I love Rocky Top. It sounds like...... Victory!
UT games have been happening my birthday weekends for a long time. Been a good run. Let's repeat this one.
I got kicked out late in 2nd Q but snuck back in to watch us reel off 48.
1995: Second half rain
For the third time in five seasons, the No. 8 Vols and No. 4 Gators were both undefeated and ranked in the top ten coming into their annual contest. The squads featured talented young quarterbacks in UT sophomore
Peyton Manning and UF junior
Danny Wuerffel, and many pregame prognosticators accurately predicted an offense shootout, with
Sports Illustrated planning on putting Manning on the cover of their magazine the week after the game.
The Vols struck quickly. On the first play from scrimmage, Manning connected with receiver
Joey Kent for a 72-yard gain. On the next play, Manning threw a touchdown pass to
Marcus Nash, giving UT a 7–0 lead only 15 seconds into the game.
[42] After another Manning touchdown pass and two Gator turnovers, the Vols held a 30–14 advantage late in the second quarter in front of a stunned Florida Field crowd.
[43] Wuerffel led the Gators to an answering score, cutting the lead to 30–21 with a touchdown pass in the last minute of the first half. That would be the beginning of a historic run, as Florida scored 48 straight points despite a torrential second half downpour and won in a 62–37 rout. Many records were broken in the game: Wuerffel threw an SEC record six touchdown passes; Tennessee set school records for most points scored in a loss and most points given up in the modern era.
[42][43] After the game,
Sports Illustrated chose to put Wuerffel on its cover instead of Manning.
[44]
Florida would go 12–0 through the regular season and the
SEC Championship Game and played for the national championship in the
1996 Fiesta Bowl, losing in a blowout to Nebraska. Tennessee would not lose another game all season, finishing 11–1 after a
Citrus Bowl victory over
Ohio State. The schools finished No. 2 and No. 3 in the final polls, with the
AP Poll placing the Gators ahead and the
Coaches' Poll reversing the order.
[45][46]
The Coaches' Poll was another cause of controversy. Two coaches had voted the Gators out of their top ten, allowing the Vols to slip above them in the final rankings. Since the ballots were submitted secretly, the coaches in question were never identified, but some in the UF program suggested that UT's coach Fulmer had purposely skewed his ballot to improve his team's ranking at the expense of their rival. Fulmer insisted that he had not voted Florida out of his top ten, but did admit that he had ranked them behind his own team.
[47]
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