Tennessee football kickoff time vs. Florida a good omen

What was once a longstanding tradition for what was once a huge rivalry will return to its proper television station. The kickoff time and TV channel was revealed for Tennessee football’s SEC opener against the Florida Gators, which will take place Saturday, Sept. 24.

UT will host Florida at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS, revealed by the SEC Office on Monday. In the last 26 seasons, since the SEC on CBS began in 1996, the Vols have faced Florida in that primetime CBS slot. Of course, that’ll end in two years when the league begins its partnership with ABC and ESPN.

Still, it’s a good omen for Tennessee football to be facing Florida on CBS. Why? Well, ever since Florida began its dominance in the series, which started in 2006, only once were they the higher ranked team facing them at home. That was 2016.

Rocky Top won that game 38-28. They scored 38 unanswered after falling behind 21-0, and it would have been the most memorable game of the year had a hail mary from Joshua Dobbs to Jauan Jennings to beat the Georgia Bulldogs not followed the next week.

Now, there are still some things working against the Vols. They are still 3-17 in those CBS primetime slot games. In fact, even as the higher ranked team at home on CBS, they are 1-2, as they lost in 2002 and 1996 that way. They also lost as the higher ranked team in 1999, 2005 and 2017, but those were on the road.

Also, Billy Napier is a first-year head coach. Steve Spurrier is the last first-year head coach at Florida to lose to the Vols. Rocky Top is 1-3 in the four times these two have faced off with them undefeated and Florida having a loss since 1990, and that’ll likely be the case next week. They are 0-2 in the CBS primetime slot of such games.

Simply put, there are tons of other factors working against Tennessee football, but we have to be fair. The Vols have lost 16 of 17, and they have lost 25 of 32 games since these teams began playing annually in 1990. As a result, any sort of stat you bring up related to this game will likely involve UT with a losing record.

That means you really have to pull from the positives to think the Vols have a chance, not the negatives, and getting Florida at home in the CBS primetime slot for the first time since 2016 is a great sign for them. Maybe they can finally pull out the victory.

If they really want to give themselves a shot at the win, they should wear the Smokey Greys and Checker Neyland. We know the Smokey Greys are coming back this year, and Danny White and Josh Heupel brought back Checker Neyland last year.

Both were used in the Vols’ win over Florida in 2016. Given the fact that the Vol Shop just announced the availability of Smokey Greys to purchase once again, you have to think this could be a possibility. It’s not likely they use them for the Akron Zips.

We can’t ignore the return of the V-O-L-S letters on top of Neyland either. The last time those were up when the Vols played Florida, they won 20-17 in 1998. Also, 1998 is the only year ever Tennessee football had the V-O-L-S letters and the Power T for the midfield logo. Both are in play once again this year.