I will be out of town this weekend visiting with my fiancée who is in grad school in Ohio, so I will not be posting much this weekend. This likely will have to do until Monday at the earliest. We will be watching the game though.
I had an experience in Neyland Stadium in 2004, having visited while I was in the Gator Band. It was somewhat impressive, though it's not as loud as the Swamp is thanks to the architecture. That was the game where Dallas Baker got the penalty at the end that enabled UT to get down the field and score to win.
We began getting our stuff together as time was winding down, knowing it was over. James Wilhoit would make a field goal with six seconds to go to lock in the 30-28 final score. I wasn't even watching the scoreboard as those final six seconds, but I knew when it got to all zeros by the sound of the crowd. Then something hit us in the band.
Not an idea, or a thought, but an object. It was a stadium cup. More came, along with peanuts, a cheap foam seat cushion, and anything else that was small and throwable. The Vol fans were tossing garbage at us after they had won. I maybe could understand that if Florida had won on a cheap call or something, but a borderline call went their way at the end, and they won. Yet, stuff rained down on us from the fans above.
That as much as anything solidified Tennessee as the No. 2 team in the rivalry pecking order in my book, behind permanent No. 1 FSU. After all the good things I heard about the environment in Neyland, I got trash thrown on me.
The last time Florida went to Knoxville, I watched from a house in Gainesville since I had stopped doing marching band. Florida squeaked out the first in a long line of squeakers that season, 21-20. It was nerve wracking, but it was a win. It wasn't even the most excruciating win; that honor went to the South Carolina game.
Then last season's game happened. In many ways, the 59-20 score did more to affect the perception and expectations for Florida than any other game. The unproven secondary that had looked shaky against Troy did fine against future draft pick Erik Ainge, and the offense scored at will.
We would come to find out that the defensive performance was a fluke, and the offense only matched that production once more in the game against FAU. Nonetheless, the win over Tennessee sparked talk and hopes that Florida could repeat as national champions, and it would play into the perception that UT backed its way into the SEC title game.
Much is made of the running game in this series, as Rocky Top Talk has detailed here. I have never taken much stock in things like "the team with the most rushing yards nearly always wins in this series." The better team will have luxury of running more, while the lesser team will have to pass more thanks to having to come from behind. Correlation, not causation essentially.
This season though, stopping the run is the
17 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Scott Francis 9 months ago
Sing along now...
Rocky Toooop, you'll always beeee:
Number 2 in the S-E-C.
Good Ole Rocky Top, whoo!!
Second in the S-E-C!
Headed to Knox Vegas tomorrow! I'll yell like hell for ya'.
Go Gators!
Nice analysis! Hardesty and Foster worry me if they get a 10 pt lead at any point.
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David Wunderlich 9 months ago
True, though I've read in a couple places that Tennessee's longest run in either of the last two years is 6 yards. Part of that was Cutcliffe going crazy with passing, and part of it was extremely good run defense from the Gators.
Those two have been around for a while and the Gators have seemed to solve them. Hopefully the trend continues.
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Chris Medeiros 9 months ago
number 2 in the SEC? UGA, UF, LSU, AU, and even Bama are better than UT.
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Nick The Only 9 months ago
This should be a much "easier" game for Florida in the sense that they don't have to prepare for as much. We can pretty much expect that the Vols will try to pound it up the middle and use Crompton sparingly (I'm sure they'd like to establish the play action).
On the other hand, Tennessee has the prepare for one of the best running QB's in the country, constantly worry about where Percy Harvin is lined up on the field, and try to figure out whether whoever is lined up in the backfield is going to (a) take a handoff, (b) be a decoy for play action or a read option, (c) stay in a block for Tebow, (d) stay in and block, then roll out in the flat, (e) take a direct snap, or (f) flank Tebow on an option and in this scenario also worry whether Tebow pitches or carries the ball.
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C rittenden 9 months ago
Goooooooooooo GATORS!!
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Roy LaFaver 9 months ago
I theink the Vols have more in the tank than they have shown to this point. They are certainly equal in talent to the Gators, though the check mark for coaching might be with Florida. So, I hope the Vols handle them, but in any case LSU should beat up on them, and that will salve my wounded heart if the Vols go down.
As to backing in last year, the Vols were a lot tougher for the Tigers than the Gators were, so I have to think the big loss to Florida was an anomaly, as I hope was the case for the UCLA game.
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Michael Shibley 9 months ago
Good analysis David.
Yeah I hate it when home fans are rude to the opposition. It made me sad when I hear those things coming from the Neyland faithful. After that game I went off on the fans on my radio show.
Of course to be fair, my best friend was in the UT band and he got things worse than trash thrown on him in the Swamp, and a brawl almost erupted when Florida fans tried to take the hats of the band members.
I am really excited for the game. I think we have seen enough of Tebow now to at least try and stop him (try being the big word). I think it should be much closer than everyone thinks.
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David Wunderlich 9 months ago
It is unfortunate that the few sully the reputation of the many, but every fan base has its extremists.
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Mitch at sportschatplace.com 9 months ago
I will take the 7 1/2 points with the Vols in this one. Not sur who wins the game but the points sure look good for the home team.
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Nick The Only 9 months ago
I'm surprised Florida is only favored by 7.5. I guess thats due to the homefield advantage. Whatifsports has the Gators winning 94% of the time by an average score of 33-9.
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C rittenden 9 months ago
I dunno. This game is by no means a lock, and the Gators always seem to drop the ones they shouldn't. I won't stop worrying about this one until it's over. If we can pull this one down big, the season looks much, much cheerier.
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Tim Pollock 9 months ago
Drop the ones they shouldn't?
Umm...they've beaten Vandy 17 straight times and Kentucky 21 straight times.
They are 20-4-3 against South Carolina, they've beaten GA 15 out of 18 times, and they've beaten Fulmer 3 times in a row and 11 of the last 16.
That's the entire Eastern division.
They've also beaten their arch rival, FSU, 4 straight times.
Those teams are on their schedule every year; if anything, it seems like they pretty much take care of business...
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Scott Francis 9 months ago
Typically the ones they "shouldn't" lose come during the dreadful SEC West swing (Ole Miss-twice, the last two trips to Starkville, the blowout at Bama a few years ago, numerous Auburn debacles, etc...). Every time we get by Tennessee and think it's smooth sailing until the Cocktail Party, we stub our toe in the West.
I'm terrified this year since Ole Miss isn't so bad.
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Lisa Horne 9 months ago
I like the Gators to win, but I don't think it's going to be as easy as many think. I'm a bit worried. Freaking Tennessee always shows up in big games, well OK, not always, but this one has me worried. Gators win, but don't cover the spread.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GATORS!
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Brian Smith 9 months ago
Foster said he came back to UT for a ring. Ha. He should have went to the NFL and found some action with all the injured running backs. The only ring he is gonna get with the Vols this year is in his bathtub or on his coffee table. I keep hearing about him and Hardesty. You aren't going to beat the Gators with those two guys. They didn't do it last year. How are they going to do it this year with a better Gator Defense? Quit worrying Gator fans. It'll be a fun first half to watch and you can start celebrating in the 4th quarter and chat it up with your buddies at the bars or at home.
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Scott Francis 9 months ago
HA!
Dead wrong Brian!!!
We were there and the fun only lasted about 8 or 9 minutes!! hahahaha.
I've never seen a team successfully try to run out the clock for 52 minutes until Saturday.
It seemed like Fulmer was trying to help him out by running off tackle down by 20 with a whole field to go. We spent most of the game trying to decide where to go out afterwards...
Go Gators!!
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K Gator 9 months ago
Vols ain't got anybody named "Travis" this year to ruin our party in "Ob Knox ious" ville...
Gators 42 Vols 23 (second half blow out)
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