time since 1990, Spurrier's first season in Gainesville. The defeat also snapped the Gators' run of six consecutive seasons with at least 10 victories. The Spartans, meanwhile, not only won their first bowl game in 10 years, but won a 10th game for only the second time in school history -- and the first time since 1968. When the final AP poll was released out later that week, Florida (9-4) was 12th and Michigan State (10-2) was seventh.
UF, though, still had the Southeastern Conference Championship Game against Alabama to salvage its season.
