The 2022 Orange and Blue Game has been rescheduled for Thursday, April 14 at 7:30. It had previously been scheduled for the following Saturday afternoon.
Admission will be free, and the game will be streamed on SEC Network+. Further gameday information will be announced later.
The rescheduling will allow the game to be held before some of the students leave town for Easter that weekend. It will also give them a standalone television window to showcase Billy Napier’s program instead of competing against other marquee programs for attention that Saturday.
“This is going to create an opportunity for us to engage the student body for the first time,” Napier said in a statement. “We are going to be able to get them here prior to Easter break. We’re going to have some of the best recruits in the entire country here to show them what the University of Florida and Gator Nation are all about.
“Again, this is a personal invitation for you guys to join us. We look forward to the challenges and the opportunities that are ahead of us. Thanks again and go Gators.”
This will be the first spring game that the Gators have held since 2019. All of 2020 spring practice was canceled due to COVID-19, and the 2020 game was canceled due to the Swamp being used as a testing and vaccination site.
This will be the first spring game at night since the 2016 and 2017 editions were both held on Friday evenings. Perhaps not coincidentally, UF’s head coach in both of those years was Jim McElwain, who Napier worked with and for at Alabama and Colorado State and remains good friends with.