33 years of living one hour from Gainesville

[TennEddie]

and the agony continues. For the vast majority of those 33 years, my much anticipated
football season has ended before September is over. I have been to many of those games
both in Neyland and the Swamp. It doesn’t seem to matter which coach is coaching which
team, one thing I have always observed. The Gators come onto the field with “ Fire in their eyes “
while the Vols stroll out like they are going to a Sunday school picnic. One of the most obvious
was the ‘96 game in Neyland. It was 20 something to nothing before I had settled in my seat.
I don’t know what the coaches are feeding those Gators during pregame, but I wish we could
get some of it.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Tennessee is to Florida, what Kentucky is to Tennessee. It's just the facts at this point.

 

[Hawkeye4588]

You will skip purgatory entirely. Your debt is paid in full.

 

[Flipdaddy]

The whole “we treat this like any other game” is BS. Just like ole times, you know if you’re going to Atlanta or the citrus 3rd week of football season every year.

 

[NEWDAYVOL]

and the agony continues.

It's crazy. It sucks. But that is part of being a fan of sports in general. Sports and fanaticism is a peculiar thing. On any given game day 50% of teams will win and 50% will lose.. but 85% of fanbases will be unhappy and want the coach fired. If you're not good, you are miserable at not being good. If you are average you are miserable being on the roller coaster ride. If you are really good, the expectations are so high you are miserable at anything short of a championship. If you win a championship you are miserable for the next 20 years because you can't get back there. The only fanbases that are happy right now are Georgia, Colorado, and maybe one or two others...and they will soon have reality hit and be back to being miserable.

 

[BeardedVol]

On the bright side, maybe Florida will give Napier an extension for beating us.

 

[Go47]

As Bill Parcells once said . . . Your are what your record says you are. Florida has dominated the series. Yes, UT has won a few games along the way . . . But on the whole, domination is the word that fits. UT has won a handful of really close games with one blowout win. Florida has won the overwhelming majority of the games and many of those were complete beatdowns where the game was over by half - this last installment included. We all hoped Heupel would change that. He has not . . . And I see no reason to think that will change. It stinks, but it is reality. To make it worse, the single inability to beat UF has cost UT a lot of opportunity to see their seasons end with more opportunity. Consider - as UT fans we call the 90’s the decade of dominance . . . But UF dominated UT in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

I think my brother who was out of town / out of the loop for the UT / UF game put it best.

“I see the UT / UF game played out as expected. Taxes, death, and the Gators beat the Vols.”

My reply: Night follows day and UF beats UT.

I fully realize some will say - wait a minute! We beat them last year. Since 1990 they are 25-7 against UT with a win streak at one time of 11 games. Ugh. It is what it is. Sometimes they were just much better. Sometimes UT got massively out-coached. Other times, UT invented previously unheard of ways to lose.

 

[Vol524]

@ OP 33 years down there? You should have moved 32 1/2 years ago. One thing about it, I can't find anywhere in the Bible where it says a man can go to HELL twice. I think you will get a free pass when you reach the pearly gates.

 

[allvols4life]

and the agony continues. For the vast majority of those 33 years, my much anticipated
football season has ended before September is over. I have been to many of those games
both in Neyland and the Swamp. It doesn’t seem to matter which coach is coaching which
team, one thing I have always observed. The Gators come onto the field with “ Fire in their eyes “
while the Vols stroll out like they are going to a Sunday school picnic. One of the most obvious
was the ‘96 game in Neyland. It was 20 something to nothing before I had settled in my seat.
I don’t know what the coaches are feeding those Gators during pregame, but I wish we could
get some of it.

I too live roughy an hour and a quarter from that sh!thole called Gainesville. Every year it's always been the same observation you noted. The 90's were competitive more so than since, but even when we win it's a squeaker... while they win by double digits. It has tormented me for years, listening to all the mouth breahter B.S. but alas... we do not poseess the "fire in the belly", the passion for the win they do. Heartbreaking and pathetic actually. I will always love my Vols just tired of caring more than it seems they do. Sorry for the TLDR cathartic rant.

 

[NATHAN05]

Same OP.......been down here in Orlando area for 20 years now and its gotten so dire that no one even rags on me about the loss or the week leading up to the match up. Used to be the big game of each opponents year and my neighbors/coworkers would each gig each other about the game........the past 4-5 years its literally just been another game and they almost feel sorry for me.....I hate this.

 

[Volz4lif3]

Tennessee is to Florida, what Kentucky is to Tennessee. It's just the facts at this point.

And to top that off Kentucky beats Florida more than Tennessee in this modern era it seems like.

 

[rocketskates]

The Florida game is routinely the most frustrating game of the year because we always lose to them in the dumbest ways. This year was just flat out sub par play. Let's get down 26-7 and THEN start passing team and running a fast paced offense.

 

[livefaith]

I really was hoping that we would break this curse hard this season. New staff, finally good talent, tons of transfers who don't expect to lose in some stupid way. Nope, SSDD, we start yet another season with dashed dreams. UF wins and looks playoff bound yet will drop off to 6-6 and a MCB invite. I'm glad conference realignment is here.

 

[ReadCT]

I took my wife of 20 years to her first Vols v Gators game in 2001 for the 9/11 delayed win

Have not missed one--home nor away--since, despite our moves from Atlanta to Dallas then to Denver. Mostly misery but some rare moments of jubilation

Really was hoping last weekend was the turning of the tide in the Gainesville chapters towards the good guys. Oh welp

 

[Volfan1000]

and the agony continues. For the vast majority of those 33 years, my much anticipated
football season has ended before September is over. I have been to many of those games
both in Neyland and the Swamp. It doesn’t seem to matter which coach is coaching which
team, one thing I have always observed. The Gators come onto the field with “ Fire in their eyes “
while the Vols stroll out like they are going to a Sunday school picnic. One of the most obvious
was the ‘96 game in Neyland. It was 20 something to nothing before I had settled in my seat.
I don’t know what the coaches are feeding those Gators during pregame, but I wish we could
get some of it.

We will always own Florida in basketball with the men leading 80-59 in the series.

 

[LadyinOrange]

I'd still rather support a losing Vols team than a national championship anybody else.

 

[Elhanan]

It’s a pathetically sad part of UT. An absolute embarrassment for everyone involved nearly every season.

So many of these UT teams had more or equal talent to UF but still screw up that game.

The worst part of being a Tennessee fan is almost every season ending on day 1 of SEC play.

 

[LakeMaryFLVol]

and the agony continues. For the vast majority of those 33 years, my much anticipated
football season has ended before September is over. I have been to many of those games
both in Neyland and the Swamp. It doesn’t seem to matter which coach is coaching which
team, one thing I have always observed. The Gators come onto the field with “ Fire in their eyes “
while the Vols stroll out like they are going to a Sunday school picnic. One of the most obvious
was the ‘96 game in Neyland. It was 20 something to nothing before I had settled in my seat.
I don’t know what the coaches are feeding those Gators during pregame, but I wish we could
get some of it.

Right there with you..It has been grueling Posted this in another thread ..

Was there for Faxgate in ‘91,
The rain when Heath fell short in 93,
95 When my 6 year old son met Peyton for first time and the boosters ( one of them paid for Battle’s moving van)on bus calling for first year DC John Chavis’s head on bus back to hotel
‘97 the George Pick 6…
missed 99..
01 was Euphoric beating Coach Shiny pants in his last game at swamp.
03 Clausen show…
05 Loss Leach and their Defense
07 Loss with Tebow
09 missed
the ‘11 ‘13 no Jimmy and Joes
‘15 with high school daughter her friend and wife . The Butch “play to lose game” 28-27
‘17 was an instant Butch replay of 2015 with my son .
2019 Absolutely out classed in hottest FL game attended ‘
21 missed.
this year's weed depleted deficient line without Mays and bullfighting Ole' corner backs' bowl

Done with that dump Maybe now they will win there in 5 years

 

[ftsandersvol]

33 years of living one hour from Gainesville​

That has to be brutal.

 

[VolsRule]

Fla has gotten lucky in a bunch of games in Gainesville and Neyland.