page_title: 1923 Alabama Crimson Tide football team
section_title: Florida
hierarchical_section_title: 1923 Alabama Crimson Tide football team / Game summaries / Florida
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Edgar C. Jones, LL.B. '26, from Jacksonville, athletic director of the University of Florida
context_page_description: The 1923 Alabama Crimson Tide football team represented the University of Alabama in the 1923 Southern Conference football season. It was the Crimson Tide's 30th overall and 2nd season as a member of the Southern Conference. The team was led by head coach Wallace Wade, in his first year, and played their home games at Denny Field in Tuscaloosa, at Rickwood Field in Birmingham and at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. They finished the season with a record of seven wins, two losses and one tie.
  1923 marked the first season for new head coach Wallace Wade, a former assistant at Vanderbilt. One year after Alabama's triumphal trip to Penn, the Tide went on another northeast roadtrip with a different outcome, losing to Syracuse 23–0. Against Georgia Tech, Alabama was very lucky to escape with a 0–0 tie. After defeating Georgia, the Tide was the favorite for a Southern title. A season-ending, 16–6 upset loss to coach James Van Fleet's Florida Gators cost coach Wade and the Tide the Southern Conference championship.
context_section_description: On a muddy field with pools of water, the Florida Gators upset the Tide with a comeback, 16–6 victory on Thanksgiving Day, putting the Florida program in the national spotlight for the first time. The upset gave Wade's previous school of Vanderbilt the SoCon title. In an attempt to drum up publicity, Champ Pickens photographed a stuffed alligator and drew tiny Crimsons swarming around it.
  Florida back Edgar C. Jones scored all of his team's points. The Gator scores by Jones came on runs of 10 yards around right end, a 12-yard place kick, and a 20-yard run around right end.  The punting of Ark Newton and the line play of captain Robbie Robinson (in his final game) and Goldy Goldstein also helped the Gators get the victory.
  In the first half, Alabama's Grant Gillis won the punting battle and Florida was on the defensive, turning back multiple scoring threats from inside the 10-yard line. Pooley Hubert scored first. The Gators eschewed their stockings in the second half, due to the rain and mud, and waited until the last minute to come out for the kickoff, while Alabama was already lined up. Because of this maneuver, Wade never spoke to coach Van Fleet again.
  A few minutes into the second half, Newton complete a 12-yard pass to Dick Brown, down at Alabama's 20-yard line. Brown went around left end for 9 yards; then Jones went around right end for 10 yards and the tying touchdown. Newton missed the extra point. Moments later Newton kicked a punt of 60 yards, from his own 20-yard line to the same of Alabama's. Gillis botched the ensuing Alabama punt. Bill Middlekauff ran behind left guard twice, and Newton ran behind right tackle once, netting 8 yards in three plays. From the 12-yard line, Jones converted a placekick. Newton continued to punt well, and attempted a 53-yard field goal which barely missed. He also tried a 60-yard field goal which was blocked, recovered by Florida's Joe Merrin on Alabama's 20-yard line. Runs at the line failed, and Jones went around right end for 20 yards and the final touchdown. The loss brought Alabama's all-time record against Florida to 1–2.
caption: Florida's Edgar C. Jones.
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