Instant Replay : More Than Bragging Rights at Stake for Florida, Florida State in the Sugar Bowl

If familiarity breeds contempt, just imagine how nasty a growing intrastate feud could get in this year’s Sugar Bowl game.

With the national championship at stake, archrivals Florida and Florida State play Thursday for the second time in 33 days, the fifth time in 25 months and the second time in two years in the Sugar Bowl.

“We’re playing Florida. That’s enough motivation right there,” Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews says.

But Coach Bobby Bowden isn’t overjoyed his top-ranked Seminoles (11-0) have to defeat their most hated rival two straight times to win their second national title in four years.

“It’s 365 days of struttin’ and braggin’ right down the drain,” says Bowden, who is looking for his first perfect season in 31 years as a head coach.

Bowden, Andrews and the Florida State coaching staff have apparently done a good job selling the rematch to most of the team.

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Florida is really the next best team,” says defensive end Peter Boulware. “In a game like this, you want to play the next best team.”

“It’s for all the marbles,” adds Boulware, who teams with Reinard Wilson to give the Seminoles an All American tandem at defensive end. “We’ll be up for it regardless of who we play.”

Florida State, ranked second at the time, defeated the then top-ranked Gators, 24-21, on Nov. 30. Nebraska’s loss to Texas in the Big 12 playoff game scrambled the bowl picture, ending the Cornhuskers’ hopes for a third straight national title and giving Florida another chance after the Gators (11-1), now ranked third, claimed a fourth straight Southeastern Conference.

And Florida Coach Steve Spurrier has added to the rematch emotion by accusing Florida State of taking cheap shots at his quarterback Nov. 30.

Although the Seminoles sacked Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel six times, Spurrier has cried foul--pointing to several other occasions where referees should have called roughing penalties.

The game was worked by SEC officials.

Spurrier, who is 2-5-1 against Florida State including a 1995 Sugar Bowl loss, blames Bowden and Andrews for roughhouse tactics.

“We aren’t going to go up there to the Sugar Bowl and take the stuff that we took in Tallahassee,” Spurrier said earlier this month. “What we’ve got to do is hit back.”

Bowden has tried to avoid that controversy and claims he isn’t bugged by Spurrier’s criticism.

“Anything he says to fire us up suits me,” says Bowden, who worries that the controversy will turn the game into a game of touch football.

Florida State coaches point out that Spurrier seldom left Wuerffel with additional blocking help despite the constant pounding he took from the Seminole defense.

Wuerffel has never complained about the pounding he’s taking in the last four games, in which he’s thrown for 1,503 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“He’s a winner, a great competitor,” Andrews says.

Two years ago, the Seminoles and Gators were involved in their first rematch at the Sugar Bowl after they had tied 31-31 in the final game of the 1994 season. A national title was not at stake in that game, which was billed “The Fifth Quarter” or “Overtime.”

Although Wuerffel passed for 394 yards in the 1995 Sugar Bowl, the Seminoles sacked him five times and held Florida to 59 yards rushing on their way to a 23-17 victory.

Florida squeezed in a 35-24 victory at Gainesville on its aborted national championship run in 1995 as Wuerffel riddled the Seminole secondary for 443 yards and four touchdowns despite being sacked seven times.