If there's a single football game Tennessee needs to win this season for the sake of its fan base's sanity, it's the one at Neyland Stadium the fourth Saturday in September.
That's when the Volunteers will try - again - to snap their long losing streak to rival Florida.
The skid, now at 11 games, already was weighing heavily on the program and its fans before the past two meetings, during which Florida came back to hand Tennessee a pair of disheartening one-point defeats. The 28-27 loss last season in Gainesville, Fla., featured a cacophony of errors from coaches and players and cost the Vols the Southeastern Conference's East Division title, which the Gators won.
Naturally, that defeat and the losing streak it extended came up during Tennessee coach Butch Jones' news conference Tuesday at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla.
"I haven't even thought of that," Jones told reporters.
Tennessee managed to recover from losing to Florida and finish strong each of the past two seasons, but the Vols probably won't be able to win the East in 2016 if they can't beat the Gators in Knoxville. Tennessee follows that game with trips to Georgia and Texas A&M and a visit from defending national champion Alabama.
That four-week stretch is crucial to Tennessee's season, and the Vols believe they're more equipped to win big games after falling short in many of them last season.
"I've always said it, the teams that win in November and December are the teams that can manage and handle the natural adversities that a long football season brings about," Jones said. "There's always great opportunities to learn; unfortunately most learning opportunities occur when you lose and you fall short in a game. But our players have been very focused.
"That's the thing about this conference, is no one game is more important than the other. I know the fans get into all this, but when you're going through a long season of SEC play, every game is critical because of the competency of the teams, coaches and all that. It's the reason why it's the best football conference in the country."
Tennessee last won its division in 2007, and the East winner last triumphed in the SEC championship game in 2008, when Florida beat Alabama on the way to its second national championship in three seasons under coach Urban Meyer. The past seven SEC titles were won by Alabama (four), Auburn (two) and LSU (one), and West teams have been overwhelmingly successful in cross-divisional contests the past few seasons.
That prompted Auburn coach Gus Malzahn earlier this offseason to suggest possibly realigning the divisions, but on Tuesday commissioner Greg Sankey scoffed at the notion of realigning or abolishing the current division setup.
"It's all cyclical. It all goes in cycles," Jones said. "I was in a conference a few years ago where one side was, on paper, stronger than the other, and then it flipped. I think it all goes in cycles. We have something very special here at the SEC. I'm in favor of it the way it is."
Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina all have new coaches, and only three East teams reached bowl games last season.
Jones still believes his division-favorite Vols will face plenty of stiff competition, particularly from Florida and Georgia.
"They'll be one of the best teams if not the best team in our conference, when you look at their defense and their returning starters," he said of the Gators. "You look at Georgia. I think Georgia is one of the best football teams in our conference as well, not just on the East side.
"When you look at the competition on our side, it's going to be a great challenge for us."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.