Pat Dooley’s ‘Friday Fivesome’ August 27th

We bring you the last “Friday Fivesome” and hope you have enjoyed them as we head into real football games. The Back Nine will continue Mondays and we start Grading the Gators next Saturday. Can’t wait.

1.I thought we would finish up with a look at Florida’s rivalry games. It has been an interesting few decades in that Florida’s top rival has changed several times. It was Georgia, then Tennessee, then FSU and now back to Georgia. So, what do you consider a rivalry game? And which team has the most rivals in the SEC?

2. We’ll start with Alabama because every team that plays then is their rival. That’s what happens when you are sitting on top of the mountain for so long. But the real rivals are Auburn and LSU. Tennessee? Pu-lease. Georgia? Not really. It’s difficult to have a cross-division rival unless you play them every year and it turns out Alabama’s yearly opponent is in a decade-long slide. Texas A&M? Maybe, but it’s a young rivalry game.
3. LSU certainly is in the running in that the Tigers have Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M and, of course, this new rivalry with Florida. Those are a lot of games to get up for. Some will tell you out there that Ole Miss is a rivalry game and may also try to include Arkansas. But it’s only a rivalry game if people outside your state think it is.
4. Auburn may be No. 1 in rivals with Alabama, LSU, A&M and Georgia. The Georgia game is the longest running rivalry in the South but do you ever hear angry banter between the two sides? It’s the same with Georgia in that the Bulldogs have Florida and some South Carolina and Kentucky fans will tell you they are big rivals, but, meh.
5. Yeah, I think it’s the Gators and I won’t even include Tennessee as a rivalry game anymore. Georgia, FSU (barely), LSU, probably Missouri now, a touch of Alabama and the occasional fierce battle with Miami. If you count Tennessee, which is one win over Florida away from being counted as a rivalry again, it gets pretty heavy and that’s not including Kentucky fans who want to beat Florida more than once every three decades so badly it hurts. Anyway, here are my top SEC rivalry games heading into this season:

* Auburn-Alabama.

* Florida-Georgia.

* LSU-Alabama.

* Florida-LSU.

It’s just great to have them back.