The last time Tennessee beat Florida Phillip Fulmer was on the sideline. So was Randy Sanders. There's a chance someone reading this doesn't know who Randy Sanders is.
There was no such thing as an iPhone, Twitter, or Rocky Top Talk. Urban Meyer was in Utah and his spread option would never work in the SEC, Will Muschamp was an assistant under Nick Saban in Baton Rouge, and Jim McElwain was coaching wide receivers and special teams at Michigan State.
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It's a familiar feeling if you've been doing this for a while. Florida's five year run over the Vols from 1993-97 was unquestionably more painful because Tennessee was beating everyone else. Here's my favorite stat once more: between an October 1994 loss to Alabama and a November 1999 loss to Arkansas, Tennessee went 1-4 against Florida and 37-0 against the rest of the SEC.
But oh, those losses. In 1993 Florida jumped to a 21-0 lead before winning 41-34. In 1994 UT was shutout by the Gators (the last time that's happened to the Vols) 31-0. In 1996 Florida scored the game's first 35 points in a Neyland Stadium shocker. And in 1997 the Gators jumped to a 14-0 lead off a Peyton Manning pick six en route to a 33-20 victory. Only once in the five year losing streak did Tennessee even have the lead, and even that was somehow more painful: the Vols jumped Florida 30-14 late in the second quarter in Gainesville in 1995 before Florida exploded in the second half to win 62-37.
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Plain and simple, the Vols have to learn how to win. That's true in a lot of ways for this team, but especially against Florida. There's good news for Tennessee in this series on paper with a coaching change in Gainesville, but that didn't stop Urban Meyer or Will Muschamp (or Ron Zook on his first try) in this rivalry.
