It’s been a long time since the Florida Gators have traveled outside of their home state for a true nonconference road game.
The Gators played Michigan in Dallas in 2017 to open the season, but that was a neutral site game at AT&T Stadium.
You have to go all the way back to 1991 for Florida’s last true road nonconference clash outside the state of Florida. The No. 5 Gators lost to No. 18 Syracuse 38-21 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York.
Since that game, Florida has stayed within the confines of its home state for any nonconference game.
Until now.
The Gators arrive in Salt Lake City on Aug. 31 to pay their first-ever visit to Rice-Eccles Stadium. Utah and Florida have met twice before in Gainesville — once in 1977 and the other in 2022, both losses for the Utes.
It’s the premier game in the nation on Thursday, getting the red carpet treatment from ESPN, who is airing it on their main station and sending the A-team — Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe — out to call it.
“For Florida to come West, which is rare for them ... will be very exciting for the program,” Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said in 2022.
The Utes are trying to avenge last season’s opening 29-26 loss, a heartbreaking finish for the Utes after Cam Rising threw a goal-line interception with under 30 seconds left. Quarterback Anthony Richardson threw for 168 yards and rushed for 106 yards and three touchdowns.
It’s the first time an SEC team has paid a visit to Salt Lake City, but it won’t be the last. Arkansas is scheduled for 2026 and LSU will arrive at Rice-Eccles in 2031.
Utah cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator Sharrieff Shah, who played at Utah from 1990 to 1993 and has coached for his alma mater since 2012, sees Florida agreeing to a home-and-home with the Utes as a milestone for the program.
The 1992 team, which Shah started on, traveled to Lincoln to play the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 1992. While the Utes lost, 49-22, to the Big 8 champions, Shah said he grew up watching the Cornhuskers and never thought he’d be playing in Lincoln.
Since the 1990s, Utah football has evolved and grown to new heights. Ron McBride started the evolution as Utah finished in the top 10 in The Associated Press poll for the first time in school history in 1994. Urban Meyer made history in two seasons with Utah, as the Utes became the first team from a non-automatic qualifying conference to appear in a BCS bowl game after a 12-0 season in 2004 that culminated in a Fiesta Bowl win.
Kyle Whittingham took the reins from Meyer and broke into the BCS again in 2008, another undefeated season for the Utes that ended with a Sugar Bowl win over Alabama.
With Utah’s consistent football success building, it was targeted for an invite to a Power Five conference and was able to make the leap to the Pac-12 in 2011.
Having to start from the bottom in a Power Five league, the Utes nearly made the title game in its first season before enduring its first consecutive losing seasons since 1989-90 in 2012-13.
Utah hasn’t had a losing season since 2013, and got over the final hurdle in the Pac-12 — winning the conference championship, which it did in back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022.
The Utes are a national player, regularly ranked in the top 25, and have become respected enough that historically great programs like Florida and LSU want to travel to Salt Lake City.
“To play here, coach here, live here for 30-plus years and to watch Florida come here to play us is special. It says a lot about the program,” Shah said. “It says a lot about what coach Whitt has done and those before, whether it’s coach McBride, coach Meyer, now coach Whitt who’s taking the baton and just continued to elevate the program.”
The fact that Shah is sitting in Utah’s 150,000-square-foot, $32-million, state-of-the-art football facility while talking just underscores the point.
“I remember we didn’t have a beautiful building like this when I played here. We didn’t have these facilities or the things that so many of these players enjoy, take for granted, didn’t have that. And so I’m happy that they have it,” he said.
Imagine telling a Utah football fan 40 years ago that not only is Florida playing at Utah, but that the Utes are favored to win by Vegas, even with doubts about whether Utah’s starting quarterback is able to play.
“It says a lot that Florida’s like, yeah, we’ll come play and recognize that this is going to be a dog fight. This is not going to be one that either team can just simply chalk off. It’ll be a dog fight,” Shah said.
As someone who’s had a front-row seat to the growth of the program, Shah says it brings him an “indescribable level of joy” to see what it’s become and how Utah is getting national recognition.
“I’m really, really happy and excited that Florida is coming here. Just says a lot about those who’ve led on the field and coached this program for so many years to have such a quality program come for our season opener,” Shah said.