KNOXVILLE – Tennessee and Florida are both in their first seasons under new coaches and have lost a combined 16 straight games to Power Five conference opponents.
Each already has dropped a game this season, and Saturday’s matchup is unlikely to have any sway on the Southeastern Conference Eastern division race.
It’s not the Volunteers-Gators game of old with conference and national title implications.
But there will be plenty at stake Saturday night when the division rivals play at Neyland Stadium in front of what is expected to be a crowd of more than 100,000 and a prime-time ESPN audience.
“This means everything to me,” Tennessee redshirt sophomore center Ryan Johnson said. “It’s huge. I know it means a lot to Vol Nation. I’m really excited about this game.”
Tennessee ended an 11-game losing streak to the Gators at Neyland Stadium in 2016, only to revert back to the losing side of the series in painful fashion last season in Gainesville when Feleipe Franks uncorked a 63-yard bomb on the game’s final play.
The pass, hauled in by a diving Tyrie Cleveland in the end zone, lifted Florida to a win that pointed Butch Jones’ final season as Tennessee coach in a terminal direction.
“Me as a competitor, I’ve watched it multiple times trying to see what I can do differently,” said senior safety Micah Abernathy, who was the Vols’ last line of defense on the play. “That’s just any player, really. That’s the just the competitive edge any player is going to have.”
Johnson watched the play from the sideline and said he remembers it vividly.
“It’s a heartbreaking feeling,” he said. “It really is. This game means so much to the football players and the fan base, and we always want to do our best and put everything out on the field. And when you do that and you come away with things like that, it’s hard. It really is.”
Jeremy Pruitt was busy coordinating Alabama’s defense last season, but Tennessee’s first-year head coach is familiar with the rivalry.
“When I was growing up, it was always the first big SEC game of the year,” Pruitt said. “When I was growing up, I always loved to watch it – always a lot of passion with both fan bases, a lot of tradition. I’m thankful to have the chance to be a part of it.”
Pruitt is familiar with first-year Florida coach Dan Mullen from Mullen’s nine years as head coach at Mississippi State.
If he cannot beat his former SEC West nemesis on Saturday, Pruitt may have to wait until November for his first SEC victory. After the Gators, the Vols face three juggernauts in a row with Georgia, Auburn and Alabama up next. A road game at South Carolina to close out October also will be a tall order for a young Tennessee team.
Pruitt noted after his team’s underwhelming 24-0 victory against Texas El Paso this past Saturday that “now the real season starts” as the Vols play eight of their final nine games against SEC foes.
It just so happens to begin with a critical matchup against a division rival that beat Tennessee in gut-wrenching fashion last season.
“We’ve left that taste in our mouth,” Johnson said. “We’re preparing, and I think that’s kept us motivated this year, especially for this game. I think we’re going to be prepared for this game and I think we’re going to work hard, and I think we’re going to go out there and work our hearts out.”
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.