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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 7, 2002
Miami-Florida was a great rivalry. Florida took it away. I blame them for that. It was a big game, a nationally televised game. So they were taking away our publicity. We didn't like that at all.
After we beat them two in a row, three out of four, they were talking about never winning a national championship and how they had to cut back some of the tough games.
Who did they cut back on? Just Miami. I don't know what to call the Gators for doing that -- except scared. They were definitely scared of us and tired of the whuppings.
Well, they're going to get another one.
It hurt us when Florida dumped us. When we knew we were playing them for the last time we told ourselves, "Man, we are going to kill them." And we did. Beat them bad!
But it's hard for me to keep hating the Gators the way I did when I was at Miami. I was drafted by the Cowboys in 1988 and Emmitt Smith came in from Florida two years later and we started hanging around together and became real close. We talked about how we'd been such enemies and now here we were together.
When I was playing the Gators, they had Adrian White and Jarvis Williams and all, and those guys would come down in the offseason and we'd all hang out together.
So many of the guys knew each other. We all went to school in Florida. Those were the guys you'd brag about. All you wanted to do was compete against each other. We'd spend the offseason looking at the schedule and telling each other, "You're dead. We're going to kill you all." It was like part of our training.
It was better beating Florida than beating Florida State. That's why they stopped playing us. We kept beating them. They were just trying to figure out a way to be ranked No. 1 or No. 2 and they knew the only way that was going to happen was if they stopped playing the Hurricanes. I can understand that.
Of the two teams, Miami's got the better football program. By far.
First of all, we just won the national championship. When was the last time Florida did it? Six years ago. How many national championships have we won? Five. How many for Florida? One. Even Florida State has two.
Second, Miami's got the better team this year. Florida's got a new coach. The players are unsure where they're going, what they'll be accomplishing this year, and they haven't played Miami in a long time, so the only speed they're used to is probably Florida State.
Miami's got better talent and the players are more comfortable with their head coach.
Trust me, the Gators are afraid about this game. I guarantee you they're afraid. They know they took Miami off the schedule and they know the reason they took Miami off the schedule. Now they need Miami to be considered big boys again.
I wouldn't have minded scheduling them the first game of the season. So it's our second one. We'll just beat them and get them out of the way right now.
-- Former Miami wide receiver Michael Irvin, 36, set a Miami career record for touchdown receptions (26) in three years as a starter (1985-87). He was the Dallas Cowboys No. 1 pick (11th overall) in the 1988 NFL draft and in 12 pro seasons set team career receiving records for catches (750), yards (15,166) and touchdowns (65). He is a co-host of The Best Damned Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Net. He shared his thoughts on the rivalry with the Times' Bruce Lowitt.