Things are looking up for Tennessee coach Derek Dooley and his team, but he and the Vols know there’s a lot of season left to play.KNOXVILLE — It may only have been Monday, but Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley was leaving nothing to chance regarding Saturday’s visit from No. 18 Florida.
Referring to a fellow UT athletic department employee who Dooley believed already was struggling to maintain proper perspective, the third-year coach said, “[He’s] already caught up in the external clutter. He’s already lost focus.”
Once was the time the Vols versus the Gators was the focus of the entire college football universe. From 1995 until this past season the game always was televised by either ABC or CBS, the last 16 times on the Giant Eye. Five of those were prime-time affairs.
Just as impressive is the fact that both teams were ranked in the top 10 in eight of those contests. On four occasions, both were ranked in the top five.
And just to prove the pollsters sometimes know their business, the higher ranked team has won 10 of those 17 meetings, though that’s somewhat skewed by the Gators’ seven straight wins, the last six of those coming as the favorites.