You always remember your first time and while all four of Florida’s four straight Southeastern Conference championships are unforgettable, it is that first one in 1993 that will always hold a special place in Lawrence Wright’s heart. The setting — legendary Legion Field in Birmingham — has plenty to do with it because the old stadium was filled with Alabama fans and it was rocking that night, but what made the night so special for Wright was the chance to avenge Florida’s heartbreaking loss to Alabama in the very first SEC Championship Game in 1992.
Wright took a redshirt his freshman year in 1992 so all he could do is watch helplessly late in the fourth quarter when Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham intercepted Shane Matthews’ pass and ran it in for a touchdown to give the Crimson Tide a 28-21 win. A month later, Alabama capped an undefeated season with a win over Miami in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.
“We lost to Alabama the first SEC Championship Game (1992) ever and I remember it because I didn’t play and because the way Alabama won it,” recalls Wright, Florida’s free safety the next four years and winner of the 1996 Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back. “We were driving for the touchdown to win the game when they got that interception … we remembered that play for a year.”
A year later the Gators were back in the SEC Championship Game and so was Alabama. Injuries helped derail Alabama’s run at a second straight national championship but at 8-2-1, the Crimson Tide was still formidable and they had one of the most dangerous and versatile offensive weapons in the country in do-it-all David Palmer.
The Gators came into the game 9-2 and on the heels of a 33-21 loss to eventual national champion Florida State. “They took that game from us,” Wright said. “They got that touchdown (Charlie Ward to Warrick Dunn) and the referee missed the call. It was a clip [that sprung Dunn for the touchdown] and it was right in front of him. They would have had to punt and I know we would have gone into score.”
A week later, the Florida State loss was a thing of the past and the Gators were back in Birmingham on a cold, rainy night. Legion Field was once again jam-packed with Bama fans — “It was the SEC Championship Game but it was a home game for them,” Wright said — who thought winning the SEC championship was their birthright.
It was a decidedly pro-Alabama crowd but that only motivated the Gators.
“Coach (Steve) Spurrier kind of made it an us against the world thing,” Wright said. “There was Alabama with all those championships in the past and all those fans and Coach Spurrier made it seem like our backs were against the wall.”
The offensive game plan was the same as always for the Gators under Spurrier — throw the ball all over the yard early and then run the ball to kill clock in the second half. Defensively, the game plan centered around Palmer, who played running back, wide receiver and quarterback in the game in addition to running back kicks.
Stopping Palmer was the key to the game.
“We had a really good game plan for Palmer,” Wright said. “We kept him contained the whole game and never let him beat us with big plays. If he couldn’t make plays, they couldn’t move the ball very well.”
Florida won that game, 28-13, and it set off an unprecedented run of four straight SEC Championships. The Gators played in the national championship game in 1995 where they lost to Nebraska, but they came back to win it in 1996 when they got a rematch with Florida State. The week before the Gators beat Alabama to win the SEC for the third time in four years, FSU beat the Gators 21-17 in Tallahassee, their only loss of the season.
“They [Florida State] sanded the field,” Wright said. “They did that to slow us down. You can’t believe how much sand and dirt was on the field. We had a lot of injuries on our offensive line — I think Donnie (Young) is the only starter who was healthy — and we had some injuries on defense, too, because Tim Beauchamp had to play nose tackle and he was a defensive end. We knew if we got a chance to play them again, we’d win and win it pretty big. We felt like even with all our injuries that we should have beaten them pretty good in Tallahassee.”
The Gators bounced back from that loss to beat Alabama once again in the SEC Championship Game behind six touchdown passes from Wuerffel. To get into the national championship game, however, they needed some help.
“Everybody figured Nebraska was going to play for its third straight national championship but I kept telling people all week you better watch out for Texas,” Wright said. “I just knew in my heart that Texas was going to beat Nebraska.”
Texas fulfilled Wright’s prophecy by beating Nebraska 37-27 and that set up the Florida-Florida State rematch in the Sugar Bowl. The Gators still needed a little bit of help to make this a winner-take-all game. The Seminoles were unbeaten and ranked number one but Arizona State was also unbeaten and ranked second.
Again, Wright called the shot.
“I knew Ohio State would beat Arizona State in the Rose Bowl,” Wright said. “I told people it was going to happen and I said this would open the door for us to win the national championship.”
When Ohio State upset Arizona State, 20-17, in the Rose Bowl, that turned the Sugar Bowl into the national championship game and this time the Gators were healthy. Unlike the first encounter, there was no sand or dirt on the field, either.
“This one was under the dome (Super Dome) and on turf so there was nothing they could do to slow us down,” Wright said. “We really beat them bad (52-20). If we had been healthy, that’s the way we would have beaten them in Tallahassee and they knew it.”
That gave the Gators their first national championship and it was a fitting way for Wright to end his Florida football career — four straight SEC Championships topped off by a national championship.
“Think about this for a minute,” Wright said. “Nobody ever won four in a row, not even Bear Bryant. But we did it. We won four in a row. I like to think that we were the ones that built the foundation for what’s happening today. It all started with those four in a row.”
But the four in a row began with that first win in Birmingham, where Wright remembers the shock on the faces of Alabama fans who couldn’t believe the Crimson Tide lost in a championship game to the Florida Gators. Even though Alabama hasn’t won a national championship since 1992 nor has it won an SEC title since 1999, Crimson Tide fans tend to believe that 21 previous SEC championships and 11 recognized national championships give them a sense of entitlement.
“They’re Alabama,” Wright said. “They’ve conditioned themselves to think they belong in the championship game. Well, I was there when we beat them to start a run of four straight. They’ve never done that. Steve Spurrier did it and I think Urban Meyer is going to do it but you’ll never convince them that they aren’t better than Florida.”
Florida and Alabama will be going at it for the seventh time in the 18-year history of the SEC Championship Game Saturday. Alabama has won twice previously while the Gators have won four including last year’s 31-20 win that propelled them into the national championship game. Wright will be in Atlanta and he plans to be on the sideline again, just like he was last year when he was a very vocal presence.
“These veins bleed orange and blue blood,” Wright said. “I love it that we’re winning championships and we’re going to be winning them for a long time because the foundation that we set when we won those four SEC championships and got our first national championship. If the Gators are playing for a championship, this Gator will be there. I was part of the first one and as long as I live, I’ll be there for the next one.”