While they were fierce rivals in the 1990s -- and traded verbal jabs on several occasions -- there was always some level of mutual respect between Florida State's Bobby Bowden and Florida's Steve Spurrier.
And with age, the pointed barbs often turned into friendly banter.
But during a podcast interview this week, Spurrier offered up what might have been the strongest compliments he has ever uttered about Bowden and the Seminoles.
While talking with former Gainesville Sun sports editor and columnist Pat Dooley, Spurrier called it a "shame" that the FSU coaching legend only won two national championships during his 34-year tenure.
He said FSU could have won many more had either the college playoff existed, or if the Seminoles didn't play rivals Florida and Miami every year. (The Gators and Hurricanes ended their annual showdown in 1987 and have only played sporadically since then.)
"Bobby Bowden -- and all the great teams they've had there -- it really is sort of a shame he only won two nationals," Spurrier said. "Because he played us and Miami. If he had said, 'We'll play the ACC, and if you boys are good enough to get to the national championship game, we'll play you then ... they would have been in it almost every one of those years. He'd have been in the national [championship] game at least 20 times."
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Spurrier, who was a legend as a player and coach with the Gators, went on to say that Florida likely would have won more national titles during his 12-year tenure if it hadn't been for Bowden and the 'Noles. Spurrier posted a 5-8-1 record against FSU and only won the 1996 national title after winning a rematch in the Sugar Bowl.
"We won a whole bunch of SECs, but unfortunately we played FSU when they're Top 4 in the nation 13 out of 14 times," he said. "We sort of knocked each other out, and then Miami would knock FSU out a lot."
While the Seminoles and Gators both likely would have added hardware to their collections if the College Football Playoff had existed back then, Spurrier noted that UF did benefit from the structure of the short-lived Bowl Alliance, which was in effect from 1995-'97.
Because Rose Bowl tradition didn't allow Pac-12 and Big Ten champions from participating in the Alliance, which was designed to pit the nation's top two teams against each other, that prevented No. 1 FSU from taking on No. 2 Arizona State after the 1996 season.
Instead, the Sun Devils squared off against No. 4 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, where they lost. Meanwhile, FSU had to try to beat No. 3 UF for a second time in the Sugar Bowl, and the Seminoles came up well short.
So Spurrier and the Gators were crowned 1996 national champions. And looking back, he described it as a "fortunate" turn of events.
"Our year, the Sugar Bowl got the ACC champ and the SEC champ. And the Rose Bowl got the Pac-12 and the Big Ten champion," Spurrier said. "If not, Arizona State would have played FSU, and we'd have been fighting for second place. So we were very fortunate. I'm thankful and feel blessed we got one national championship out of the two chances we had."
Below is the entire "Another Dooley Noted Podcast" on YouTube. Spurrier's discussion about FSU takes place around the 31:40 mark.
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