The Florida Gators never won a SEC championship until Steve Spurrier came along, not as a player, but as a coach. In the 1970s, the Gators had head coach Doug Dickey who had his share of strange moments as a football coach. Maybe the most widely known game was the infamous Gator Flop in 1971. Gator Flop
But, just a few short years later, Dickey’s team found themselves in another controversial situation involving strange coaching situations.
The state of Florida is just absolutely loaded with high school football talent. Year in and year out,
Florida competes with California and Texas to produce the very best football talent. My vote actually would go with the state of Florida for high school football recruits. But, back in the 1970s, the schools were just now starting to tap into that talent.
The 1976 Florida Gators were not like some of Steve Spurrier’s talented teams, or Urban Meyer’s. But, they were also not without some talent that season.
They ran the Wishbone offense under Doug Dickey, but wide receiver Wes Chandler was the 3rd player selected in the 1978 NFL Draft. They also had Terry LeCount, Derrick Gaffney and Tony Green who were all NFL Draft picks.
The Gators started the 1976 college football season ranked 18th in the Associated Press poll. But, in their opening game, they lost to a really good North Carolina Tar Heels squad, 21-24. The Tar Heels were coached by Bill Dooley, who just happened to be the brother of Georgia football coaching legend, Vince Dooley. North Carolina finished with a 9-3 record and a second place finish in the ACC behind a really good Maryland team led by future Pro Football Hall of Fame member Randy White.
The Gators started a promising season with a disappointing 0-1 record, but they bounced back big. In their second game, they crushed the University of Houston, 49-14. The Cougars would go on to finish their season with a 10-2 record and won the SWC championship in their inaugural season.
The Gators then went on a roll beating Mississippi State, then they were back in the polls ranked 19th. The ranked Gators beat 11th ranked LSU, 28-23.
After making it to the 12th ranking in the next poll, they beat rival Florida State in Bobby Bowden’s first year, 33-26. They barely beat Tennessee in Knoxville, 20-18. Auburn was terrible in 1976, but the Gators still struggled with them. In spite of the struggle, the Gators still managed to win, 24-19.
The Gators were now 4-0 in the SEC and a 6-1 overall record and were now ranked 10th in the nation.
Next up was another rival, 7th ranked Georgia in Jacksonville, Florida.
1976 was a very memorable season for the Georgia Bulldogs and their coach Vince Dooley. The Junkyard Dawg defense kept Georgia in games and the offense good enough to win games. Junkyard
Georgia started off this season ranked 16th and I wrote about it in another post: Party 21-0
They beat 15th ranked California, then beat Clemson and South Carolina before bashing Alabama 21-0 and the party began in Athens, Georgia. They partied so hard, they forgot to show up for the game the following week against Ole Miss and they lost, 17-21. This was not the Ole Miss of Archie
Manning days, since they went on to finish their season with a losing record at 5-6.
Therefore cialis tablets using this medicine is 100% secured. Pharmacological studies have shown that these medicinal plants have anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and immuno-modulatory devensec.com levitra no prescription properties. This stems from devensec.com canadian pharmacy for cialis the fact that the generic anti-ED medication contains the same active ingredient as the original. The side effects of these drugs might make important source cheap viagra samples the drugs not suitable for people who are suffering from Erectile Dysfunction or generally known as ED issues. After their slip up, the Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt, convincingly and then Kentucky before coming up against 20th ranked Cincinnati. Georgia beat back the Bearcats, 31-17 and I’ve always wondered what a Bearcat is.
The Florida Gators were next. It was the 7th ranked Georgia Bulldogs with a 7-1 record against huge rival, the 10th ranked Florida Gators, with a 6-1 record.
This was a great game from the beginning with Georgia taking the opening kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown. Florida retaliated with it’s own drive which was aided by a couple of calls by the officials. They tied it up at 7 all.
Georgia was forced to punt and Florida took advantage and went up 14-7 after an impressive drive. Georgia came back and scored, but the extra point was blocked giving Florida a 1 point lead, 14-13. Feeling the heat, the Gators drove the ball 80 yards pretty quickly and scored again to take a 20-13 lead. Special teams, anyone? The Florida extra point was also blocked, obviously keeping the score at 20-13.
With less than a minute left in the first half, Florida intercepted an errant Georgia pass and then scored again making it 27-13 at the half.
It appeared the 10th ranked Gators had control of the game and the 7th ranked Bulldogs were in trouble.
The second half was an entirely different story.
Georgia drove the ball about 80 yards in the third quarter to pull within 7 points at 27-20.
The next Florida Gator offensive series may be beyond explanation. Maybe thinking the momentum had changed, or he could surprise the Bulldogs, Florida coach Doug Dickey elected to go for it on 4th and short on their own 29 yard line. The play was stuffed for no gain and Georgia got the ball with only 29 yards to go to tie the game.
Led by senior quarterback Ray Goff, the Bulldogs scored a few plays later to tie the game. However, the momentum was definitely in Georgia’s favor now and the Goff led Bulldogs took over and won going away, 41-27.
Florida flopped after that game, but Georgia went on to win the SEC and played Pittsburgh in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.
Pittsburgh, and Heisman Trophy winning tailback Tony Dorsett, won the national title that season by beating a game, but outmanned Georgia squad.
4th and Dumb might be a good memory for Georgia fans, but it will forever live on in infamy with the Florida Gator fans. What the heck was Doug Dickey thinking?
Dickey was no bum. He led Tennessee to two SEC championships and had some success at Florida. His overall record was 104-58-6.
But, 4th and Dumb may have haunted him. The Gators took a downhill turn after that and Dickey was fired after the 1978 season and a miserable 4-7 record. He coached as an offensive coordinator for one season at Colorado after that and then was out of coaching.
No matter why he elected to go for it, 4th and Dumb will forever be a black mark against Doug Dickey’s coaching career.