Tennessee Vols Could End More than Just Losing Streak to Florida Gators With a Win Saturday

The Tennessee Vols football team is looking to end a 10-game skid to the Gators Saturday, but there are other streaks the Volunteers could end with a win.

Yes, the 10-game losing streak to the Florida Gators is the biggest thing on the minds of every Tennessee Vols football fan, and we know it is on the minds of the players and coaches despite what they claim.

But that is not the only streak Tennessee could end Saturday with a win.

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Trapped in a vicious cycle of mediocrity as a historic Top 10 college football program, the Tennessee Volunteers are in the middle of far too many droughts right now, which is not acceptable as a program.

That mediocrity has facilitated losing streaks that are huge to the Vols, including streaks to all of their biggest rivals, not just Florida.

But if they can overcome the hump and beat the Gators on Saturday, not only will the streak to Florida end. There will be plenty of other streaks coming to an end as well.

Here are a few:

10-Game Losing Streak in Conference Openers

Okay, I get it. This one is kind of ridiculous because the first nine of those 10 losses were all to Florida, so naturally the Vols were going to have a losing streak in conference openers. But last year they lost a heartbreaker to the Georgia Bulldogs on the road in the opener, which legitimizes this streak.

Tennessee is the dark horse for many experts to win the SEC East, and the winner of this game will get the early jump to go to Atlanta. Since this losing streak started, they made it to Atlanta once, in 2007, and all the chips had to fall their way that year.

To start 1-0 in the conference would be huge, and a win this Saturday gives them a chance to do that for the first time since 2004.

CBS Losing Streaks

There are quite a few streaks here, so let’s take each one separately.

Six-Game Losing Streak on CBS

This is an atrocious record for the Vols. Currently, Tennessee has a six-game losing streak on the network dating back to 2010, when they beat the Ole Miss Rebels 52-14. They never got the chance to end the streak last year, as none of their games were on CBS, and they lost three games in 2013, to Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

In 2012, the Vols lost their only game on CBS, to Georgia, and they lost to Florida and LSU in 2011.

All of that could come to an end Saturday with them playing on CBS, but the streak goes deeper with the time slot.

13-Game Losing Streak in 3:30 CBS Time Slot

While the Vols only have a six-game losing streak on CBS, they have a 13-game losing streak in the CBS 3:30 primetime slot, dating back to 2007. The win against Ole Miss in 2010 was a noon game.

But that same year, they lost to Florida and that heartbreaker to LSU, and the year before they lost to Florida and Alabama. In 2008, they lost to Florida, Auburn, and Georgia. That is even a worse streak, but things get even uglier when you go deeper than that.

15-Game Losing Streak as SEC Game of the Week

Because CBS every now in then does their game of the week at night or a different time, the Vols have a 15-game losing streak SEC on CBS Game of the Week when called by Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson. That 2007 win over Georgia was called by Craig Bolerjack and Steve Beuerlein.

That same year, though, Tennessee lost the SEC Championship game to LSU, which was called by Lundquist and Danielson, and they got destroyed by the Florida Gators 59-20.

Then, the year before, in 2006, they lost to LSU in that slot off of a last-second touchdown by JaMarcus Russell at Neyland Stadium. Their last win while playing in the CBS Game of the Week was Alabama in 2006, when Arian Foster scored the game-winning touchdown. In fact, since Danielson took over for Todd Blackledge as the color-commentator in 2006, Tennessee is 1-15 with those two when you add in the 21-20 loss to Florida.

So that is another huge streak to end.

To be fair, a lot of these losing streaks have been aided by Tennessee’s skid against Florida. Seven of the 15 game of the week losses are part of this skid to the Gators, two of the six straight losses overall on the CBS network are to them, and five of the 13 losses in the 3:30 slot are to them. Also, they are obviously nine of the 10 conference opening losses.

But that would make beating them this weekend that much more essential. Simply put, as we have said all week, the Vols have to win this game.

Next: Tennessee-Florida: Five Gators to Watch For vs. Vols

The Tennessee Vols football team is looking to end a 10-game skid to the Gators Saturday, but there are other streaks the Volunteers could end with a win.

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