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HEATED RIVALRY
Fbr the first time in 31 years, Georgia and Florida are unranked before facing one another.
The increased intensity of the matchup since 2007 have both teams fighting even harder for this win.
By NICK PARKER
The Rep & Black
Aaron Murray still
remembers the call from
his tight end: the one from
Orson Charles explaining
he had just dropped
Florida’s 2008 national
championship trophy while
on a recruiting visit.
Murray, a junior in high
school at the time, was
driving from his home in
Tampa, Fla., to Gainesville,
Fla., where some team
mates and Charles were
visiting with their high
school coach for Florida’s
spring game. Just 30 min
utes before Murray arrived
in Gainesville, the Florida
coaching staff was showing
off the national champion
ship trophy to the recruits
when Charles accidentally
bumped into the table,
shattering the trophy.
“He called and was real
quiet. I was like, ‘What’s
up, Orson?’ He was like, ’I
dropped the ball.’ I was
like, ‘What are you talking
about?’ He was like, ‘I
dropped the glass ball.
’Glass ball?’” Murray said
he asked Charles. “‘I
dropped the crystal
national champion
ship trophy,’
[Charles said] then
he just hung up. I
was like, ‘Oh, no,
this is not going to
be a good trip now.
We might want to
turn around and
head back to
Tampa.’”
Charles did not
do media interviews
this week, choosing
not to rehash the
incident, but Murray
recalled a piece of
the national cham
pionship trophy still
resides at his high
school. Murray said
as Florida personnel
began to sweep up
the glass, one of his high
school coaches picked up a
piece and brought home
part of the broken trophy
to Murray and Charles’
high school.
“Orson was a little
embarrassed being from
Florida, and people give
him a hard time joking
around about it,” Murray
said. “But now that he’s up
at Georgia, I tell him to
cherish it. I’d put it on my
Facebook and Twitter that
I did that because eveiy
one in Georgia would love
you for it... it was a pretty
crazy event when it hap
pened.”
Murray and Charles’
decision on where to go to
school was down to Georgia
and Florida. But for
Charles, it was a natural
decision to follow his quar
terback to Georgia.
When Charles began his
junior year in high school,
he met Murray at a high
school seven-on-seven
tournament. He knew
immediately he wanted to
play in Plant High School’s
pass-happy offense, calling
Murray to talk about it. At
his old high school, Charles
was stuck as a tight end in
a Wing-T offense, and was
determined to move to
Plant. But Charles had
made a promise to his
coaches at Riverdale and
stuck it out for his junior
season, finishing the year
with only 13 catches and
no recruiting attention to
speak of.
Then, the spring of his
junior year he transferred
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to play with Murray, who
Charles largely credits for
the tight end getting dis
covered and eventually
gaining scholarships from
all over the country. Murray
takes a disparate view,
crediting the 75 catches
and 20 touchdowns Charles
put up in the new offense
as a senior.
“He just got put in a
better offense.to showcase
his skills,” Murray said.
“And when you put up that
kind of numbers, you’re
obviously going to get
recruited, and he pretty
much got recruited by
everyone off that.”
***
Though Charles may
have destroyed Florida’s
national championship tro
phy as a recruit, he and his
Georgia teammates have
their sights set on this sea
son and getting revenge.
The type of revenge that
could crush Florida’s
chances of winning the
SEC East and bolster the
Bulldogs' chances in the
process, which would serve
as the preferred method of
retribution for con
secutive blowouts
the last two years.
“It means a lot
to us because espe
cially in terms of
trying to have a
shot at the SEC
East, that’s the
main reason it
means a lot to us.”
linebacker Akeem
Dent said.
In a rivalry root
ed in tradition and
hatred between fan
bases. bad blood
has emerged
between the two
teams in the last
three years. In 2007,
the Georgia sideline
stormed the field to
dance and celebrate
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on the field after the
Bulldogs’ first touchdown,
rubbing Urban Meyer the
wrong way in an act he said
he’d never forget.
In 2008, Meyer remem
bered, returning the favor
with two rub-salt-in-the
wound timeouts late in a
blowout Gator win. Then,
the rivalry got downright
chippy in 2009 when
Brandon Spikes was caught
gouging the eyes of
Washaun Ealey. Senior
defensive end Demarcus
Dobbs didn’t dispute the
fact that there’s no love
lost.
“I will remember that
always,” Dobbs said of the
Ealey incident. “I’m always
motivated to play Florida.
Whatever happened in the
past, Florida’s always been
my biggest rivalry and even
when I wasn't here at
Georgia, I still didn’t like
Florida. They have the way
they do things, and those
timeouts, that’s always in
the back of our heads. But
Florida, itself, despite the
timeouts or anything,
there’s a lot of animosity
towards them.”
But that’s not the mem
ory that remains freshest
in Dobbs' mind of last
year’s 41-17 loss.
“I remember some of the
guys spitting in my face,"
Dobbs said. “I don’t forget
stuff like that. And you
can’t really fight back or do
anything to get you a pen
alty but if you go out there
and win, you can look at
the scoreboard. I’m pretty
sure they don’t have nice
FIRST & GOAL
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AT A GLANCE
• Though Georgia has won just three of
the last 20 games against Florida from
1990 to 2009, the Bulldogs went 15-5
against the Gators from 1970 to 1989.
• Georgia has scored 20 or mere points
against the Gators just three times
since 2000 while Florida has scored at
least 20 points in eight of the last 10
games.
• The Bulldogs’ roster boasts 13 players
from Florida while the Gators’ roster
has 10 Georgia boys on its roster.
• On a recruiting trip to Florida in high
school, Georgia tight end Orson Charles
bumped into the table that had the
Gators’ 2008 national championship
trophy on it, The trophy then tumbled to
the ground and shattered.
things to say about us in
their locker room, either,
and it's just been a heated
rivalry up in here. And it’s
been back and forth,
they’re Florida, we’re
Georgia, and that's pretty
much all I have to say
about that.”
• •••
Georgia and Florida
both recruit each other’s
state heavily, and the
majority of the players on
the field had their choice
between offers from both
schools as a recruit. Some
stayed in state for their
respective school, others
left the state to play for the
hated rival. Georgia cor
nerback Owens grew up in
Jacksonville, Fla., and as a
boy looked forward to the
excitement the World’s
Largest Outdoor Cocktail
Party brought to the city.
“They always have the
Florida-Georgia game and
everyone gets all riled up.
People come early in the
week. They probably got
there yesterday or Monday
setting up. Jacksonville,
it’ll be loud,” Owens said.
“That’s one of the best
events, when the Georgia-
Florida game comes to
town.”
Owens' excitement to
find himself in the middle
of it all, as a player, not a
fan on the outside Just try
ing to get in the stadium is
hard to contain. Owens
said he had always sat at
home, watching and dream-
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FILE PHOTOS i TANARUS Reo a Black
The last three matchup* between Georgia and Florida have been more
heated than previous years, starting with the entire Bulldog sideline
rushing to the end zone to celebrate after their first touchdown in 2007
(top). To return the favor, Urban Meyer called two timeouts in the final
seconds of the Gators’ 2008 win over Georgia (middle). And
former linebacker Brandon Spikes (51, above) gouged Georgia running
back Washaun Ealey’s eyes in last year’s matchup.
ing of one day playing in
the rivalry that brought life
to his city for a week. He
saw the tailgaters and saw
the passion the two teams
played his favorite game
with. But still, for his first
17 years, Owens hadn’t got
ten to attend the game
until last year when he was
able to get in because he
706-542-3243
de.advisor@9eorgiacenter.uga.edu
, The University of Georgia
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YOUR SCHEDULE 1197 South Lumpkin Street * Athens, Georgia 30602-3603
The Red a Black | Thursday, October 28, 2010
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was a recruit.
“Now that I’m going to
be inside playing, it makes
me feel great,” Owens said.
“I think more about how
when I was outside the
game thinking. ‘Man, I wish
I could be in the stadium
watching.’ Everyone has
their dream, and it’s like a
dream come true that I’d
be playing inside the stadi
um in this Oeorgia-Florida
game.”
Georgia can just hope
their team dreams of an
SEC East title are alive
after Saturday because
just as it should be, one
team's SEC East title
hopes will be dashed with
a loss.
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