For the first time in 32 years, the Florida Gators will make their way to Tampa for a regular-season game when they take on South Florida at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Each of the Gators’ last five visits to the Cigar City was in the Outback Bowl. The most recent was a 30-3 shellacking of Iowa on the second day of 2017, a victory that enabled UF to close the 2016 season at 9-4.
Saturday will be Florida’s first regular-season game at RJS. Their previous such contest in Tampa was at Tampa Stadium against Mississippi State on the evening of September 30, 1989. The Gators rolled to a 21-0 win in what would be Galen Hall’s next-to-last game on the Florida sideline. The coach tendered his resignation less than two weeks later amid an NCAA investigation.
Mississippi State was actually the home team for that game. According to a piece published in the Sun-Sentinel that day, the Bulldogs were guaranteed $500,000 from the Tampa Sports Authority to move the game from Starkville.
Though the Gators have not played many games in Tampa the past few decades, they were once regular visitors. In fact, they have hit the gridiron 44 times in Tampa and have a 27-14-3 mark, including 3-2 in the aforementioned Outback Bowls.
The Gators, who have been playing football since 1906, had their first game in Tampa in 1912 when they posted a 44-0 win over the Tampa Athletic Club. The game was played at the University of Tampa’s Plant Field.
Speaking of UT, Florida’s record in the city includes a 3-0 mark against the Spartans during a stretch when the teams met five straight years (1938-42).The Gators all five by a combined 135-27.
UF played 26 of its 44 games in Tampa prior to 1950 when it took on the likes of Georgia, Tulane, Wake Forest, Kentucky, Auburn, and North Carolina State. In fact, the Gators played at least one game in Tampa all but one year (1928) from 1919 to 1935. They played two games in Tampa in 1922 and 1932, the only two years they played more than one game in the city.
Following World War II, Florida visited each year from 1946 to 1949. It would be two decades before the Gators returned to Tampa and when they did, they played in a new facility.
On September 21, 1968, about 10 months after the University of Tampa and Tennessee played the first game in Tampa Stadium and one month after the Redskins defeated the Falcons in NFL preseason action, No. 6 Florida defeated Air Force, 23-20. That was the first of seven straight seasons of playing one game at the venue that in 1976 would become the home of the NFL expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Gators were part of sports television history at Tampa Stadium on the evening of September 1, 1984. A 32-20 loss to defending national champion Miami was the back end of a doubleheader on ESPN, which that day televised live college football games for the first time in the network’s five-year history. BYU defeated host Pitt, 20-14, in the first game.
While there will be no such landmark viewing on ABC (1 p.m) this Saturday, a Florida win would give coach Dan Mullen the 100th of his career. That would certainly be a nice milestone in the 49-year-old coach’s career while adding another chapter to the Gators’ history in Tampa.
Saturday will mark the second meeting between Florida and USF. The first was in 2010, 11 years ago to the day, a 38-14 win by the then-No. 8 Gators at the Swamp.
Florida opened this season with a 35-14 win over visiting Florida Atlantic last Saturday night. The Gators piled up 400 of their 553 total yards on the ground with quarterbacks Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson combining for 234 yards rushing.
The Bulls suffered a 45-0 defeat at North Carolina State last Thursday evening, their 13th straight loss to an FBS opponent. They allowed 524 yards, including 292 rushing. USF compiled only 271 yards with 73 of them coming on a pair of connections between true freshman quarterback Timmy McClain and receiver Xavier Weaver.
Cade Fortin, making his first start for USF, was 7-for-20 for 41 yards and one interception. Coach Jeff Scott noted during his press conference Tuesday that Fortin will start Saturday and McClain will also play.
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