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Mental Toughness Is A Must

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2007

When former Florida State receiver Barry Smith played for the Noles, the Florida State-Florida rivalry was one-sided. Smith, a Tampa resident who set numerous receiving records during his career, finished 0-3 against the Gators. Still, Smith has fond memories of the heated rivalry. He caught two touchdown passes in his first game against UF in 1970, and he threw one in his final FSU-Florida game in 1972, a 42-13 loss to UF and a quarterback named Chan Gailey. Today, Smith will be rooting for Gailey's team - Georgia Tech - because Smith's son, Andrew, is a junior receiver for the Yellow Jackets. Smith will be in Atlanta watching Georgia Tech play Georgia, a rivalry he compares to FSU-Florida:

I love rivalry games. Florida State-Florida is such a great game and what college football is all about. Back in my day, unfortunately, we never beat Florida. I remember just being frustrated. I think there were times when Florida wasn't superior to us, but mentally they had us beat. That was the difference back then.

Nonetheless, they were very exciting games to play in. My sophomore year, we were in Tallahassee and I ran a reverse very early in the game, and I remember being nailed by Jack Youngblood. I remember watching the ball being pitched to me and thinking, when the ball was about halfway, that it was kind of race to see whether he was going to get to the ball first or me. He was foaming at the mouth. I still have nightmares from the hit he gave me.

We were getting smoked, and they finally gave Gary Huff a shot. He came off the bench to throw three touchdowns in about five minutes. Of course, two of them were to me.

My junior year, we were 5-0 and Florida was 0-5. There is no question that we were the much better team, and they beat us. We got to 5-0 because we threw the ball. It wasn't because of our rushing game. Then we got out in the pregame warm-up feeling good, and our coach, Larry Jones, tells us to forget everything that we practiced all week. We are going to show the Florida Gators that we can run the ball. Well, that didn't work out too well.

My senior year, we're playing Florida at home and we're 4-0. They had a decent team, but it wasn't like the year before. They were rocking along. Chan Gailey was their quarterback, and he had a big game. That game was a blowout. They torched us. It got so bad, I had to throw a touchdown pass. Back then, we always found a way to lose. We just could never get never get it together.

Scott Carter

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