It's not that the coaches didn't try; they tried everything. Notre Dame box, Pittsburgh power system, double wing, standard T, Most Multiple Offense, wishbone-the Gators used and discarded formation after formation before Spurrier hit upon the right formula with the Fun 'N' Gun. But the system wasn't the only problem. Raw material was often hard to come by; from the mid- '50s to the early 1970s, the state of Florida required that its high school seniors pass an entrance test to matriculate at the school, thus driving many promising recruits elsewhere. Nor did it help that many of the Gators' most inopportune implosions came against Georgia, turning "the world's largest outdoor cocktail party" into the world's longest hangover.

Indeed, the Gators' 81-year rivalry with Georgia serves as a yardstick for the Florida program: Before Spurrier took over the coaching reins, the Gators' record against Georgia was 22-43-2, the worst loss being a 75-0 Georgia rout in 1942. The Gators' emergence as a national power, which began in earnest in the 1980s, has been a fitful, sometimes agonizing process. And even when they finally did break through with their first Southeastern Conference championship in 1984, NCAA violations resulted in the title's being stripped.