GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Florida is set to renew its rivalry with Florida State next weekend. The Gators, Noles rivalry has taken a few turns in the last few years.
Last season, Florida snapped a five-game losing streak to the Seminoles, and this season will look to end a home losing streak to the Noles that spans a decade.
Two years ago, it was the Gators that entered the rivalry game in chaos and with an interim head coach, this time it's Florida State's turn to enter the game in upheaval.
"That’s their problem. Not mine," Florida offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator John Hevesy said. "I mean I feel bad in the sense of the personal part of the coaches’ lives and stuff like that. But to me, ultimately everyone’s got a job to do to win the game and then hope the best for all of them."
The Noles are coming into the game as a 6-5 ACC team with interim coach Odell Haggins leading the side.
Dan Mullen and company will need to deal with a team that could show a different personality under Haggins.
"I know as a head coach I have a lot of saying of what’s going on in the program," said Mullen on Wednesday. "You go through a whole year and they have a new guy that has some of that say. They could be a little bit different on offense, could be a little big different on defense because it’s a little bit different personality with the interim head coach.
"Those are always the challenges to adjust to how they are going to be different than how they’ve been the rest of the season."
The Gators do have plenty of film to look at when it comes to Haggin's coaching. Not only has he coached the Noles the last two games, but he also served as the interim coach for two games after Jimbo Fisher's resignation in 2017.
"You’re kind of looking and seeing at how different they are the last couple weeks from what they were prior to that," said Mullen.
"I think you still have to look at the plays," defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. "They’ve had a couple of games that were a free rein from a standpoint of, hey the interim head coach is here and they have played a couple of games since then, so you guys are going to have that. So you’re going to kind of look through games to see what’s there.
"We already have a little bit of a history as far as going back preseason to maybe things they like or he likes to make sure we understand the system and what he likes to do. So we’ll just kind of put it all together. At the end of the day, it’s about getting lined up, beating blocks and setting edges and rushing passers and covering guys, and that’s what we got to do."
Florida has already secured a win over one in-state rival this season, beating Miami in the opening game of the year. But they will look to make a statement by beating that 'school out west' and finishing 2-0 against their main in-state rivals.
"I think it’s everything. It’s in state, it’s up the road," Hevesy said. "It’s recruiting. These kids have all played each other. Some of them in high school or some way, teammates with one another at different schools. It’s bragging rights, like opening the season with Miami. We open that one, won that one.
"To me it’s all about in-state and it starts with that. You’re winning that game to have the bragging rights in the state for a year."
"We could just leave no doubt that we're one of the best teams in Florida, well, the best team in Florida," added running back Lamical Perine. "Us beating Miami and Florida State in the same year, there should be nothing else to talk about so that'd be nice."
