Tennessee head coach Butch Jones leaves the field with a injured Jalen Reeves-Maybin (21). The Ohio University Bobcats visited the University of Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium in a non-conference NCAA football game on Saturday September 17, 2016. KNOXVILLE - In the pressure-packed world of a Southeastern Conference football coach, every game is a must-win.
On some Saturdays the notion is truer than others, though, which is the case today for Tennessee and Butch Jones.
The fourth-year head coach and his Volunteers understand the magnitude of their clash with division rival Florida, which rolls into Knoxville with an 11-year winning streak in the series and the swagger that comes with it.
Now it's up to Jones and his team to silence the Gators and nab the kind of momentous victory his program needs.
"This is definitely something that you dream about as a kid, playing in the SEC and playing rivalry games," Tennessee safety Micah Abernathy said. "I know growing up I played video games about this, but being in the moment it's not too big for us or anybody on our football team. We're just taking it one day at a time trying to get better."
Tennessee's dreams too often have turned into nightmares against its SEC East nemesis.
The long losing streaks against Florida and Alabama are frustrating for Tennessee's fan base, but while the skid against Alabama has coincided with the Crimson Tide's dynasty under Nick Saban, the futility against Florida is more maddening because the Gators haven't been at the same level.
Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow were winning conference and national championships during the first half of the streak, but since 2009 Florida won more than eight games just twice (2012 and 2015), changed coaches twice and endured a 4-8 season in 2013 - all while maintaining its dominance of Tennessee.
The Gators have let the Vols hear about it, too, with a steady stream of trash talk both this week and dating back to last season's comeback win.
"It's a big opportunity for us as a team to go out, especially on a national stage," quarterback Josh Dobbs said, "and show what Tennessee football is."
"It all starts in our preparation, not getting too caught up in the moment, but preparing as you do each and every week, not getting out of your routine and focusing in on the details and focusing in on improving each and every day and, when game time comes, going out and executing and playing football like you know how to play."
The fun and flair are back in the rivalry with the Gators providing a steady stream of talk in response to Tennessee's crowning as the offseason division champion. Not since 2006 have both teams been ranked in the top 20 at the time of their early-season meeting. Again the outcome could determine the winner of the SEC East, as it did annually in the 1990s.
"This is one you circle on your calendar," said Florida cornerback Jalen Tabor, the ringleader of the Gators' trash-talking. "They're going to go harder this week in practice. It's Tennessee-Florida for the SEC East. You win this game, I'm not saying you win the SEC East, but you get ahead.
"The team that loses needs the team that wins to lose two more games in conference."
The pressure is on Jones to win this game, particularly after how Tennessee lost the past two Florida games. He needs it for the sake of his credibility in the eyes of his own fan base and at a national level. Jones and his staff must coach to win rather than not to lose, and the players can't be tight on the big stage.
"You have a bunker mentality," he said. "You come in and I've been locked in a staff room watching film. I'm in the offensive staff room and the defensive staff room, so I don't see what's out there. Any time I spend seeing what's out there, that's a waste of our time and really it's insignificant.
"It's all about our players in this building and getting ready to play. In college football today there are no do-overs. Every game is critical. We understand this game means a lot to a lot of people, and this is why you come to the University of Tennessee, to play in rivalry games like this.
"But every game is critical when you have dreams, goals and aspirations like we do. I don't get caught up in this is the biggest game ever and all that, because we have a lot of games to play, and that takes you off your consistency and your course of preparing your football team. That's the same message we've had to our players as well.
"It's been more of a businesslike and more of a professional-like approach of getting ready to play winning football come Saturday, and you have to do that with focus, concentration and having a great week of preparation."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com