Tennessee Vols 13 most unlucky breaks between firing, bringing back Phillip Fulmer

6. Tennessee football blows a fourth-quarter lead to the Florida Gators in 2014.

After 2012, Dave Hart and Tennessee football settled on Butch Jones. He was their fourth choice behind Jon Gruden, Charlie Strong and Mike Gundy. But he immediately won over the fan base with his recruiting for 2014.

A 5-7 2013 season was forgivable due to an injury to Justin Worley and Jones installing a new system. With so much young talent, fans expected a rough 2014 as well. However, one part of 2014 was the chance to end the losing streak to the Florida Gators.

From 2005 to 2009, fans could forgive Tennessee’s losing streak to Florida. The Gators were at their peak those years, and the Vols fell off. But the two were on the same level fro 2010 to 2013, so those four losses made things worse.

In 2014, both were irrelevant. So irrelevant, in fact, that the game that used to stop the college football world was put on the SEC Network. It was embarrassing.

Tennessee football fans didn’t care. They wanted to end this nine-game losing streak. So they brought in Lil’ Jon to hype the fans up, turned Neyland into a giant orange and white checkerboard, and waited on their team to deliver.

Well, we know the story. Up 9-0 in a defensive struggle in the fourth quarter, Will Muschamp made a switch from Jeff Driskel to Treon Harris. Helped by a Tennessee turnover, Harris led the offense to 10 points before the defense figured him out. That was all he needed.

A late interception by Justin Worley secured a 10-9 victory for Florida. They won their 10th game in the series.

Generally, this wouldn’t be an unlucky break. It would just be another close loss. But the way Tennessee football kept losing to Florida hinted at something worse. They were cursed with the program, and this only proved it further.