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The 2000 Florida Gators season ended with a thump. Even though the Orange and Blue had won the SEC Championship four weeks earlier by beating Auburn for a second time that season. The Gators faced Miami in the Sugar Bowl on January 2, 2001. It would be Florida's seventh game against a ranked opponent and the Canes won easily 37-20. Miami finished second in the final polls and it would the last game Butch Davis would coach at the school as he moved on take the job with the Cleveland Browns. Florida finished 10-3 that season but the feeling was a talented team was coming back in 2001.
For Steve Spurrier, there was a growing feeling that winning another SEC title was no longer as special to Gator Nation. Been there and done that before for fans. It was about winning the national championship and anything less was starting to feel like a disappointment. The 2001 season would be Spurrier's 12th in Gainesville. In seven of the nine years prior, a Spurrier coached team won the SEC East division and played in the conference championship game and won the trophy six times.
Spurrier's 2001 team featured Rex Grossman at quarterback with Jabar Gaffney, Reche Caldwell and Taylor Jacobs at receiver. The defense was led by all-American Alex Brown and expectations were high. Florida was the pre-season number one in both polls with the Larry Coker led Miami Hurricanes ranked second and FSU was 5th and 6th.
The Gators offense was on a roll early and scoring often. Grossman, who would go on to throw for 4,144 yards and 38 touchdowns, led Florida to five straight blowouts outscoring opponents 244-45. Despite their opening game rout of Marshall, 49-14, the Gators dropped to second in the AP Poll because Miami crushed Penn State on the road in primetime 33-7.
They would win their second game crushing Louisiana-Monroe 55-6 which then set up the annual September showdown with Tennessee, who was ranked 8th. Then the college football season and the country came to a halt. The 9-11 terrorist attacks stopped the sports world. Games that weekend were postponed and the game with the Vols was moved to the first Saturday in December with the SEC title game moved a week back.
When the season resumed, Spurrier's team crushed Kentucky and Mississippi State and Florida reclaimed the top spot after their fifth win of the year, the 44-15 victory at LSU where Grossman tossed four first-half touchdowns. They held that top spot for one week.
At 5-0 and a 21-point favorite, the Gators went to Auburn and lost to Tommy Tuberville's Tigers. Grossman tossed four interceptions and the Gators rushed for negative yards. Auburn's Damon Duval hit a 44-yard field goal with 10-seconds left and Florida fell 23-20. The loss gutted Spurrier. He knew Florida was the better team and his offense let them down. Grossman was pressured all game and they couldn't run the ball. The quest for an undefeated season was gone.
But leave it to Spurrier to get his team ready for a rivalry game. Beating Georgia mattered to Spurrier more than beating Florida State. The Gators bounced back and beat the Bulldogs. Despite four turnovers and 12 penalties, Grossman passed for more than 400 yards and the Florida defense stopped the Georgia offense three times on fourth down.
Florida went on to beat Vandy and South Carolina and entered the FSU game as the second ranked team in the country at 9-1 behind the unbeaten Hurricanes. With a chance to be in the national championship race, Spurrier's team had to beat FSU and then beat Tennessee the following week.
In primetime on CBS, the Gators cruised to a 37-13 win but it was a damaging win. Gators' running back Ernest Graham and Spurrier accused FSU defensive lineman Darnell Dockett of deliberately twisting Graham's knee. The injury sidelined Graham for the Tennessee game the following week.
The Gators came in number two and Tennessee was sixth. The winner would get LSU in the SEC Championship game the following week. If Florida could beat Tennessee and LSU a date with Miami in the Rose Bowl would be for the national title. And that was the talk of the game and focus of the media and fans- winning the national title. Florida was a 17.5 favorite in the game but Vols' running back Travis Stephens ran for 226 and Tennessee won for the first time in 30 years in Gainesville and beat the Gators 34-32. Rex Grossman threw 52 times in the game but an attempted pass on a two-point conversion with just over a minute left was incomplete.
The loss hit Spurrier hard. He knew what was at stake. There was no national title and no trip to the SEC Championship game and suddenly there was a growing contingent of Florida fans critical of the team for failing to get to the national title game. Florida's legend was wondering how it became secondary to play for and win a conference title and winning 10 games was no longer a big deal.
When the 2000 season ended, Spurrier thought it might be his last at Florida. Daniel Snyder pursued Spurrier to be the coach of his NFL team in Washington. After that bowl loss to the Canes, he almost took the job but ultimately decided to stay in Gainesville believing he had a team that could win it all. Snyder fired Norv Turner and hired veteran Marty Schottenheimer.
After that Tennessee loss, the Gators had a month before an Orange Bowl game against Maryland and one can only wonder what went through Spurrier's mind when Daniel Synder reached back out to gauge his interest when owner and Schottenheimer battled over final say on player-related decisions. With three years left and $7.5M owed, Snyder fired Schottenheimer and turned his attention back on Spurrier.
The Gators had blown out Maryland in the bowl game 56-23 and it became the final game Spurrier would coach for the Gators.
On Sunday January 13, 2002 Snyder fired Schottenheimer and by Tuesday January 15th Spurrier was introduced as the new coach. The childhood team Spurrier rooted was now his team to coach. Snyder paid him the biggest salary ever for an NFL coach. Spurrier agreed to a five-year deal for just under $25M. After 12 seasons and 122 wins at Florida, Spurrier was gone to the NFL. And the greatest era of Florida football was over.
No one knows what would have been if Schottenheimer went 10-6 instead of 8-8 in Washington that season. What if Florida beat Tennessee and got that game with Miami. Instead the Canes beat Nebraska for the national title.
Spurrier didn't last long in Washington, two seasons and went 12-20. He returned to the college game at South Carolina and spent 11 seasons in Columbia and took the Gamecocks to levels they had not been.
These days Spurrier is back in Gainesville where he belongs as an ambassador of sorts for the Gators. Steve Spurrier is and will always be Florida football...20 years after his final season.
Final thought: Spurrier's deal in Washington was not supposed to be the largest total deal for a head coach for long. The Bucs had fired Tony Dungy and were set to hire Bill Parcells and pay him the most money ever for a coach. He backed out and Tampa traded for Jon Gruden...who went on to win the Super Bowl in 2002.