Auburn and Florida renew a deep rivalry with first-year coaches on both sidelines
Against the backdrop of an SEC Saturday that has most attention fixed on Oxford, Mississippi, where top-ten Ole Miss and LSU meet with College Football Playoff aspirations and the added theater of Lane Kiffin returning to Vaught…
Key takeaways
- Auburn and Florida open their SEC schedules Saturday night in a rivalry spanning 84 meetings dating back to 1912.
- The game marks the first SEC contest for both first-year head coaches, Auburn's Alex Golesh and Florida's Jon Sumrall.
- The all-time series stands at Auburn 43, Florida 39, with two draws, though Florida holds a 12-6 edge since Steve Spurrier arrived in 1990.
- Jon Sumrall was reportedly Auburn's top choice in its head coach search last November before he took the Florida job.
- Neither Auburn nor Florida enters the game ranked in the top 25.
Against the backdrop of an SEC Saturday that has most attention fixed on Oxford, Mississippi, where top-ten Ole Miss and LSU meet with College Football Playoff aspirations and the added theater of Lane Kiffin returning to Vaught Hemingway Stadium for the first time as new LSU head coach, a second game carries its own weight. Auburn and Florida open their conference schedules Saturday night in a rivalry spanning 84 meetings back to 1912, and the two fanbases have made this one of the sharper weeks for college football on social media.
The all-time series stands at Auburn 43, Florida 39, with two draws. Since Steve Spurrier arrived in Gainesville in 1990, that balance has shifted: Florida holds a 12-6 record in the matchup over that stretch. The history cuts in both directions. In 1994, Auburn entered Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as 17.5-point underdogs and handed the top-ranked Gators their only regular-season loss of the year. In 2006, Auburn beat a second-ranked Florida team that still won the national championship. The year after, a 2-2 Auburn squad upset a top-five Florida side in Gainesville and gave then-head coach Urban Meyer his first home loss.
First-year coaches, opening conference pressure
Saturday night is the first SEC game for Auburn head coach Alex Golesh and for Florida head coach Jon Sumrall. The off-field narrative runs deeper: Sumrall was, by all accounts, Auburn's top choice in their head coach search last November before he accepted the Florida position. Neither program enters ranked in the top 25. The winner takes an early conference step forward. The loser, having failed to beat a program at a comparable stage of transition, will face a different kind of early scrutiny.
The on-field tension runs through Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner against Auburn defensive coordinator DJ Durkin, and Florida running back Jadan Baugh against Auburn linebackers Elijah Melendez and Xavier Atkins. That is the football read. The social media read suggests both fanbases are settling scores that predate the current coaching rosters by several decades.
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