Florida State and Virginia aren’t considered on-field rivals, so I did some digging. It turns out that both the rivalry and the trophy have an incredibly interesting history.
This Friday night, one of college football’s lesser-known rivalries will be renewed for the first time since 2019 when the undefeated Florida State Seminoles travel to Charlottesville to take on the Virginia Cavaliers.
To find out the origin of this rivalry, you have to go back to 1991 when the Seminoles, led by legendary Head Coach Bobby Bowden, first joined the ACC. The Noles quickly established themselves as the head of the table of the conference, winning their first 29 consecutive ACC conference games. On November 2, 1995, the Noles traveled to Charlottesville (much like they will on Friday night) to take on the Cavaliers. On that fateful night in Virginia, the Cavs handed the Noles their first-ever ACC conference play loss by a score of 33-28.
Newspaper article courtesy Newspapers.com
After the loss, Sandy D’Alemberte (then president of Florida State University) created the Jefferson-Eppes Trophy to be played for in future meetings between the two teams. However, the trophy itself also has a history worth discussing.
The trophy is named after two central figures in the history of Florida State University and the University of Virginia. The “Jefferson” part of the name originates from Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia. The “Eppes” part of the name comes from Francis W. Eppes, Thomas Jefferson’s grandson and a two-time mayor of Tallahassee.
In 1865, Eppes made an offer to the Florida State Assembly to locate the West Florida Seminary in Tallahassee. This seminary would eventually evolve into Florida State University. The physical trophy itself also has an interesting history. It is a silver pitcher that Eppes presented to the city of Tallahassee in 1842. The pitcher is set upon a wooden base made from the remains of the McGruffey Ash Tree, which was the largest tree on the University of Virginia’s campus before it died of a tree disease in 1990.
The trophy (photo courtesy 247 Sports)
The game was played annually from 1992 to 2006, with Florida State winning 13 of those 15 matchups (Note: The Noles’ 2006 victory was later vacated). Since then, the game has only been played four times, with Florida State and Virginia splitting those games at two wins apiece, meaning Florida State currently leads the series 14-4. However, the Cavaliers won the most recent meeting by a score of 31-24 in 2019.
This year’s matchup sees the Seminoles enter the game with a 3-0 record and ranked #8 in the country. The Cavaliers are unranked, despite boasting an impressive 3-1 record. Both teams have excelled on the offensive side of the ball. Florida State has the number one scoring offense in the country, currently holding the top spot for total yards per game and points per game. Meanwhile, Virginia has the 11th scoring offense in the country and is also ranked 7th nationally for time of possession (the best in the ACC) and 12th nationally in third-down conversions.
Add that all up, and you have the perfect recipe for a lot of points to be scored on Friday night.
Will Florida State remain undefeated and bring the Jefferson-Eppes Trophy back to Tallahassee? Can Virginia pull a major upset to keep the trophy in Charlottesville?
Tune in to ESPN Friday at 7:00 PM Eastern to find out!
