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Vols First Of Many Tests For Gators

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2008

Updated: 09/14/2008 12:12 am

GAINESVILLE - It was preseason - a week before the Florida Gators would begin practice - and Coach Urban Meyer was doing obligatory promotional duties for television broadcast partner Sun Sports.

Standing in a makeshift studio set up in a ballroom at the Tampa Marriott Waterside, Meyer looked into a camera and asked Florida fans to "join us for the Gators pregame show against ..." Meyer worked his way through the schedule, adding each opponent at the end of the invitation.

Midway through the process, the coach stopped, and to no one in particular, voiced his realization.

"That's a tough schedule," he said. "Where's a 'Join us for the Gators pregame show against the Catamounts?'"

There are The Citadel Bulldogs in late November, but that's a long time off, with the likes of Tennessee, LSU, Georgia and South Carolina along the way. Florida State waits as the regular-season finale.

That's the challenge Florida spent this bye week preparing for.

"Name our biggest rival? You could probably have fistfights over it," Meyer says. "That's one of the blessings of Florida. It's also one of the difficult things.

"There are some schools in the country that have to play one game a year. That's their season. We have five of them."

And next week the gauntlet starts when Florida meets Tennessee in Knoxville at 3:30 p.m. for CBS's nationally televised game of the week.

As heated rivalries go, Florida-Tennessee is an odd one, the passion of the series built almost entirely in recent years.

The schools have met 37 times, far fewer than the 85 games Florida has had against Georgia, or the 82 against Auburn. Among SEC Eastern Division opponents, Florida has faced the Volunteers fewer times than any other team except South Carolina, which didn't join the SEC until 1992. Tennessee did not play in Gainesville for the first time until 1954.

But in 1992, the SEC scheduled a championship game and split into two divisions. At that time, Florida and Tennessee happened to be among the class of the league.

As a result, between 1992 and 2001, either Florida or Tennessee won the Eastern Division and played in the SEC Championship Game. Only twice during that stretch did the Florida-Tennessee game winner not go on to claim the division and play in the SEC title game.

Now, 16 SEC Championship Games have been played, and either Florida or Tennessee has played in all but three - 2002, '03 and '05 when Georgia broke the trend.

Adding to the intrigue, the Florida-Tennessee game is the SEC opener for both teams.

"Division play made it much more important of a ballgame, because we are in the same division and it's a very early game," UT coach Phil Fulmer said. "For some good period of time there it was us and them - or them and us.

"From a divisional standpoint, that game is huge for both teams."

There was also the Steve Spurrier factor. The former Florida coach relished the upper hand the Gators enjoyed during his reign in Gainesville - seven wins in eight years between 1993 and 2000 - and he enjoyed making the Vols a target of his verbal tweaks.

Noting that what was then the Citrus Bowl was taking the SEC Eastern Division runner-up, Spurrier famously noted that "you can't spell Citrus without UT."

Another footnote in the rivalry is that in four appearances against the Gators while at UT, quarterback Peyton Manning did not win a game.

Now, Tennessee and Florida will be playing their third game of the season. After a 27-24 overtime loss at UCLA, the Volunteers had last week off before beating UAB 35-3 on Saturday. Florida opened with home wins against Hawaii and Miami going into this week's break.

A positive for Florida is that in Meyer's head coaching career his teams are 23-3 with more than one week to prepare for an opponent.

"We are not beat up," Meyer said. "But the week off is good, because offensively we have some kinks to work out. I think anytime you have a bye week before facing a bunch of excellent players like we are with Tennessee, it comes at a good time.

"But as far as preparation, maybe the reason we have done well is I have a great bunch of coaches and we don't waste time. We're already knee-deep in our opponent."

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534 or melliott@tampatrib.com.

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