Mike Bianchi: Much has changed since Spurrier’s Gators routed UCF 25 years ago

A quarter-century ago, we were in the midst of a Y2K panic and wondering if the worldwide power grid and economy were about to collapse.

The year was 1999 when the adults were watching sitcoms such as “Friends” on TV and renting movies from Blockbuster while the kids were listening to the Backstreet Boys and trading Pokemon cards.

In real life, President Bill Clinton tried to convince us that “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” while Tony Soprano was making his debut on HBO and telling us, “I’m not a murderer. I’m a soldier.”

A majority of the Americans weren’t on the Internet yet, and those who were used screeching dial-up modems. The bulky, clunky Nokia 3210 was the most popular cell phone of the day.

And, in sports, the Florida Gators were a national power while the UCF Knights were an irrelevant afterthought.

So much has changed since that September night 25 years ago when Florida first played UCF in football and coach Steve Spurrier’s Gators routed coach Mike Kruczek’s Knights 58-27 at the Swamp. Even though the fourth-ranked Gators won their NCAA-high 29th straight home game, Spurrier wasn’t happy that his defense allowed Vic Penn to throw for 379 yards just a week before opening the SEC schedule against third-ranked Tennessee.

“Shoot, you can just throw out these first two games.,” Spurrier said of UF’s two early-season tuneups against Western Michigan and UCF.

Added Gators linebacker Teddy Sims at the time: “It’s good to have this one out of the way. It’s time for the real season to kick off.”

In other words, UCF wasn’t even considered a legitimate opponent for UF; a reflection of the gaping chasm between an established SEC power and a neophyte program still searching for relevance.

Now let’s fast forward to Saturday when UCF is coming into the Swamp again as an…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mike-bianchi-much-changed-since-002000364.html

Author : Orlando Sentinel

Publish date : 2024-10-03 00:20:00

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