1993 SEC Championship, Part V: The Sweetest Ending to an Historic Season
Friday, September 7, 2018 | Football, Chris Harry
They would not go wild on the French Quarter. At least, not until after the game.
Why?
Because of the last time they were there.
"It got out of hand," said senior offensive guard Jim Watson, who was a sophomore in 1991 when the Gators won the first SEC title in school history and came to the Sugar Bowl as double-digit favorites, only to party themselves into oblivion and get steamrolled by Jerome Bettis and Notre Dame 39-28. "Some guys were throwing up before practice. All the time we spent down on Bourbon Street eventually caught up to us in the game. It was ridiculous, and I'll never forget it."
Added Coach Steve Spurrier: "The experience from two years ago help us understand about preparing for this game. Our players realize it's a lot more fun to come to a bowl game and win."
So this time, the eighth-ranked Gators (10-2) were on a mission and needed to be, given the opponent was unbeaten and third-ranked West Virginia (11-0), which came to the bowl site thinking a win over Florida would force voters to consider the Mountaineers for a share of the national title.
"This is my last game at the University of Florida," senior tailback Errict Rhett said. "It's the one I'll remember for the rest of my life."
A lot of Gators would.
Back to history class, folks.
To the time machine we go.
Game 13
Jan. 1, 1994
Florida 41, West Virginia 7
What happened: The game was locked at 7-all early in the second period when Studstill scrambled out of the pocket, turned upfield and broke, momentarily, into the UF secondary. As he tried to turn the play inside, safety Monty Grow squared up and put a hit on on Studstill — a perfect, dead-center form tackle — that knocked the Mountaineers' quarterback back into 1993. Studstill, clearly, was out of it after practically being separated from his helmet. WVU ran one play, an incompletion, but then had to take a timeout when Studstill brought his unit to the line of scrimmage with his chin strap — get this — snapped on sideways. ... [Note: Watch the incredible sequence in the video below and hear the comments from Brent Musberger and Bob Griese] ... Out of the timeout, the Mountaineers again tried to pass, and again it was Grow, this time on a blitz, who swarmed Studstill from the blindside, forcing a flutter ball down the middle of the field that fell into the arms of UF's Lawrence Wright. The redshirt freshman safety at first went forward, then spun about and ran backward, then redirected and zipped through the playing field untouched for a 52-yard touchdown return that gave the Gators their first lead at 14-7. It was over after that. Terry Dean hit Willie Jackson for a 39-yard touchdown pass with less than a minute to go in the first half. Rhett added two second-half touchdown runs on his way to 25 carries, 105 yards, three touchdowns and game MVP honors. Dean finished 22 of 37 for 255 yards and the score.
Numbers of note: UF finished with 462 yards of total offense and held WVU to 265, nearly 200 yards below the Mountaineers' average. …The 34-point victory was the largest by a Florida team in a bowl, topping the 15-point margins over Georgia Tech in the '67 Orange Bowl and Maryland in '80 Tangerine Bowl. … Jackson's nine catches tied a bowl record for Florida receivers, equaling that of Barry Brown in the 1966 Sugar Bowl. Those 131 yards were the third-most by a Gator in a bowl. … Wright's interception return for a touchdown was the first by a UF player in the program's 21 bowl appearances. … Florida improved to 10-11 all-time in bowls, including 2-1 under Spurrier. It marked the first time the Gators had won bowl games in back-to-back season, piggy-backing on the 27-10 defeat of North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl the year before.
They said it:
* "We're certainly proud of what this team accomplished this year. I just hope this press conference doesn't last very long. I think we're all ready to take a nice walk on Bourbon Street."— Spurrier
* "They deserved to win. We got whupped. We got whupped big time. There's very little else to say." — WVU coach Don Nehlen.
* "I was screaming at him, 'Turn around, Lawrence! Turn around! Go the other way!' And then nobody touched him. I'd never seen anything like it." — UF defensive coordinator Ron Zook.
* "Destiny. It was meant to be." — Wright
* "It was easy to run on them. We were all saying they weren't as big as some of the really good teams we played this season." — Watson
* "This is the way I wanted to go out. This is the game I'll always remember as a Gator, the last game." — Rhett
Upshot: The Gators capped an 11-2 season when they won the most games in school history with the most lopsided bowl victory in history in the first Sugar Bowl win in history. Obviously, it was an historic season, and it laid the ground work for an even more historic run through the SEC — four straight league titles — that culminated with the 1996 national crown (another first in school history). The final Associated Press poll ranked Florida at No. 5, making for the third team the Gators finished a season in the top five.
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