Behind the Scenes: How Miami and Florida Renewed Their Rivalry
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
For the better part of five decades, it was a rivalry that helped define state bragging rights.
Beginning in 1938 and running through the mid-1980s, the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Gators met yearly, their matchup pausing only briefly in 1943 during World War II.
But in 1988, a year after the Hurricanes handed the Gators a 31-4 loss at the Orange Bowl, the regular series was shelved and in the years since, the two schools separated by a mere 340 miles have met just six times, with two of those matchups coming in bowl games.
The end of those regular matchups with Florida never really sat well with Director of Athletics Blake James, who has, for years, been vocal about Miami’s interest in renewing the series.
On Saturday, the two teams will meet for the first time since 2013 when they open the season on a national stage at Camping World Stadium in Orlando as part of the celebration for college football’s 150th anniversary.
The good news for fans of both programs? They now know when the two schools will meet again, Miami and Florida announcing Tuesday they’d agreed to a home-and-home series that will have the Hurricanes traveling to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Aug. 31, 2024 and the Gators traveling to Hard Rock Stadium on Sept. 20, 2025.
As natural a matchup as it seems, though, there were logistical hurdles that had to be cleared. That process started several months ago when Scott Stricklin, athletics director at Florida, reached out to James about the possibility of adding the Hurricanes to the Gators’ schedule.
“It’s a series I’d like to see take place on a much more regular basis and I think I’ve always been pretty vocal about that with our fan base and through the media,” James said. “Credit to Scott Stricklin, the athletic director at Florida, and Dan Mullen, their coach. I think they viewed the value of this type of arrangement and honestly, I think the call came from Scott to me on looking at putting something together.
“At that point, then it gets into just working through all the details of who’s going to go to the other place first, what year’s going to work and getting the schedules to line up that way. That’s one of the things, I think, a lot of times, gets lost for the average fan. There aren’t a lot of dates at the end of the day that will work and so, it’s a lot more challenging in many cases to get these games because your dates don’t line up or your schedule doesn’t line up.”
As James and Stricklin tried to iron out the details for the upcoming matchups, one of the things James considered was whether it made sense for the Hurricanes to potentially face both Florida and another traditional rival, Notre Dame, in the same season.
That’s now a reality for Miami in both 2024 and 2025 and it’s one James said head football coach Manny Diaz embraced immediately.
“I think Manny recognizes and takes the approach that kids want to play in big games,” James said. “That’s what this is. It’s an opportunity to play in another big game and I think we’re going to see ACC football continue to rise, which means we’re going to have more big games in-conference and that’s good for anyone that has a passion for the University of Miami football program, whether it’s the kids who put on the uniform to the guys who’ve put it on in the past, to fans who follow the program. You want to see your team be the best and to be the best, you have to beat the best. Florida’s a great program and one I’m glad we have the opportunity to get another two games with them coming up here in a few years.”
As to whether the series will be renewed beyond the 2024 and 2025 games, James said he’d be happy to see Florida on Miami’s schedule regularly. But more than anyone, he understands the challenges that go into creating schedules and matchups years in advance.
He also understands a yearly matchup may not be feasible for Florida.
But in the meantime, the Gators are back on the schedule and before the home-and-home series is played, Saturday’s game looms on the horizon. And at Miami, everyone from James to Diaz to the Hurricanes players themselves say they’re eager to see how the latest chapter in the rivalry goes.
All of them expect it will be interesting, especially given the fact the Hurricanes have won seven of the last eight matchups, that Miami holds a narrow 29-26 lead in the all-time series and that it’s Florida who enters the year as a preseason top-10 team.
“I want our guys to go out and compete and see progress from where we were to where we are today,” James said. “I want the fan base to enjoy a great game by two longtime rivals that don’t get the opportunity to get out and battle each other as much as they used to.”
Said Diaz, “Regardless of where they’re ranked, I know they’ll compete. That’s what Dan Mullen brought to Florida last year. They got better as the year went on. … We were both 5-1 at the same point in the season last year, then the years went in different directions. I want to see us compete. That’s been the whole motto of the offseason. We will find that out against them.”
