Something in the Air
Sort of like the seven wonders of the world, if you have never experienced it, you can’t know what it’s like. Like swallows returning to Capistrano (sp?) it happens only once a year. Because its occurrence is limited to one of two places in the world, its experienced firsthand by only 100K people or so, yet millions take it in vicariously on television. It has two names. In Knoxville they call it “Florida Week,” and in Gainesville, they call it “Tennessee Week,” but both communities know it as one of the most intense rivalries in college football. Not the most famous, not the oldest, not the most traditional…but definitely the most intense. The Vols (TN) hate the Gators (FL) and the Gators hate the Vols.
Most of the mutual hatred stems from the 1990’s and the reign of then Florida head coach Steve Spurrier, whose teams dominated the South Eastern Conference (SEC), much of the nation, and specifically Tennessee. Spurrier was cocky, arrogant, and offensive, publicly trash-talking his opponents (particularly TN) before and after wasting them with his “Fun and Gun” style of play. But he was also a wizard when it game to the playbook. You just couldn’t beat him (particularly TN). Even the legendary Peyton Manning, who is arguably one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, never lead TN to victory over Florida in his 4 years as a quarterback. Some say that’s what cost Peyton the Heisman trophy. (But that’s just an excuse. There was some behind the scenes shifty footwork with the Heisman contest that year….but that’s another story.) Ironically, the year after Peyton graduated, Tennessee beat Florida for the first time in years( by 3 points in overtime), with a solid but no where near as talented QB, and went on to win the National Championship. After years of being the bridesmaid to Florida’s bride within the SEC, Tennessee finally had the triple crown: a SEC championship, a National championship, and a defeat of Steve Spurrier. Tennessee’s tubby head coach, Phil Fulmer, is said to have actually jumped 3-4 inches in the air he was so excited.
Did that phase Spurrier? Hardly. He was back at the next year and continued to dominated Tennessee…that is until 2001. It was Spurrier’s final year as a college football coach. He has announced that he was going to retire after the bowl games and become a pro coach. Who knows what would have happened had the TN-FL game been played as scheduled that year. Traditionally the game is the 3rd weekend in September. The Sept 15th game was cancelled (along with all college football games that week) because of the WTC disaster that happened days earlier. Tennessee is a team that always plays better late season, and the only open Saturday both teams had was at the end of season, the last week allowed for regular season play because of college finals.
Late season was good for Tennessee, except that Florida tended to start seasons strong and just get stronger. The game was also in Gainesville in the dreaded SWAMP (that’s what Florida calls their stadium. Classy, huh?) not in Knoxville. (the SWAMP is considerd the 3rd best stadium in the country, while Tenn ranks at #1 )FL had a 10 year home winning streak. It was also a week after Fla was beaten by their other big rival Florida State, so they had something to prove. And it was Spurrier’s last game. Combine that with their natural hatred for Tennessee and we were doomed.
But goodness and all that is holy prevailed and Tenn won. Another triple crown of sorts: beat Florida; broke their decade long home game winning streak, and shut up Spurrier in the final regular game of his career. He literally was so mad he could hardly speak after the game.
The story of Spurrier and Tennessee is sort of like a Greek tragedy You see, Spurrier is a Tennessee boy. He grew up in Tenn dreaming of one day playing for the University of Tenn Volunteers. But The university atheltics passed on him, so he went to Florida to play QB and he won the Heisman trophy. Later, he wanted to coach for Tennessee and was again passed-over. SO he coached other places, eventually ending up at his former school Florida where he went on to dominate Tenn and produce a couple of Heisman winners. And it all ended with a bang and a whimper when he lost in his final game to, of all teams, Tn.
But there could be quite an epilogue. Spurrier did not have the kind of success in pro football he did with college players, so he has left the NFL and is rumored to be toying with a return to to the college game. Although, they say he will consider only 3 schools: Notre Dame (the most storied of all football programs); Florida State (his other big rival) and, yep, you guessed it..Tennesee.
But none of those teams is loooking for a coach just yet. But with college football things can change like the wind.
Wonder what Florida week would feel like with Spurrier on OUR side?