Vols seniors try to end UF's run

KNOXVILLE - Peyton Manning is obviously the most notable, but he's not the only University of Tennessee Volunteer to get swept by rival Florida.

A group of UT seniors - even fifth-year seniors - left the program after last season without having beat the hated Gators.

Several more seniors are in danger of the same fate today.

Most expect 10th-ranked Florida to accomplish today something even Steve Spurrier's mighty Gators couldn't do - beat the Volunteers six consecutive times.

"It's always a good time to play Florida," said UT senior fullback Kevin Cooper, a former Baylor School star. "It's one of the most hyped games of the year for us, but probably not for them."

Cooper tried to continue but was interrupted by a reporter.

"Why doesn't this mean as much to Florida?" the reporter asked.

"For them, it might not be [as big], because this series has just been ... they just keep winning," Cooper said. "We've got to change this around."

Today is the last opportunity for him and several others to do that.

"It would be so nice to beat those guys my senior year," Cooper said.

Media aren't allowed to speak to UT coaches or players after Wednesday, and several seniors weren't ready to speak so early in the week about possibly beating the Gators.

"It would feel great," tight end Luke Stocker acknowledged Monday. "But I guess the mature way to look at it is today was the first step in getting prepared for them, and then tomorrow is the next step, and then so on and so forth. That's the way you've got to look at it, just like you look at the next play and then the next play once you're in practice.

"You've got to look at it day to day. And when Saturday gets here, we've just got to be prepared."

Stocker was prodded into giving the offense's keys to stopping the streak.

"We've got to play consistent," he said. "We've got to move the ball well, and when we get down in striking distance, we've got to put seven on the board instead of three."

Senior defensive lineman Gerald Williams is a South Florida native who signed with the Vols over the Gators.

"It's another game on the schedule," Williams said. "You've got to feel it down in your soul when you're going against a rival, and there will probably be a little bit more edge, but we just look at it like it's the next team."

Heading into his first Southeastern Conference game as a head coach, UT's Derek Dooley said he typically takes a "they all count the same" approach. But he didn't deny the importance of this rivalry to players and fans.

"I do recognize that there are certain rivalries that tend to spark a little more interest from your fan base," he said. "And certainly this is one of them."

But Dooley said focusing on the magnitude of this game wouldn't benefit him, his assistants or his players. Even focusing on Florida's schemes would take the Vols only so far, he added.

Dooley would rather his players focus on fixing their lack of late-game fire in a 48-13 loss to Oregon. A 13-3 lead and a 13-13 halftime tie deteriorated into the worst UT loss in Neyland Stadium history, and Dooley said avoiding a similar fate starts with a stern glance in the mirror.

"We all know so much about [Florida]," Dooley said. "We know who they are, we know how we played against them in the past, and really my biggest focus is on how we compete. I have a lot of respect for the team we're playing. They've sort of set the standard, if you will, in the last five or 10 years in the league. But if we're focusing our energy too much on them ... we have so much work to do internally, how we compete, and that's all we're going to keep focusing on.

"Until we fix those things, it doesn't matter who we play. I'll leave it at that."

Contact Wes Rucker at wrucker@timesfreepress.com or 865-851-9739. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wesrucker or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tfpvolsbeat.

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