Is the Vols’ Losing Streak To Florida Really A Streak?

The last time the Vols beat Florida I was a 19 year old community college student, whose only worry was getting to my 8:00 AM English 111 class on time and making sure I wasn’t late for my job at the local YMCA.

Fast forward ten years and I’m 29 years old with a beautiful wife of six years, a (soon to be) three-year old son and a mortgage (and all the fun things that come along with that).

Suffice it to say, things have changed a bit in my life since Erik Ainge led the Vols to victory over Florida in 2004.

But one thing hasn’t changed over the last ten years — Tennessee can’t seem to beat Florida.

That might lead you to believe that things haven’t changed much on Rocky Top, as this one ailment keeps haunting the Volunteers. But if you’re a Vol fan, you know this simply isn’t true.

Yes the Vols have a nine-game “losing streak” to the Gators, but it’s hard for me to think of Tennessee’s ineptitude against Florida as a “streak”.

Sure, by definition that’s exactly what it is. Merriam-Webster defines a streak as a period of repeated success or failure. That would certainly seem to describe Tennessee’s current state, concerning Florida, perfectly. But while the Vols’ luck against the Gators hasn’t changed over the past nine seasons, the circumstances surrounding Tennessee’s program have.

I look at the Vols’ nine consecutive losses to Florida in four distinct phases. For this reason it’s easier for me to disassociate the word “streak” from those nine losses.

These four phases should be simple for any Vol fan to figure out, but I’ll help you out so you don’t have to do the legwork.

• Phase one (2005-2008): Phillip Fulmer era
• Phase two (2009): Lane Kiffin experiment
• Phase three (2010-2012): Derek Dooley years
• Phase four (2013-present): Butch Jones era

When you look at it like that, you can easily see the changes that have taken place on Rocky Top over the past decade. But each of those phases, a story in their own right, has their own respective subplots that help you break down this series of collective losses even further. Those subplots, of course, are the games themselves.

Looking at each game (and the circumstances surrounding each game), on its own merit and not grouped together with the other losses, helps to paint a much different picture of the Vols’ losing streak.

2005: The Vols had high expectations entering the 2005 season. Tennessee was ranked #5 heading into their matchup against Florida. The Gators were entering a new era under a hotshot coach that was bringing the spread offense from Utah to the SEC. You might remember him, Urban Meyer or something like that. Anyway, this game was a hard fought defensive struggle that ultimately saw the Gators emerge victorious. The Vols continued to struggle offensively all season, which resulted in Tennessee missing a bowl game for the first time during the Phillip Fulmer era.

2006: The 2006 matchup between Florida and Tennessee marked the return of UT offensive coordinator Dave Cutcliffe to the SEC. It was also the first time the Vols would be introduced to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. Tennessee actually had a ten point lead in this game, but a nullified interception for touchdown ultimately doomed the Volunteers. Tennessee rebounded from their disappointing 2005 season, by winning nine games, but the Gators went on to win the national championship.

2007: This was Tim Tebow’s first SEC start. Tebow, along with Percy Harvin, gave Florida a deadly offense that Tennessee had no idea how to stop. The Vols were a good team in 2007, but Florida was just feeling it on this day. The Vols lost by 39 points.

2008: Tennessee had no clue in this game. The Gators stifled Tennessee’s offense, which was having one of their worst years ever. The 2008 disaster of a season is what ultimately led to Phillip Fulmer being pushed out as coach. This was the beginning of a dismal stretch of Tennessee football.

2009: Here we arrive at the shortest phase of them all in Tennessee history (unless you count the Jim Chaney era, which we totally should) — the Lane Kiffin experiment. Kiffin came to town promising to “sing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida”. That didn’t turn out to be the case though. The Vols played Florida close and lost by ten, although Meyer later said the Gators didn’t try that hard on offense in the fourth quarter. Not that it mattered, no one was singing Rocky Top after this one and Kiffin wouldn’t coach against Florida again (until this season as the offensive coordinator at Alabama).

2010: And here’s the beginning of another phase of Vol football that Tennessee fans would like to forget about. Nothing relatively memorable about this game. Just that Derek Dooley lost to Meyer in their only meeting. Tennessee kept the game close until half time, but (as so often has happened to UT) they fell apart in the second half.

2011: This is one where Vol fans felt like they might steal one at the swamp. Tennessee was immensely talented on offense, but after wide receiver Justin Hunter tore his ACL in the first half, things just weren’t the same for the Volunteers. Florida withstood a run by the Vols in the fourth quarter to preserve the ten point win.

2012: The last time Florida visited Neyland was one of the loudest games in recent memory. Gameday was in town and the Vols were coming off a season-opening dismantling over an overhyped NC State team. This was also the last time the Vols were ranked. Everyone was feeling it and Tennessee, for three quarters, looked like they were going to do it. But the team fell apart and it was the beginning of the end for Derek Dooley.

2013: The Butch Jones era in Gainesville did not have a great start. This is the one misstep I think Butch Jones has had as the Vols’ coach. Jones started Nathan Peterman over Justin Worley in this game and it turned out to be a complete disaster. This was a sloppy game that neither team deserved to win.

So you see, even though the Volunteers have lost nine consecutive games to Florida, there are four very distinctly different teams that lost those games.

Aside from the power T that adorns the helmets and the shade of orange that covers the uniforms, there’s not a lot that connects team 118 to the losses that have come at the hands of Florida.

Sure the team and the coaches recognize the streak. They know the history and what’s at stake on Saturday. But it’s also important to remember the majority of Tennessee’s roster will be playing against Florida for the first or second time.

The losses in the past to Florida, while they matter, don’t have the same effect on the players as they do the fans. The perceived mental block that Tennessee has against the Gators is something that applies to the fans, not the players.

Team 118 isn’t thinking about the close loss in 2006, the dismantling in 2007 or even the disaster last season. They’re focused on 2014, more specifically October 4, 2014.

The only streak that matters on Saturday is the one that will start with a win.

There’s a senior class that will get their last shot at Florida on Saturday.

Tennessee won’t graduate another class that’s winless against the Gators. The Vols are winning this one.