dduncan4163
Have at it Hoss
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First and 10: Florida has owned the rivalry. Tennessee owns the future
1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but …
In the wonderful world of Wuerffel and Manning, and Gaffney and Price and even Dobbs and Grier, I’d like to remind everyone of how far we’ve come in the Florida-Tennessee rivalry in one short season.
Emory Jones won last year’s game for Florida.
And was all but run out of town a week later.
As we prepare this week for yet another edition of what was once the best rivalry in the SEC (ask your dad), the dynamics of change since Florida’s 38-14 win in Gainesville are remarkable.
Tennessee was in its first season under coach Josh Heupel, the initial stage of embracing his Blur Ball offense and desperately trying anything to stop anyone on defense — all with a depleted roster from a coaching change that left the program at an all-time low in the modern era.
Florida was humming along with a coach who had led the program to 3 straight New Year’s 6 bowls, and was 2 weeks removed from a 2-point coulda, woulda, shoulda loss to SEC king Alabama. The 16th victory over Tennessee in the last 17 games was predictably easy.
Then Florida lost 6 of 9 to finish the season. Then Tennessee won 5 games over the next 2 months, and somehow reached 7 wins with a team that probably was set up to win 4.
And now here we are.
Florida fired Dan Mullen, replaced him with Billy Napier and began 2022 with the most impressive win of the early college football season over Utah — but has crashed since (more on that later).
Tennessee has been moving and improving, getting better every week since losing by 24 in Gainesville. Even got a gut-check overtime win at defending ACC champion Pittsburgh 2 weeks ago.
“Our fan base is excited about this game,” Heupel said of the annual Florida rivalry, “and our players should be, too.”
Meanwhile, in Gainesville, Napier was showering praise Saturday night on USF, which had lost 23 of its past 24 games to FBS teams — and had a chance to beat Florida in the final minute of a 31-28 loss.
“That South Florida team I watched is a high-quality team,” Napier said.
This is your foundation heading into a flashpoint game in the SEC East Division. Florida has already lost to Kentucky and is on the verge of cementing its place in the bottom half of the division with another loss — in a spectacularly strange fall since the season opener.
Tennessee has spent an entire offseason building toward this game, pointing toward breaking a 5-game losing streak to the Gators and giving Heupel his first signature win. A win here not only underscores where the Vols are headed, it supports the idea — to high school recruits, to transfer portal recruits — that Heupel has the program moving in the right direction.
That for the first time since 2006, Tennessee can play games of significance in the month of November.
1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but …
In the wonderful world of Wuerffel and Manning, and Gaffney and Price and even Dobbs and Grier, I’d like to remind everyone of how far we’ve come in the Florida-Tennessee rivalry in one short season.
Emory Jones won last year’s game for Florida.
And was all but run out of town a week later.
As we prepare this week for yet another edition of what was once the best rivalry in the SEC (ask your dad), the dynamics of change since Florida’s 38-14 win in Gainesville are remarkable.
Tennessee was in its first season under coach Josh Heupel, the initial stage of embracing his Blur Ball offense and desperately trying anything to stop anyone on defense — all with a depleted roster from a coaching change that left the program at an all-time low in the modern era.
Florida was humming along with a coach who had led the program to 3 straight New Year’s 6 bowls, and was 2 weeks removed from a 2-point coulda, woulda, shoulda loss to SEC king Alabama. The 16th victory over Tennessee in the last 17 games was predictably easy.
Then Florida lost 6 of 9 to finish the season. Then Tennessee won 5 games over the next 2 months, and somehow reached 7 wins with a team that probably was set up to win 4.
And now here we are.
Florida fired Dan Mullen, replaced him with Billy Napier and began 2022 with the most impressive win of the early college football season over Utah — but has crashed since (more on that later).
Tennessee has been moving and improving, getting better every week since losing by 24 in Gainesville. Even got a gut-check overtime win at defending ACC champion Pittsburgh 2 weeks ago.
“Our fan base is excited about this game,” Heupel said of the annual Florida rivalry, “and our players should be, too.”
Meanwhile, in Gainesville, Napier was showering praise Saturday night on USF, which had lost 23 of its past 24 games to FBS teams — and had a chance to beat Florida in the final minute of a 31-28 loss.
“That South Florida team I watched is a high-quality team,” Napier said.
This is your foundation heading into a flashpoint game in the SEC East Division. Florida has already lost to Kentucky and is on the verge of cementing its place in the bottom half of the division with another loss — in a spectacularly strange fall since the season opener.
Tennessee has spent an entire offseason building toward this game, pointing toward breaking a 5-game losing streak to the Gators and giving Heupel his first signature win. A win here not only underscores where the Vols are headed, it supports the idea — to high school recruits, to transfer portal recruits — that Heupel has the program moving in the right direction.
That for the first time since 2006, Tennessee can play games of significance in the month of November.
