Florida still miffed over Georgia celebration

HOOVER, Ala. - Forget about Florida and Georgia not thinking about each other until late October, the smack-talking has already begun.

Apparently the bitterness over Georgia's end zone celebration after their first touchdown in last year's win over Florida is still lingering. Well, Florida's bitterness lingers.

Florida coach Urban Meyer was quoted on Thursday as saying he's still angry about the Bulldogs' rushing onto the field in a mass team celebration after scoring the first touchdown last season. He's also quoted in a new book as saying he'll handle it when the teams meet this season.

On Thursday, Georgia coach Mark Richt again tried to explain that what happened was not a planned celebration, and that the players misunderstood what he meant by a team celebration. He said it was not a deliberate shot at Florida, and that he called Urban Meyer the following day to explain and apologize.

But when told that Meyer was quoted in a book still fuming about the incident, and asked if the incident had intensified the rivalry, Richt fired back.

"I don't think there's any doubt it's intensified the rivarly, but what really intensified the rivalry is that we won, okay? I mean that's the reality. People want to talk about streaks in that game. The way I see it, we won last year. We won two out of the last four. And if you want to start going back to history, you might as well go back to the beginning of the history of the series and see where Georgia is there.'' (Georgia leads the overall series).

As for the Nov. 1 game, the Bulldogs expect Florida to have something up their sleeves. Their attitude? Bring it. "We know they are going to be gunning for us after the celebration last year, which we did not plan,'' senior Jeff Owens said. "It wasn't planned. But we know they are going to have something coming up for that game. But that's why you play 60 minute football.''

Comments

[Brent]

God what a cry baby... get over it the gaytors got worked in that game, let it go.

This is like all the whining about the LSU players stomping on the Florida "F" a few years back, completely ignoring that in every Gator win in Baton Rouge prior, the Gators did their little tribal dance all over the Tiger eye.

What crybabies.

[Paul]

Geez - I thought Steve Spurrier was gone. I guess its just a uf tradition to cry about things in the past. How can Urban Meyer take a missionary trip and do good work, yet still be so arrogant, ill-tempered and unforgiving?

Yeesh! All these attacks on Meyer and the Gators(Gaytors?) as "crybabies."

Meyer is confident and I'm sure the lost stings. I'm also sure he'll get over it.

These events are what makes these games, and college football in general, so fun to fun and cheer for.

These prior comments look like LSU and Georgia fans taking cheap shots. It's fun fellas! Enjoy it.

Oh, and take your whoopin!

[dogg-o]

whatever man! maybe both of these teams can teach the bucs a thing or two about performance.

Buch of whining princesses....LOL....We need Phil Gram to esplain dis at the next graduation ceremony. you know about how the economy is ok, foreclosures don't really affect the country and how the University of Florida can't afford to make more mistakes.

if only Tebow, greatest player of our era, wasn't sore, if only uga hadn't illegally celebrated, if only we could cover against the long pass..... if only all that we could have beat the team that Appy State beat

[Rob]

First of all, Antonya, as someone whose assignment is to cover UF athletics, you should know when the game is. It's not in late October, it's on NOVEMBER 1st.

Secondly, to all those whose mindset is stuck in middle school, calling us Gaytors is as lame as any "your mom" joke you can think of. Tell us to grow up? Take your own advice.

[Jim Love]

Coach Meyer should have been much more upset with his team's performance than watching UGA dance on the field. If he and the Gators thought that what UGA did was classless, well, ok then. The best way to handle something like that was to shrug their shoulders, get back out on the field, and play football. Other than Tim Tebow, UF failed to do that.

[Maugwa]

UFag is nothing but a bunch of crybabies. You got your arses handed to you in 2007. With the return of a lesser UFag defense, UGA will be making them their beiotch once again.