Undeniable History In First-Ever Matchup

Sports fans have a knack for remembering moments with excruciating clarity because it binds them forever. One moment converges and diverges the thrill of victory and agony of defeat in a split second, and the same image floods so many different emotions for so many people. Nothing is like it, so recalling October 9, 2010 probably will cause varying degrees of smiles and sadness for fans of both the Florida Gators and LSU Tigers.

The No. 14 Gators led the No. 12 Tigers at home by three points with under three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when LSU marched from its 38-yard line to the Florida 36 with 35 seconds remaining. It was fourth down, and head coach Les Miles made a conservative call to send his field goal unit out onto the field.

The next moment is seared into memory bank of every fan watching that game. Derek Helton flipped the snap over his head, and the ball bounced off the turf. It landed in Josh Jasper's hands, and the diminutive kicker sprinted for the line of scrimmage. A review marked him for a five-yard gain and a first down, giving LSU another set of downs. Quarterback Jarrett Lee took it from there, hitting Terrence Toliver with two passes. The latter scored a game-winning touchdown with six seconds left, lifting LSU over Florida with an enormous road victory.

Steve Addazio watched it unfold as Florida's offensive coordinator, and it became his last memory in the fabled matchup against the Tigers. He accepted the Temple head coaching position that offseason, then moved onto Boston College after two years with the Owls. He developed new rivalries with the Eagles, and the Florida days got further and further in his rearview mirror.

On Friday, though, the objects in his rearview are closer than they might appear. He will stand across from Les Miles for the first time since LSU upset Florida in The Swamp, not as a coordinator but as head coach of BC in the first-ever meeting between the Eagles and the Kansas Jayhawks.

"He had the fake field goal (in 2010), and the ball got mishandled," Addazio said of Miles. "I'll never forget it, watching on the sidelines. It was on the ground. When it hit the ground, it could have went (to Florida) or (to LSU), and of course it rolled. They got the first down (by the nose of the football). He's always got some trickeration in his bag. That's one of his big things over the years."

Miles is one of those coaches with a reputation big enough to fill a stadium. That 2010 win continued to cement his legacy as one of the most creative coaches in college football. He had already won a national championship at LSU by then, and he played for another the next year in a divisional rematch against Alabama. He left in 2016 with over 110 wins in Baton Rouge, including seven seasons with 10 wins or more.

"Coach Miles is really one of the great coaches in our game," Addazio said. "I've had a chance to play against his teams when I was at Florida, and (I) very, very much respect him and the way that he coaches and what he brings to the table."

Miles sat out the 2017 and 2018 seasons, becoming college football's biggest looming shadow. His name surfaced whenever anyone discussed a hot-seat or opening, but he waited over two years before finding the right position at the right time. It came in the unlikeliest of places with a team ready for the right change, starving for success: Kansas.

"He'll have a team that will continue to develop and get better and be a very, very competitive team," Addazio said. "He's a competitive guy. You can see it already. They have talent and (you can see) what he's going to shape that program into."

Kansas possesses a well-documented struggle to consistently win games, and the last 25 years featured only fleeting success. Glen Mason led the Jayhawks to two Aloha Bowls in four years, and the 1995 team went 10-2 with a second place finish in the Big 8. The next year, though, saw the league expand into the Big 12, and realignment effectively ended a run where the Jayhawks finished over .500 for four out of five years.

It created a decade-long struggle until Mark Mangino discovered a winning stroke. The 2003 team went to the Tangerine Bowl, and the 2005 team won the Fort Worth Bowl. The 2006 team went .500, but failed to nab a bowl invite despite finishing a late-season, three-game winning streak.

It set the table for magic during the 2007 season. Kansas opened the season with a perfect 11-0 record and ascended to No. 2 in the nation before the last week of the season. The Jayhawks met No. 3 Missouri for the Big 12 North flag in the Border War, but even a 36-28 loss didn't quell hopes for a big-time bowl game. Kansas still went to the Bowl Championship Series as an at-large bid, drawing Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, and finished the season ranked No. 7 after beating the Hokies in Miami.

It ultimately proved unsustainable, though. Mangino led the Jayhawks to an Insight Bowl win in 2008, but Kansas went 5-7 with only one conference win in 2009. It ushered in a revolving-door era of personnel, and Kansas simply couldn't climb the Big 12 wall. The years simply piled up after that, and now the Jayhawks are a decade removed from their last bowl game.

It's a history that is what it is, but nobody in Lawrence needed to be satisfied. It's why the school nabbed Miles, a coach with over 140 career victories, two conference championships in the SEC and a BCS national title.

He adds star power to this week's game against BC, itself the first rematch with a member of those former Florida years. The annual battles against the Gators generates a familiarity with Addazio, and there's an appreciation for one more round. There's an undeniable history in a matchup with no prior games, but that's exactly why a win or defeat is far from guaranteed.

"It's a Power Five team with talented players on the roster," Addazio said. "It's a new program, and (the coaches) are trying to get their program and schematics in. They have some dynamic guys. It's the next game, and it's an opportunity to get to 3-0. Every game is critical. If you lose a few in college football, it's a big deal. It's a precious game."

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