Disappointingly, 10-1 Florida was forced to play 17th ranked Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. Some had hoped to lure undefeated Miami in a game that could draw Florida into the national championship picture, but instead monetary reasons for both the Sugar and Miami forced the inferior matchup. Florida won the first half, but Notre Dame proved superior in the second, as UF found no answer for Jerome Bettis up the middle. Florida lost, 39-28.

After either winning or losing by blowouts in the Spurrier years, the SEC championship gave Florida fans their first heart-breaking loss, 28-21. Tied 21-21 with the future national champs, Shane Matthews threw an ill-advised pass with 3 minutes left that Antonio Langham picked off and returned 27 yards, untouched, for the victory. The pass ended what had been a heroic comeback from a 21-7 deficit; Matthews had brilliantly crafted two drives against the stingy Tide defense, throwing mostly to Willie Jackson. With 6 minutes to go, a shanked punt gave UF the ball at the Bama 41, but the Bama defense forced a 3 and out punt.

Florida won 27-10 against number 12 North Carolina State in a bizarre Gator Bowl in which the fog was so thick it was nearly impossible to watch on television. It was also virtually impossible to throw the ball, so Erricht Rhett had a marvelous 182 yard performance (plus 60 receiving). Despite the fog, Shane Matthews threw for over 200 yards. The Gator defense shut down the Wolfpack, allowing only 267 yards. Only two Gator fumbles allow the Pack to score at all.

With the Gators winning 14-13, an unplanned, huge play sealed the victory. Late in the third, facing 4th and 8, UF punter Shane Edge felt pressure coming. Afraid of a blocked punt, he dodged the rush and ran for a first down. Florida struck on the very next play, a 43-yard Terry Dean to Jack Jackson TD that made it 21-13. Michael Gilmore then intercepted a David Palmer pass, and Florida scored again with 12 minutes to go. The defense held the rest of the way.

A 41-7 romp. Facing undefeated West Virginia, who had politicked and complained for a month about being left out of the Alliance game, Florida absolutely took the Mountaineers to the woodshed. Willie Jackson (9 catches) and Erricht Rhett (105 yards and 3 TD) had huge games, and the defense held the potent Mountaineers to under 300 yards. The whipping was aided by a 52-yard Lawrence Wright interception return (a bobbing weaving, crazy runback) and a muffed kickoff return by the Mountaineers. My favorite play was a hidden ball trick by UF in the fourth quarter, where after the snap 4 UF players huddled around the quarterback and peeled off one by one. The last guy had the ball, and ran for about 20 yards. Ouch.

Florida took a 17-16 lead into the final quarter, and the Gators had the ball with nine minutes to go. On a play eerily reminicent of the 1992 SEC championship game, Dwayne Rudd picked off a Danny Wuerffel toss and took it 23 yards for the score. Alabama coach Gene Stallings made the unusual call to kick the extra point for a 6 point lead. The Gators took over the ball at their own 20. After a first down, Wuerffel feigned an injury, and hobbled off to be replaced by Eric Kresser. The strong-armed Kresser fired a bullet to Ike Hilliard for a 25-yard completion. Wuerffel immediately came back, ballplay ready, and threw a completion to Reidel Anthony for 9 yards out of the unorthodox Emory and Henry formation. Not long after, the Gators ran a gadget play out of Emory and Henry, with Weurffel tossing it immediately to Chris Doering on the left side, who lobbed it to Aubry Hill. Now on the 2, Spurrier then called a quarterback sneak, but Wuerffel called an audible and hit Doering on a 2 yard TD score. Doering beat future NFL star Sam Shade on the play. The extra point was the margin of victory (24-23).

The so-called "Fifth Quarter In The French Quarter". With undefeateds Penn State and Nebraska tradition-bound to different bowl games, two major bowls were left available for Florida and Florida State, who had tied 31-31 during the regular season. The defenses ruled the day; Florida had 5 yards rushing and FSU just 76. The key play for FSU was a halfback option pass by Warrick Dunn which bounced off of a Gator defender into Omar Ellison's hands for a TD. FSU held a 20-10 lead at halftime thanks to an 82 yard TD pass to Ike Hillard. UF would mount a comeback in the second half, limiting FSU to just 3 points. Gator QB Danny Wuerffel was 28 of 39 for 394 yards, and scored on a sneak to make the game 23-17. But the FSU defense buckled down (Derrick Brooks picked off a Wuerffel pass), and the game ended with that score.

The Gator defense played big in the 31-3 win over Arkansas, forcing four turnovers. The offense struggled somewhat, but Danny Wuerffel went 20 of 28 for 276 yards. The Razorback attack was severely compromised after an early injury to tailback Madre Hill. The most spectacular play of the game came when linebacker Ben Hanks tore through the line and picked off an Arkansas pitch as the Hogs were looking to score. Instead, he raced 95 yards the other way for the TD.

An unbearable, unmentionable game. After driving down the field impressively and going up 7-0 on a Danny Wuerffel to Chris Doering hookup, Nebraska thoroughly dominated. Lawrence Phillips was unstoppable, and, on one memorable play, Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier squirmed away from 8 UF tacklers on a 75 yard TD run. The Cornhusker pass rush was unstoppable; Spurrier was unable to get enough blockers and the passing offense was unable to exploit man on man coverage. A second half kickoff return by Reidel Anthony did little to salvage UF's pride that day. Nebraska won, 62-24.

The Tide, ranked 15th, but with a number one pass defense, were burned all day by Florida. Reidel Anthony had 11 receptions and 3 touchdowns, Jaquez Green averaged over 35 yards per catch, Fred Taylor averaged 6.3 yards per carry, and game MVP Danny Wuerffel threw for over 400 yards and 6 touchdown passes, both SEC Championship game records. Alabama got a gutty performance from Freddie Kitchens and Michael Vaughn (142 yards receiving and 2 TD). Down 24-7 at halftime, Bama rallied. The Tide closed it to 24-21 after a bad long snap on the UF 5. Florida seemed to take control with a TD drive and good special teams play, stopping the Tide at the 6 yard line on the ensuing kickoff, but Kitchens hit Vaughn on a 94 yard TD pass that silenced a majority Florida crowd in the Georgia Dome. Wuerffel, calm as ever, answered with an 85 yard bomb to Green to bring it to 38-28. Six plays later, Wuerffel hit Anthony for the clincher.

The national championship game. After a 24-21 loss to FSU in the regular season, Spurrier went almost exclusively to the shotgun formation in the rematch game and it gave Danny Wuerffel just enough time to avoid the FSU pass rush. Despite 6 FSU sacks, Wuerffel finished the night as the game's MVP with 18 of 34 passing, 308 yards, and 3 touchdowns. The most memorable TD pass was to Ike Hilliard, whose juke of two FSU DBs had them falling over each other and probably secured Hilliard's status as the top receiver taken in the 1997 NFL draft. Warrick Dunn, who had killed Florida in the regular season game, had just 40 all-purpose yards. Still, his TD at the end of the first half cut UF's lead to 24-17. Two second half TDs by tailback Terry Jackson and a Wuerffel scramble for a TD put the game away, and UF had a national title at the expense of their arch-rivals via the 52-20 blowout.

Florida drubbed an undermanned Penn State team (without Curtis Enis and Joe Jurevicius) 21-6 with defense and a great running game. Fred Taylor finished his collegiate career with a 234-yard performance. Three UF quarterbacks figured in the scoring; Jesse Palmer and Doug Johnson both hooked up with Jaquez Green and Noah Brindise scored on a sneak. The Green pass from Johnson was a circus catch, and came one play after a Fred Weary interception. The defense held the Nittany Lions to just 139 yards including two goal line stands on 4th and 1.

On Florida's second drive, Doug Johnson threw a 51-yard TD bomb to Travis Taylor, and the Gators were off and running. Taylor would catch a second TD and was named the MVP after his 159-yard performance. Jesse Palmer came in after Johnson hurt his ankle, and continued the offensive enslaught. Donovan McNabb was held in check and high-scoring Syracuse had one of its worst offensive showings in the McNabb era. UF won 31-10.

Florida looked like the offense of old, moving easily down the field and scoring 7 points on their first drive. But that was it. Florida would only gain 114 total yards on the night, easily the worst offensive performance of the decade. The statistics: 0 for 9 on third down, less than 20 minutes possession time, and 3 inteceptions. The Tide tacked on 19 points in the run away fourth quarter, including a brilliant 77 yard run by Freddie Millons. Final score: 34-7.

The Florida offense returned a bit with Travis Taylor having a huge day. But Michigan State's Plaxico Buress was even better, amassing 3 TDs and 13 receptions. Doug Johnson hooked up with Taylor for 3 scores as well. UF was ahead 21-20 at halftime. In the fourth, Robert Gillespie made a brilliant play by recovering his own fumble in the end zone to make it 34-26 Florida. Bill Burke found Burress again for a 30-yard TD, then converted a 2-point play to tie the score. Paul Edinger won it on the game's last play with a 45-yard field goal, bringing to a close Florida's most painful season of the 90s.