Florida plants flag after win over Florida State win, leading to fight
Add Florida and Florida State’s rivalry as the latest game to feature a fight in the final week of the college football season.
After the Gators dominated the Seminoles 31-11 on Saturday night in Doak Campbell Stadium, a fight between the teams broke out after a Florida player planted a Gators flag at midfield.
Here’s a look at the action, which involved a tense interaction between Gators coach Billy Napier and Seminoles coach Mike Norvell:
What happened in Florida-FSU fight?
A tense exchanged ensured after Florida players planted the flag on FSU’s midfield Seminole logo. The moment followed an earlier incidents Saturday, most notably when a Michigan player attempted to plant a Wolverines flag at midfield in Columbus, Ohio, after beating No. 2 Ohio State 13-10.
An NC State player also attempted to plant the flag against North Carolina on Saturday, which led to a skirmish. And an Arizona State player thrusted a pitchfork into midfield against Arizona, prompting another engagement.
The incident in Tallahassee led to pushing and shoving until being diffused as Napier and Norvell intervened. Norvell at one point grabbed the Florida flag and tossed it to the ground, after exchanging words with Napier.
“I told him what I thought,’ Norvell said. ‘They won the game. They have the right to celebrate, just like we have in the previous years. It was just the way that we operate. And that’s fine – you want to come and do that, that is absolutely a decision you can have within a team. I just told him what I thought.”
Florida players plant flag to end brutal FSU season
Frustrations have been at an all-time high for Florida State this season, thanks to a 2-10 season that marks one of their worst finishes in program history.
“I don’t need anything extra, but that’s not going to happen,’ Norvell told reporters afterward, after being asked whether it gave him additional motivation. ‘It’s not going to happen here and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we don’t experience that again.”
What Billy Napier said about Florida planting flag
It was Florida’s first win in the rivalry since 2021 and part of a strong finish to a season that started poorly. The Gators won three straight to end the regular season, including upsets of LSU and Ole Miss. Florida ran for 235 total yards with two touchdowns against FSU, as Napier defeated Florida State for the first time in his tenure.
Following the game, Napier said, ‘There would be consequences for all involved’ in the flag planting and apologized for the postgame incident.
‘It’s not who we want to be as a program, it’s embarrassing to me and it’s a distraction to a really well-played football game,’ Napier said. ‘… We shouldn’t have done that, and we won’t do that going forward, and there will be consequences for all involved.’