GIVE ‘EM HELL, PELL – PART X:
Big time moments followed by big time disappointments

 

Another record crowd—73,532 people—was on hand to see the Gators take on sensational freshman running back Bo Jackson and the No. 19 Auburn Tigers, who were 6-1 at the time. Florida had yet to climb back into the rankings after two straight losses to start the month.

The opening period failed to produce a single score, and the Florida defense held the Tigers to only two first downs until their final possession of the first half. UF kicked off the scoring in the second quarter.

Gators fullback James Jones ran it in from the 9-yard line to cap a nine-play, 62-yard drive to put Florida up 7-0. Later in the quarter, the UF offense was forced to settle for a field goal after the defense recovered a fumble on the Auburn 15-yard line. In the final two minutes of the first half, the Florida defense accumulated 30 yards’ worth in penalties to assist on an eight-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Randy Campbell to wide receiver Mike Edwards.

HALFTIME: FLORIDA 10, AUBURN 7

Auburn forced Florida to punt on their first possession after the break, and running back Lionel James ended up returning the kick 63 yards. Fellow running back Bo Jackson, who finished the day with 30 yards rushing on 10 carries, scored on a run from 7 yards out to put the Tigers up 14-10.

By the early fourth quarter, Auburn still maintained a four-point lead after the teams traded field goals, but the score was now 17-13. Florida then put together a drive that went deep into Auburn territory, but the Gators were forced to settle for a 31-yard field goal, Gainey’s third of the game, to cut the lead to 17-16 with 2:51 remaining.

Now we’ll turn to longtime Florida Sports Information Director Norm Carlson:

It set up one of the most dramatic finishes in Gator history.

Florida elected to attempt an onside kick on the kickoff. Auburn had their top receivers up to catch the ball, including James, their star runner/kick returner who later played in the NFL for years with the San Diego Chargers.

The kickoff went to James, who was bumped by the Gators’ Jimbo Pratt, and the ball appeared to come loose. After the scramble, it was awarded to Florida’s Leon Pennington at the Auburn 45-yard line.

Pennington thought he had it. James thought he had it, but ‘the call could have gone either way, I guess.’

“I felt I had possession the whole time,” James said in the locker room. “But it’s hard to tell what goes on in a situation like that. I could feel someone trying to strip me of the ball as I was going down, but I felt I had the ball. It could’ve gone the other way.”

Auburn head coach Pat Dye wasn’t happy with the call but refused to give it much of a role in the loss: “I’ll take my chances on having to recover an onside kick to win every day of the week. That’s all we had to do and didn’t do it.”

The Gators took their new lease on life and marched into field goal range behind strong running from Jones, who finished with 107 yards on 16 carries, and running back John L. Williams, who racked up 42 yards on 16 carries. Gainey headed out onto the field for the 42-yard attempt with only one second remaining in the game.

“Coach Pell told me on the sideline to just stay in my groove and kick it,” said Gainey. “And if they call a timeout, he said to come over and talk about fishing.”

Auburn called the timeout, and Gainey made his way over to kicking coach Bobby Joe Green. “We talked about frog-gigging,” Gainey said. “I told him I wanted to go do some after the game.”

When play resumed, Gainey smoothly drilled his fourth field goal of the day, and the Gators escaped with a miraculous 19-17 victory. “It was close, but I knew it was good,” said Gainey. “It’s like a golfer hitting a ball. I knew I had hit it the way I wanted to. It wouldn’t have mattered if it would have been from 55 yards.”

The Gators won by the exact method in which they had lost to Auburn in 1981: a last-second field goal. “I held on Brian’s attempt in 1981, and there was no question it was good,” Gainey said of Clark’s last-second miss. “He got a raw deal. We talked about it the week of the ’82 Auburn game, and I told him if I got a chance to kick one, it would be dedicated to him.”

“It turned out just as we thought it would, coming down to one or two plays,” Pell said. “That was just an old-fashioned knock-down, drag-out Southeastern Conference football game.

“I’m extremely proud of the courage our team displayed today. They could have folded or could have been weak, but they just kept coming.”

Florida improved to 6-2 overall and 2-2 in SEC play. The Gators, out of the hunt for their first SEC title, aimed to play spoiler against the 8-0 No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs the following week in Jacksonville.

“I feel that right now we’re a better team than any time since I’ve been here,” said quarterback Wayne Peace. “We had to win today to be in the bowl picture, and we had to beat a good team to do it. This is a really big boost for us.”

Part of me regrets using the Hank Hill sighing montage for the Vandy game.

37 carries. 238 yards in 1980. 1 TD.
47 carries. 192 yards in 1981. 4 TDs.

1982 wasn’t much better. 35 carries. 220 yards. 3 TDs.

The No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs, winners of 31 of their last 33 games, entered the game leading the SEC. No team had stayed within a single score of the Dawgs’ 17-14 victory against BYU in game two. Junior running back Herschel Walker was on his way to the 1982 Heisman Trophy and would have one least opportunity to be the bane of Charley Pell’s existence.

Quarterback John Lastinger served as the new mode of transportation for the football between the center exchange and Walker’s arms.

Pell had yet to beat Vince Dooley, and after two close calls in 1980 and 1981, Florida brought its most talented group to “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.” The Gator Bowl had also just completed an expansion project that bumped the seating capacity to over 80,000, making the Florida-Georgia crowd the largest to witness a football game in the state of Florida.

Florida intercepted a Lastinger pass on the first drive, but Wayne Peace fumbled, and the Dawgs recovered inside of the UF 40-yard line. Walker got around the right edge to take the ball down to the UF 30-yard line. On the next play, he made anyone who tried to tackle him look silly on his way to his longest touchdown run of the season up to that point.

Georgia 7, Florida 0.

In the second quarter, Walker leapt over the pile and into the end zone with 12:43 left in the second quarter.

Georgia 14, Florida 0.

The Gators offense then pieced together one of its best drives of the game. Facing a 4th & Goal from the UGA 1-yard line, running back Lorenzo Hampton ran into a lot of traffic and ended up about a foot short of the goal line. Marshall and the defense did their part and forced UGA into a three-and-out, but Wayne Peace threw his second interception of the day on an errant deep ball that ended up in the hands of Georgia defensive back Jeff Sanchez.

Walker and a stifling Bulldogs defense kept up the pace for the rest of the half and took a 17-0 lead.

November 6, 1982, has to be one of the greatest days in Georgia football history.

After halftime, UGA picked up where it left off. Walker plunged into the end zone from 1 yard out, and Kevin Butler tacked on a field goal to run the Georgia lead to 24-0. Dooley benched Walker with six minutes left in third quarter with the game well in hand. In addition, the No. 3 Bulldogs received in-stadium news that No. 2 Alabama fell to LSU and No. 1 Pittsburgh lost 31-16 to unranked Notre Dame.

Peace finished the game a 10-19 passing record with 102 yards and two interceptions. No Florida receiver caught more than two passes. Jones led the way on the ground with 12 carries for 59 yards.

You read that correctly: 78 carries for Georgia. Walker handled nearly half of the carries, and the next closest back carried the ball 10 times.

44-0.

It’s a head scratcher. Charley Pell’s teams were certainly capable of playing with any team in the country, but there wasn’t much consistency. Another year. Another Georgia conundrum.

Charley Pell opened his weekly show by telling host David Steele, “I don’t think this game of football was designed to be played in cold weather.” He seemed nearly at a loss for words, then said, “People who voluntarily play in cold weather, I wonder about them sometimes.”

Well, it wasn’t quite the fabled Snow Bowl, but the temperatures were quite cold for an Alabama-born coach leading a team from the Sunshine State.

The talk quickly shifted to full-on Charley Pell sales mode:

The victory yesterday was important to the team and to the players. [It was] probably the most important victory we’ve seen simply because they had to pick themselves up after a setback.

They were down, as they should be, and they were hurt just as deeply as anybody, probably more than anybody by twofold, but they did pick themselves up. They had a great week of preparation, and they won. As I said, the victory was probably more significant.

I know their families, their mamas and daddies, were proud of them as we are for the way they played and the way they won. We had everything stacked against us. We had the climate against us, away from home, our record has been atrocious. We just haven’t played well away from home—when we get away from our home fans and that home stadium—but yesterday the team won, and I can’t be more proud of any one player over the others.

FIRST QUARTER

Kentucky returned the opening kick along the left sideline before being brought down at midfield. But it didn’t matter. The defense shutdown the Wildcats and forced a three-and-out.

The Gators returned the favor, and the Cats were set up around midfield again when the defense intercepted an errant throw down the middle.

Charley Pell narration highlight: “Oh, big play by I.C., Ivory Curry, the defensive cornerback coming up with a big interception.”

A few possessions later, the Gators faced a 2nd & 12 from their own 49-yard line. Peace ran a play action, rolled right and rifled a pass along the numbers 20 yards downfield to tight end Mike Mularkey. He took two steps upfield before a Kentucky defender planted a helmet into the ball, sending it skyward. Before Mularkey realized it, blue shirts swarmed the ball, and Florida had turned it over.

Charley Pell narration highlight: “Wayne Peace on the rollout. And we had a good catch there and, dadgumit, we coughed it up.”

The fumble wouldn’t matter much. On the next series, Kentucky bobbled a toss play, and the Gators recovered where they lost possession. Florida couldn’t take full advantage of their field position and settled for a 36-yard field goal from kicker Jim Gainey to take a 3-0 lead.

Charley Pell narration highlight: “That wasn’t a pretty field goal, but the weath—I don’t know what it was. Jim felt like he was hitting the ball well, but the pretty thing of it is it counted three points. It doesn’t have to look pretty as long as it goes through those uprights and we get it off in 1.2 seconds or less.”

The Wildcats returned the ensuing kickoff into Florida territory and eventually found themselves with a 3rd & 8 on the UF 14-yard line. The Wildcats chose to run it up the middle, but the running back found a crease on the left side and took it in for the score untouched.

Kentucky led Florida 7-3 at the end of the first quarter.

SECOND QUARTER

The Gators picked their way downfield in a balanced fashion and drove all the way to the Kentucky 3-yard line before being forced to settle for a field goal. Gainey put it through the uprights to cut the deficit to 7-6.

UF safety Randy Clark then tipped the ball up to himself and came down with the interception at the UK 40-yard line. Peace connected with Jackson 7 yards downfield, and Jackson broke off a run that set the Gators up inside the UK 10-yard line.

On 4th & Goal from the 1-yard line, running back Neal Anderson took it over the top to score for the Gators. Peace hit Jones on a swing pass for the two-point try and Florida was up 12-7.

Charley Pell narration highlight: “Holy me! Look at how pretty! Good gracious! It’s been about six ballgames since we’ve seen that missile play from our side. We’ve seen it too many times from the opponent’s side. That little youngster, Neal Anderson from Graceville, he’s got somethin’ special about him. He’s got somethin’ different. Lot of character.”

The Wildcats lined up to punt on 4th & 1 at the UF 42-yard line and caught Florida completely off guard with a pass to a wide-open man downfield. The receiver had a blocker in front as he made his way into the end zone. Pell chalked up the mistake up to youth and inexperience. Kentucky led 13-12.

Tight end Mike Mularkey made an excellent catch over the middle and held onto the ball as he was popped by the safety to bring the offense down into the Kentucky red zone. Two plays later, Peace hit Jones in the flat. As the senior fullback approached the end zone with a full head of steam, all the poor Kentucky defensive back in his path could do was get low to attempt a tackle, but Jones’ momentum carried him into the left pylon with 33 seconds left in the half.

Charley Pell narration highlight: “And we go for two points and, dadgumit, we get it down to the 6-inch line, but they don’t give points for 6-inch lines.”

Florida 18, Kentucky 13.

Gainey kicked off with a low line drive. The receiver scooped the ball up, ran straight ahead and was stripped around the UK 30-yard line. Florida came out of the pile with the football with 23 seconds left on the clock. The Gators opted to run the football, thinking they would catch Kentucky in a pass set, but Jones only managed a few yards.

Pell rushed the field goal unit onto the field with the clock still running. The snap got off with just over four seconds remaining, but Gainey could not convert.

Halfway through The Charley Pell Show, Fernando Jackson was given the spotlight:

THIRD QUARTER

“The first drive—the first five minutes of the third quarter—made the whole difference in the football game,” Pell said. “This was the last home game for Kentucky. They were a scrappy football team, they were a determined football team, and they knew they had the advantage over us with their home crowd.”

Pell was particularly proud of the offensive and defensive lines’ effort in the third quarter. Peace and the offense held the ball for close to eight minutes to open the second half. The steady drive took the Gators inside the UK 5-yard line. Anderson went airborne and took the “missile play” in for another score. Pell opted to kick for an extra point, putting the Gators up 25-13.

“That drive, which ate up 7:43 seconds on the clock, gave the University of Florida control of the football game,” Pell said.

FOURTH QUARTER

Sitting at their own 37-yard line, Anderson took a handoff from Peace, busted through a hole in the defense and outraced a defensive back to reach the end zone unscathed on a 63-yard touchdown run.

“Neal Anderson hit the hole exactly how a back is supposed to,” said Pell.

Anderson finished game with a school record of 32 carries, 197 rushing yards and three touchdowns. He was 26 yards shy of breaking the school record for rushing yards. Florida 32-15.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth made an appearance, too:

Safety Roger Sibbald intercepted another pass and returned it to near the UK 25-yard line.

Two Anderson runs took Hewko and the Gators down to the UK 16-yard line. Kentucky stacked the box, but Hewko faked a handoff to Anderson and dumped it off to a wide-open Jones, who had slipped behind the eight-man pressure from the Wildcats. Jones had nothing but green grass ahead of him until the goal line, where a UK defensive back feigned an attempt at a tackle. Jones mercifully leapt over him instead of running through him, giving Charley Pell a good laugh.

Charley Pell narration highlight: “Haha! I told you not to get in that big man’s way when you get near that goal line.”

Florida held on to win with a final score of 39-13. “It was a good win for our football team,” Pell said. “It was a significant victory because we had every disadvantage a football team could have going into that football game. We didn’t have John L. Williams make the trip. Vito McKeever, of course, couldn’t make the trip. Vince Jones, of course. We lost last week.

“We had a lot of things that we realized we had to overcome. The team did it. I’m very proud of them, and they did it through preparation, and they did it through execution.”

Florida would leave the Louisiana Superdome with a win and a bowl berth, but the Green Wave did not make it easy.

Tulane didn’t face a single third down on their opening 10-play, 84-yard touchdown drive.

But the underdog didn’t get to celebrate for long. Florida quarterback Wayne Peace opened up with a 13-yard completion to wide receiver Spencer Jackson. Running back Neal Anderson and fullback James Jones served as a one-two punch until Anderson took it in from 38 yards out on a pitch play to the right to tie the score at 7-7.

Both teams traded punts before Tulane put together a 70-yard drive down to the UF 15-yard line. Gator linebacker Fernando Jackson jarred the ball loose upon hitting fullback Kelvin Robinson, and freshman linebacker Pat Miller recovered it at the UF 18-yard line. The Florida offense made Tulane pay with an 84-yard drive that was capped off by a 17-yard touchdown run by Anderson.

Down 14-7, the Green Wave mounted another long drive to the UF 15-yard line but had to settle for a field goal attempt that kicker Tony Wood pushed wide left. Three first-half drives inside of the Florida red zone resulted in only one Tulane touchdown.

UF kicker Jim Gainey was about 10 yards short on a 52-yard field goal just before halftime.

Florida would not allow another score, but the defense continued on its bend-but-don’t-break course. A fumble by UF tight end Chris Faulkner inside the Tulane 10-yard line cost the Gators a scoring opportunity. The Wave responded by taking the ball down to the UF 26-yard line, thanks in part to a 49-yard pass from quarterback Mike McKay to the team’s leading wide receiver, Robert Griffin. Two plays later, McKay targeted Griffin close to the UF 10-yard line, but Florida safety Roger Sibbald intercepted the pass after cornerback Ricky Easmon hit Griffin when the pass arrived.

A punt sent the ball back to Tulane, who found themselves deep in UF territory. McKay marched the Wave from their own 37-yard line down to the UF 25-yard line. Safety Randy Clark jumped the route of a pass intended for Tulane tight end Greg Stopher to give the Gators the ball back at their own 15-yard line.

Tulane wound up gaining 411 total yards that night, but fatal mistakes would not allow an excellent offensive performance to translate into a major upset.

The Gators held a 14-7 advantage until Ivory Curry returned a late punt down to the Tulane 33-yard line. UF quarterback Bob Hewko completed a 31-yard pass to Jones, and Anderson finished the drive with a 1-yard plunge into the end zone to give Florida the win at 21-7. Anderson posted his second consecutive 100-yard rushing day and accounted for all three of Florida’s touchdowns.

“We moved the ball very well,” Pell said. “We had so many chances to put it away in the third quarter, but it’s a credit to Tulane’s defense that we couldn’t do it.”

In the Superdome locker room, the Gators accepted an invitation to the Bluebonnet Bowl, where they would face Lou Holtz and the Arkansas Razorbacks on December 31 at 8 p.m. in the Houston Astrodome.

“I’m tickled to death,” said Pell. “It was very special because the players knew about the opportunity they had tonight after the season. They are very deserving.”

Florida improved to 7-3 on the season and, for only the second time in school history, had clinched a third-straight bowl bid.

BAD MOON RISING: CLEMSON EDITION

On November 22, 1982, the NCAA placed Clemson on probation for two years thanks to 70 violations. The penalties included:

• A two-year bowl ban for 1982-1983
• No live television appearances for 1983-1984
• Football scholarship limits for the academic years of 1983-1984 and 1984-1985

The news hit hard in Clemson. Fresh off of a national title in 1981, the 1982 Tigers were one game away from wrapping up a 9-1-1 season and a certain high-profile bowl bid as the ACC champions. The bowl bid may have been revoked, but the conference title remains to this day.

Charley Pell served as a nice scapegoat for Clemson backers who didn’t want to pin much of the blame on their current head coach, Danny Ford. The NCAA’s report focused on 1977 to 1981, the first two years of the Pell era at Clemson through Ford’s national championship.

In a press conference, Clemson President Bill Atchley said, “I didn’t come here to defend any illegal practices, several of which date back to 1977 and were committed by a different coaching staff.”

Four of Pell’s assistants at Florida had coached with him at Clemson: Dwight Adams, Mickey Andrews, Mike Bugar and Joe Kines.

Clemson also had a run-in with the NCAA in 1975 when the basketball program was hit with sanctions, and the football team was publicly reprimanded for a recruiting violation.

After reviewing the NCAA’s 1982 report on Clemson, I counted 22 violations that occurred within the Pell years. Bear in mind that the violations do not specifically cite Pell, but they occurred during his time as head coach. And the NCAA’s dry language (“…which will preclude these individuals from involvement in any activities associated with the recruitment of prospective student-athletes on behalf of the university during the institution’s probationary period…”) makes its reports brutal to read.

The stereotypical image of an NCAA violation is some rogue booster or coach paying a recruit or giving away a car, but when the NCAA says there were at least 22 violations during the Charley Pell era at Clemson, what does that actually mean? Let’s remove the NCAA babble and break it down in English. Similar-sounding violations may be listed separately since they occurred in different years.

Five direct-payment violations out of 22, or 22.7 percent of the violations under Pell
Here’s your stereotype. Football players getting paid by the coaching staff or boosters.

1. Provided a recruit cash, a TV set, a wardrobe and six season tickets to home games.
2. Gave a recruit’s fiancé cash
3. Gave a recruit cash
4. Gave a recruit cash to take college entrance exams
5. Assistant coach set a recruit up with a job working for “a representative of the university’s interests”

Seven instances of not charging recruits for services (31.8 percent)
These are cashless exchanges between the school and the recruit representing some service that would normally require payment.

6. Allowed a recruit to have free access to a football camp
7. Paid round-trip airfare for recruit between his junior college and home
8. Allowed recruit to make long-distance telephone calls using an assistant coach’s credit card.
9. Paid for a recruit’s one-way flight to Clemson
10. Provided one recruit three free trips to visit Clemson; another was provided two free trips to visit Clemson.
11. Provided one recruit several free trips to Clemson.
12. Provided four recruits free transportation and meals by assistant coach or representative of the university.

Four violations for discounting services (18.1 percent)
As Clemson might have put it, when you’re here, you’re family!

13. Offered to pay the costs for two sisters of a recruit to attend Clemson
14. Awarded a scholarship to a friend of a recruit
15. An assistant coach arranged meals, lodging and entertainment for a friend of a recruit.
16. Provided a recruit’s mother transportation from her home to campus

Three “Hey, you’re not supposed to be here!” violations (13.6 percent)
For this, we turn to Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross: Always Be Closing!

17. An assistant coach personally contacted a recruit off campus prior to the completion of the recruit’s junior year in high school.
18. A recruit was contacted in person, off campus, for recruiting purposes at least three times.
19. Three recruits were contacted in person, off campus, for recruiting purposes at least three times.

Two swag violations (9 percent)
I’m guessing this stuff was given to third-stringers.

20. Gave recruit two sweaters
21. Gave numerous recruits T-shirts, football jerseys and souvenir photos during visits to campus

Finally, a violation because Clemson knew. (4.5 percent)
Coaches take the blame as the head of the program, but what coaches know, administrators tend to know.

22. Four assistant coaches under Pell (and four under Ford) say the Clemson administration had knowledge of the NCAA violations because they self-reported issues from 1977 to 1981.

It’s clear as day that Charley Pell’s program broke the rules. I’m not trying to make this a conversation about right and wrong, either. I just worry that some will read the next part as some sort of justification for Pell’s tactics. But it’s not.

It’s just a question.

Did Charley Pell compete in a different manner than his peers within the industry?

It’s not an ethical question. It’s not a justification. It’s a matter of dealing in a reality that you and I both know exists.

The relationship between Charley Pell and the NCAA reminds me of the scene from Back to School where Thornton Melon speaks plainly about the realities of the business world while Dr. Barbay sneers in disgust at Melon’s interruption of his idealistic pricing model for an imaginary widget factory.

As a society, we love myth-making in college football. From the days of Knute Rockne to the living legends among us (Tebow be thy name). We love the concept of good guys and bad guys. Americans in the 1980s especially loved this narrative.

We’re not big on the gray areas. Nuance escapes the mainstream conversation.

The legacy of Charley Pell is in the gray. Charley Pell broke the rules, but it’s a tragedy to simplify his legacy within the confines of a few NCAA reports.

That being said, the Clemson report was damaging for Pell. Maybe not in the moment, but it was the beginning of the end of his time at the University of Florida.

If the Charley Pell era at Florida was the Titanic, then November 22, 1982, marks the moment when the ship hit the iceberg. The Gator Nation, along for the ride, was aware that some kind of problem existed, but it hadn’t quite grasped the major challenges coming its way and just put in another cocktail order at the bar.

When Pell got wind of the results of the NCAA’s Clemson investigation, he made an official request for UF to conduct a faculty investigation of his football program.

A few days after the Clemson report dropped, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel broke a story with allegations of recruiting improprieties from the Gators coaching staff. St. Thomas Aquinas kicker Pat Moons had already signed a letter of intent to Michigan but was willing to speak with NCAA investigator Douglas Johnson several times about his interactions with Florida.

From reporter Mark Kazlowski:

“They want to get him [Pell] by this summer,” Moons said. “They want to get all the reports they can.”

Moons said he has not been questioned about any schools other than Florida.

Among the incidents Moons said he told Johnson about was a Florida’s recruiter’s offer while Pat was being recruited to give his sister Mary Margaret (Meg) Moons, who had applied to Florida, a job with the Athletic Association. Moons’ father, Terry, confirmed that the offer was made in front of him and Pat.

Moons also said that Reed Bryan, a student trainer at St. Thomas and a friend of Moons’ was offered a scholarship at Florida.

Bryan confirmed Thursday that Florida recruiter Sonny McGraw made a verbal commitment for a scholarship while Bryan was at St. Thomas.

“He said, ‘You could come up with Pat [for a paid visit],’” Bryan said.

When Moons indicated he would be going to Michigan, McGraw stopped showing up at St. Thomas and did not return Bryan’s calls.

The high of a bowl bid. The low of a bad moon rising.  Just another week in the times of Charley Pell.

Another game. Another record crowd for Charley Pell’s Gators. Approximately 57, 359 fans packed into Doak Campbell Stadium, the largest crowd in FSU history, to witness the 8-2 Seminoles play the 7-3 Gators.

FSU had a strong season heading into their regular season finale. The Noles were headed to the Gator Bowl to play the school Bowden had coached for before making his way to Tallahassee: West Virginia. Florida State had lost to No. 2 Pitt by 20 points in the second game of the season. Wins at Ohio State and Miami highlighted an eight-game win streak, but like the Gators, FSU’s 1982 hot streak was squashed by LSU. The Tigers had stomped Bowden’s Noles 55-21, causing FSU to drop from No. 7 to No. 15 in the rankings.

Florida State started the scoring by taking the opening drive down to the UF 21-yard line and completing a 37-yard field goal. Florida answered by nearly duplicating the Noles’ effort, driving to the FSU 25-yard line, but kicker Jim Gainey missed the 41-yard attempt with a ball that went wide right. Two turnovers kept UF off of the scoreboard for the rest of the first quarter. Running back Neal Anderson fumbled the ball at the FSU 19-yard line, and quarterback Wayne Peace threw a pick at the FSU 45.

Early in the second quarter, FSU running back Greg Allen capped a seven-play, 75-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Seminoles a 10-0 lead. Pell allowed Peace to continue deep into the second quarter before pulling the plug and giving senior quarterback Bob Hewko a chance.

The passing game continued to struggle, but the running game carried the Gators. Running backs Lorenzo Hampton and Neal Anderson rushed for a combined 241 yards behind a stout offensive line. Hampton rushed for a career-best 138 yards over 23 carries. Anderson also kept his hot streak alive and crossed the 100-yard mark once again, rushing for 103 yards over 13 carries.

Anderson took over and gained 60 yards in three carries. With the ball on the FSU 10-yard line, Hewko faked a pitched, ran left, cut inside and dodged a couple of FSU defenders on his way into the end zone. Not known for his running ability, Hewko cut the deficit to 10-7 with just over a minute before halftime.

The Gators took the second-half kickoff and drove down to the FSU 7-yard line before stalling and settling for a 23-yard Gainey field goal to tie the game at 10-10. The score stayed there through the end of the third quarter.

Florida State put a promising drive together early in the fourth quarter, but the Gators defense stopped the Noles at the UF 9-yard line. FSU kicker Phil Hall pushed the ball just left of the upright, and the miss would come back to haunt the Noles.

“I miss-hit the ball,” Hall said. “This is the bottom of my football career.”

Florida chewed up the clock and yardage on their next drive. On a snap from FSU’s 20-yard line, Hewko sailed a pass toward the end zone in the direction of wide receiver Dwayne Dixon, who was tripped up by FSU cornerback Larry Harris at the 2-yard line. The officials flagged Harris for pass interference. Florida would get down to the FSU 1-yard line but couldn’t punch it in.

A delay-of-game penalty pushed the Gators back to the FSU 6-yard line, and Gainey knocked the deciding kick through the uprights from 22 yards out with 3:32 left to play, putting the Gators on top at 13-10.

As was the standard practice for Pell’s Florida teams, the Gators made it interesting down the stretch. FSU drove down to the UF 32-yard line with a little over a minute left. Facing a 4th & 9, Bowden elected to go for it instead of attempting a field goal. FSU quarterback Kelly Lowrey’s pass was deflected and rolled along the turf, setting off a massive celebration on the Florida sideline.

“Last year we went into the game with Florida, and I felt we had to play our best game of the season to win, and we didn’t do it,” Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden said. “This year I thought the same thing. We played better, but I guess we didn’t improve enough.”

“I have to say this was the greatest win I have ever been associated with,” Pell said for about the 14th or so time during his Gainesville years. “I make that statement from the heart. We had lost two starting tackles, our passing game was not working, and we were playing an excellent football game.”

Back-to-back wins over Florida State propelled the Gators to an 8-3 finish in the regular season—the team’s best mark since Pell took over. The win had to carry some extra meaning for senior quarterback Bob Hewko, who had suffered through four knee surgeries over the course of his career in Gainesville.

The next stop: The Bluebonnet Bowl. But not before more turbulence.

BAD MOON RISING: FLORIDA EDITION

On December 6, 1982, the NCAA officially notified Florida that its football program was under preliminary inquiry. That same day, the UF Athletic Department decided to make an announcement of its own: Charley Pell would be granted a two-year contract extension through 1986.

S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!

Pell had earned the contract for his work both on and off the field, but the timing of the announcement was atrocious.  And as the noise outside the program began to grow louder, the Gators closed ranks. “We think the extension is a very positive expression of our support for Coach Pell and his leadership of our football program,” UF Athletic Director Bill Carr said.

Charley Pell had escaped the wrath of the NCAA in Clemson, but now investigators would set their sights on his emerging powerhouse in Gainesville.

POST-SEASON HONORS

Wilber Marshall (Credit: University Athletic Association)
WILBER MARSHALL, FIRST-TEAM ALL-AMERICAN, FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC

James Jones (Credit: University Athletic Association)
JAMES JONES, SECOND-TEAM ALL-AMERICAN, FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC

Both Charley Pell and Lou Holtz had high expectations for their teams in 1982. The records for Florida and Arkansas, at 8-3 and 8-2-1, respectively, clearly demonstrated that both teams had success, but each team expected a little more after entering the Top Five at different points during the season.

Arkansas raced out to a 7-0 start and the No. 5 ranking before losing two games and tying one in their last four games of the season. A win over a talented Florida roster would boost morale heading into the offseason.

The Razorbacks jumped out to a quick lead with a 16-yard touchdown run by running back Gary Anderson. He was the beneficiary of a strategic flip from the Veer to the I-formation during bowl prep and would end up with 161 yards rushing on 26 carries. Arkansas would finish the game with 356 total yards on the ground.

Pell chose senior quarterback Bob Hewko as the starter, and there would be no musical chairs for that position at the Astrodome. Hewko posted great numbers, going 19-28 for 234 yards and three touchdowns. Not bad considering the stingy Arkansas defense had only allowed 10.5 points per game that season.

Hewko responded to the opening Arkansas drive by leading a touchdown drive of his own. The Gators drove 74 yards, and Hewko connected with wide receiver Dwayne Dixon for a 3-yard touchdown to tie things up. Dixon had an outstanding game hauling in eight receptions for 106 yards and three touchdown catches.

Later in the second quarter, the Gators drove from the UF 5-yard line down to the Arkansas 18-yard line. The 14-play drive lasted for a little over four minutes, and kicker Bobby Raymond kicked a 34-yard field goal to give the Gators a 10-7 lead.

Florida got the ball back one last time before the half, and Hewko avoided a blitz to complete a 13-yard touchdown pass to Dixon, putting the Gators up by 10 points heading into halftime.

Then the Razorbacks took over. Gary Anderson led the way on a nine-play, 83-yard drive where he scored from 1 yard out, cutting the Florida lead to 17-13 with 7:01 left in the third quarter. A 40-yard pass from quarterback Brad Taylor to tight end Eddie West was controversially ruled to be a catch.

“I was shocked by the official’s call,” Pell said. “The receiver dropped the ball on that long pass, and it hit the ground and bounced back into his hands. Yet it was ruled a completion. That turned the momentum of the game around. I’m not saying that beat us, but the call shocked me.”

Safety Tony Lilly agreed: “The receiver short-hopped the ball, yet it was ruled complete.”

Despite Pell’s protests, Florida came right back and strung together an 11-play, 76-yard drive to score. Hewko hit Dixon from 17 yards out for Dixon’s third touchdown of the night, and the Gators extended their lead to 24-14.

Arkansas took the field and grinded out a methodical 12-play, 85-yard drive for another touchdown to bring it back within three points early in the fourth quarter. Florida punted on the following series and allowed the Razorbacks offense to make a 10-play, 80-yard drive into the end zone for the second time in the final quarter to retake the lead 28-24 on a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Tom Jones.

The Gators got the ball back with eight minutes to play, but once again, the offense struggled and Florida pinned the Razorbacks on their own 6-yard line with 6:28 to play. In most situations, the Gators would likely have another shot at the ball, but in the 1982 Bluebonnet Bowl, Arkansas ground out the final 6:28 on the clock using 14 running plays.

“It makes you wonder why we haven’t used the I-formation before,” Arkansas head coach Lou Holtz said after the game. “We haven’t used it because we have such small I-backs. We could use it in this game because Gary Anderson doesn’t have to play next week. He cannot take the pounding every week.”

“We knew they had a tremendous offensive line,” Pell said. “In the second half, they proved to be a tough assignment for our young defensive line.”

“It was a great game,” Holtz said. “We beat a hellacious team.”

The ups and downs of 1982 were sure to serve the Gators well down the road, but the program needed consistency, and with growing concerns surrounding the hovering black cloud of an NCAA investigation, people were starting to question if Charley Pell would be around much longer.