Flashback: 25 Years Ago, Gators Football Changed Forever
Thursday, September 3, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Steve Spurrier's first game as a collegiate head coach came on Sept. 5, 1987, when his Duke Blue Devils, an Atlantic Coast Conference punching bag for nearly three decades, played host to Division I-AA Colgate. Spurrier arrived, two seasons removed from the collapse of the USFL, with a reputation for innovative and wide-open offense.
His first play that season was a sweep to the halfback, who pitched back to a flanker on a reverse, who then lateraled back to the quarterback, who looked to fire the ball deep but, instead, threw it to the halfback.
The play gained three yards.
It also sent a message.
Two seasons later, Duke was the ACC co-champion and playing in a bowl game. The transformation was phenomenal and put in motion a Florida phenomenon.
Twenty-five years ago this week, on the eve of his first game as head coach at his alma mater, Spurrier was asked if he'd announce his return to the Gators with a similar first-play call that crazy one back at Duke three years earlier.
“No,” Spurrier said. “This is a real team we're playing.”
That team was Oklahoma State and Spurrier didn't need a first-play gimmick to demonstrate how different things were going to be. The final score on Sept. 8, 1990 -- Florida 50, OSU 7 -- did that. So did the stat sheet.
No one knows what Coach Jim McElwain's first game (or first season, for that matter) will look like, but there certainly are parallels in the circumstances. McElwain brings an offensive background to the Gators, having called plays for a pair of national championship teams at Alabama. He showed he could turn around a moribund program, having take over Colorado State -- with its three straight 3-9 seasons -- and going 22-16 over the next three, including a pair of bowl games and a 10-win season, while vaulting the Rams to No. 4 nationally in total offense in 2014.
He took the Florida job last December.
The new UF coach speaks often about how he drives past that bronze statue of the old UF coach on the way to work every morning. What mushroomed from that day a quarter-century ago is in no way lost on McElwain. Nor is the desire of the Florida fan base to experience that euphoria of fireworks again.
McElwain, like Spurrier, inherited a roster loaded with talent on the defensive side of the ball. On offense, though, the transformation figures to be a work in progress, whereas Spurrier had some big-time pieces -- especially at receiver and on the offensive line -- when he arrived.
As that first game approached 25 summers ago, Spurrier published a letter in The Florida Independent Alligator, addressing the student body.
“My definition of a winning program is one in which the players are students, who graduate, who represent the University in a first-class manner in all aspects of life and who perform on the practice field and in games to the utmost of their ability.
“We trail FSU and Miami heading into the 1990s. We have the resources to catch and pass them and that is our target. When we start beating them on the football field and producing a higher percentage of graduates, that will become a reality.”
And it did.
To the time machine we go.
FOR HISTORICAL CONTEXT
(Elsewhere in the news on Sept. 8, 1990)
* Gainesville police zeroed in on Edward Humphrey, a mentally disturbed UF freshman, as the prime suspect in the serial killings of five students -- four women, one man -- who were murdered over three days as the UF student body returned to campus for the start of fall semester the week before. Humphrey, held on a $1 million bond, had his Hawaiian Village apartment searched by authorities, as well as the home in Indialantic, Fla., he shared with his grandmother.
* Phil Donahue broadcasted his syndicated audience-participation talk show from the Plaza in downtown Gainesville, focusing on the grip the killing spree of the previous week had on the campus and community. Donahue reacted to criticism he was exploiting the murders for the sake of ratings. “The last thing we want on this program is to appear cavalier,” he said. “This is not an entertainment program.” 
* Iraq tightened the screws on trapped Westerners, warning that anyone trying to leave without permission could face life in prison. The Soviet Union raised the possibility of Kremlin support for sending a U.N. military force to the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, President George H.W. Bush quickly accepted an offer to appear on Iraq's state-run television network and the White House called on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to provide up to 15 minutes for an unedited message to the Iraqi people.
* Japanese officials announced Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev would make an unprecedented visit to Japan in April to improve relations, which were strained by a longtime territorial dispute. Gorbachev, who would be the first Soviet leader to visit Japan, proposed the visit in a message delivered to Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu. 
* Sassy and flashy and psyched to the max, Andre Agassi (right) put on a show of blast-away tennis to set up a fiery match against Boris Becker in the U.S. Open semifinals. The 20-year-old Agassi, hungry for his first Grand Slam, chewed up Soviet Andrei Cherkasov in the quarters and gave further proof that he is more than just the tennis world's loudest dresser.
* A Japanese company -- Cosmo World Corp. of Tokyo -- bought the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links, site of the 1992 U.S. Open Championship. The purchase price of the 5,300 acress on the Monterey Peninsula was not disclosed, but real estate experts estimated it was between $800 million to $1 billion.
* At the movies, the big-budget blockbuster films of that summer were “Die Hard 2” with Bruce Willis, “Total Recall” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and “Dick Tracy,” starring Warren Beatty, Madonna and Al Pacino. But the season's biggest hit was Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in “Ghost,” which was released in July and became the No. 1 grossing film of 1990. 
* On the radio, Sinead O'Connor's “Nothing Compares 2 U,” Madonna's “Vogue” and Roxette's “It's Must've Been Love,” from the motion picture “Pretty Woman,” were the bit summer hits.
THE SETUP
Spurrier had gone 20-13-1 at Duke. Before that, his three-year record with the USFL Tampa Bay Bandits was 35-19 and included three playoff berths. At both stops, his offenses dazzled.
Ah, but this was the Southeastern Conference and there was skepticism just how a pass-first mentality would play in league known for options, veers and stout defenses.
At SEC Media Days six weeks earlier, the Gators were picked to finish seventh in the 10-team league and had three players named to preseason all-star team.
All defensive players.
“I guarantee you, after the season, we'll have some offensive guys on the All-SEC team,” Spurrier promised the reporters in the big Alabama ballroom.
This from a coach taking over a team that averaged 360.1 yards per game, but just 148 passing -- next-to-last in the conference -- and threw just 10 touchdowns all season versus 11 interceptions.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma State came in with a 1-0 record, having defeated Tulsa 10-3 the week before. The program was still on the rebound from crippling NCAA sanctions (See Dykes, Hart Lee) and resembled nothing of the team it was two years earlier when Barry Sanders won the Heisman and the Cowboys went 10-2. 
In preseason scrimmages, the UF defense, expected to be among the best in the country, had dominated the offense led by quarterback Shane Matthews (left), who was fifth on the depth chart when Spurrier arrived. The offensive players and coaches, though, had confidence that things were rounding into form.
“We've got our timing down the last few days,” tailback Willie McClendon said. “This is an exciting and unpredictable offense. Oklahoma State might not know what's going on Saturday. Our offensive line looks great. I think we're going to surprise some people.”
The offensive product was the only thing about the Gators that was going to be different. So was the game-day look as well. One of Spurrier's first orders of business when he was hired on New Year's Eve 1989 was announce the team would return to the old blue jerseys worn during his days and convert the home artificial surface to natural grass.
It all made for a nostalgic feel when the Gators, and their visor-wearing favorite son, stormed through the south end zone tunnel that night in front of a record crowd of 74,428 that already was in a frenzy.
THE GAME 
On the game's first play from scrimmage, Matthews dropped and fired to senior wideout Ernie Mills for 26 yards. Bedlam. On the next play, Matthews fired a 17-yard gain to junior wideout Trey Everett. The third play went to Mills for 22 more, down to the OSU 5.
Fullback Dexter McNabb then rumbled around left end for a touchdown.
The Fun-N-Gun had arrived; 75 yards in 75 seconds. In the first quarter alone, Matthews passed for 141 yards, which was more than the Gators combined to throw for in five games the previous season.
UF's first four drives netted three TDs and a field goal. Matthews, in his first collegiate game, went 20-of-29 for 332 yards, accounting for the bulk of 384 yards passing that marked the third-most in Gators history. UF rolled up 567 yards of total offense, the defense allowed just 238 yards and registered a safety, while the special teams blocked both a punt and a field goal.
It was one of the greatest days in Florida Field history and a harbinger of things to come.
THE QUOTES
* “I had the horses on my side today. This is unusual for me. I have never had a team that was bigger and stronger and faster than an opponent like we did today.” -- Spurrier
* “I'll tell you something, it was pretty easy out there. The coaches just had us really, really prepared.” -- Matthews
* “After the first couple plays, it was obvious we could control the game.” -- senior center Chris Bromley
* “We went out on those first two drives and executed our plays to perfection. We showed we can be a great offensive football team.” -- senior tight end Kirk Kirkpatrick
* "Hey, Coach Spurrier made a believer out of me. It's been a long time since I saw our offense moving up and down the field like that.” -- senior cornerback Richard Fain
* “I told Ernie, 'Golly, they're going to blow the scoreboard lights out on the passing side.' ” -- senior receiver Terrance Barber
* “We didn't really know much about Shane and their offense. We watched some Duke films from last year, but that was probably misleading.” -- OSU coach Pat Jones
THE FALLOUT
The game was a tone-setter. The unranked Gators immediately jumped back into the Associated Press Top 25 poll -- entering at 24th -- that rode the momentum of that blowout opener by going to Alabama and shocking the defending Southeastern Conference co-champion Crimson Tide 17-13, marking UF's first win at Tuscaloosa since 1963.
Just five days later, the NCAA placed the Gators on probation for rules infractions under former Coach Galen Hall. The penalties included a bowl ban for that '90 season, meaning UF, per SEC rules, was ineligible to compete for the conference championship. It was a development neither Spurrier nor this players took well, but they eventually accepted and used as motivation to be the "best in the SEC."
The Gators went on to tie the school record for victories in a season, finishing 9-2 overall and 6-1 in league play. The latter was the best record in the SEC -- runner-up Tennessee finished 5-1-1 -- but Florida was denied the first conference crown in school history, as well as the accompanying berth in the Sugar Bowl.
Of course, the Gators won the SEC the following season to start a run of five conference crowns over six years, including the 1996 national championship.
