- Jun 19, 2014
- 12,810
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Founding Member
We didn't used to play the Vols every year. In 1990, Spurrier's first year, we went up to Knoxville for the first time in a long time. The game was close until just before half. Dale Carter ran back a kick for a TD. That opened the floodgates in the second half and they stomped us good, 45-3. That was shortly after the Gainesville Student Murders and our fans who went to the game in Knoxville came back saying the Tennessee students were chanting about the murders.
We should have won the SEC that year, we had the best record, but we were on probation and Tennessee took the prize that was rightfully ours. They also won the SEC in 1989 so they were back-to-back SEC champs. Our players, coaches, and fans all wanted Tennessee bad.
The next year, 1991, we installed the new North Endzone turning the Swamp from a horseshoe to a bowl. In fact, it was that year that Spurrier named the place the "Swamp".
Tennessee rolled into Gainesville for a night game. They had a great QB, Andy Kelly, and maybe the best WR in the country in Carl Pickens. And they had Dale Carter on defense and special teams. They were looking to threepeat as SEC champions. We were hoping for our first "official" SEC championship.
It was one of the loudest games I've ever attended. Maybe the loudest. It was insane. Because it was at night, we didn't have the heat sucking the energy out of us. We poured it all down on the Vols. They were a good team that year. A damn good team. And it was a close game.
We had a freshman Corner named Larry Kennedy and that was the matchup Tennessee wanted to exploit. They tried to get Pickens on Kennedy all night. He rose to the occasion and played the game of his life. Pickens caught a lot of balls, but we kept him out of the endzone. In the 4th quarter, Kennedy intercepted a pass intended for Pickens and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. Ballgame. The crowd that had been wild all night went berserk. We tossed anything we could get our hands on into the air, mostly coke cups but really anything. They would come back down and we would throw them back up again, over and over again. It looked like popcorn popping in the student section. Many of these cups ended up pelting the Volunteer section and possibly even their sideline...or so I heard. It was after that game that the SEC made it a rule that you couldn't put your students on top of the opposing teams sideline. But I digress. They actually had to stop the game to restore order and get the student section calmed down enough to continue the game.
It was painfully loud that game. Head throbbing, ear splitting, loud. The relentless energy of the crowd was just incredible. I remember the Tennessee players keeping their helmets on while on the sideline, and covering their earholes with their hands. Just made us scream at them harder.
So why am I telling this story? In the South Endzone there was a small section that was almost calm amidst the pandemonium of that night. Young faces. Wide eyed. These were the recruits coming in to watch the Gators play.
Remember that in 1991, it was FSU and Miami who had been top 5 (and even National Champs) for years while Florida languished on probation and played boring (no offense, Emmitt) football.
Well, those recruits were AWED by what they saw and what they heard that night. We didn't get every one of them, but we got most of them. Those recruits went on to win a bunch of SECs and were the junior and senior leaders of our 1995 and 1996 teams culminating in our first National Championship.
That's why when I was at Ole Miss last week I looked for the recruits in the South Endzone. I was hoping the energy and atmosphere would have the same effect on them that it had on their predecessors that night in 1991.
Here's Zack's article on who was there for the Ole Miss game (and many of them were there for the previous week's game against Tennessee as well): http://recruiting.blogs.gatorsports.com/21110/top-uf-targets-returning-for-ole-miss-game/
It wasn't the same experience as that night in 1991, but it was a damn special night in the Swamp last week. I have a strong suspicion that we will see a lot of those kids on our sidelines in the coming years.
Alex.
We should have won the SEC that year, we had the best record, but we were on probation and Tennessee took the prize that was rightfully ours. They also won the SEC in 1989 so they were back-to-back SEC champs. Our players, coaches, and fans all wanted Tennessee bad.
The next year, 1991, we installed the new North Endzone turning the Swamp from a horseshoe to a bowl. In fact, it was that year that Spurrier named the place the "Swamp".
Tennessee rolled into Gainesville for a night game. They had a great QB, Andy Kelly, and maybe the best WR in the country in Carl Pickens. And they had Dale Carter on defense and special teams. They were looking to threepeat as SEC champions. We were hoping for our first "official" SEC championship.
It was one of the loudest games I've ever attended. Maybe the loudest. It was insane. Because it was at night, we didn't have the heat sucking the energy out of us. We poured it all down on the Vols. They were a good team that year. A damn good team. And it was a close game.
We had a freshman Corner named Larry Kennedy and that was the matchup Tennessee wanted to exploit. They tried to get Pickens on Kennedy all night. He rose to the occasion and played the game of his life. Pickens caught a lot of balls, but we kept him out of the endzone. In the 4th quarter, Kennedy intercepted a pass intended for Pickens and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. Ballgame. The crowd that had been wild all night went berserk. We tossed anything we could get our hands on into the air, mostly coke cups but really anything. They would come back down and we would throw them back up again, over and over again. It looked like popcorn popping in the student section. Many of these cups ended up pelting the Volunteer section and possibly even their sideline...or so I heard. It was after that game that the SEC made it a rule that you couldn't put your students on top of the opposing teams sideline. But I digress. They actually had to stop the game to restore order and get the student section calmed down enough to continue the game.
It was painfully loud that game. Head throbbing, ear splitting, loud. The relentless energy of the crowd was just incredible. I remember the Tennessee players keeping their helmets on while on the sideline, and covering their earholes with their hands. Just made us scream at them harder.
So why am I telling this story? In the South Endzone there was a small section that was almost calm amidst the pandemonium of that night. Young faces. Wide eyed. These were the recruits coming in to watch the Gators play.
Remember that in 1991, it was FSU and Miami who had been top 5 (and even National Champs) for years while Florida languished on probation and played boring (no offense, Emmitt) football.
Well, those recruits were AWED by what they saw and what they heard that night. We didn't get every one of them, but we got most of them. Those recruits went on to win a bunch of SECs and were the junior and senior leaders of our 1995 and 1996 teams culminating in our first National Championship.
That's why when I was at Ole Miss last week I looked for the recruits in the South Endzone. I was hoping the energy and atmosphere would have the same effect on them that it had on their predecessors that night in 1991.
Here's Zack's article on who was there for the Ole Miss game (and many of them were there for the previous week's game against Tennessee as well): http://recruiting.blogs.gatorsports.com/21110/top-uf-targets-returning-for-ole-miss-game/
It wasn't the same experience as that night in 1991, but it was a damn special night in the Swamp last week. I have a strong suspicion that we will see a lot of those kids on our sidelines in the coming years.
Alex.
