When did the rivalry between Florida and Tennessee college football begin?
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Florida and Tennessee have played on the third Saturday of September almost every year since 1992, giving the rivalry its nickname. Notable exceptions were in 2001, when the game was postponed until December 1 due to the September 11 terrorist attacks, and in 2014, when the addition of two new members to the SEC temporarily scrambled the dates of many traditional conference rivalries and moved the Florida–Tennessee game to October. The rivalry has sometimes served as the conference opener and is often the first significant test of the season for one or both of the teams.
Florida Gators football
The rivalry reached a peak during the 1990s. In 1992, the SEC expanded to twelve schools and split into two divisions. Florida and Tennessee (in the Eastern Division) have met every year since, usually in mid-September for both teams' first conference game of the season. Led by coaches Steve Spurrier and Phillip Fulmer and featuring players such as Danny Wuerffel and Peyton Manning, both teams were highly ranked and the game had conference- and national-title implications. Florida and Tennessee combined to win two national championships during the decade.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
During the 1990s, Florida and Tennessee combined to win eight conference and two national championships, and either the Gators or the Volunteers represented the SEC East in each of the first ten SEC Championship games. Both teams were ranked in the top 10 for eight out of their ten contests during the decade, and neither team ever entered their rivalry game ranked lower than No. 15. Florida held a 7–3 record against Tennessee from 1990 to 1999.
College football
Organized intercollegiate football was first played in the state of Florida in 1901. A 7-game series between intramural teams from Stetson and Forbes occurred in 1894. The first intercollegiate game between official varsity teams was played on November 22, 1901. Stetson beat Florida Agricultural College at Lake City, one of the four forerunners of the University of Florida, 6-0, in a game played as part of the Jacksonville Fair.
Florida Atlantic Owls football
Florida Atlantic University football began play in 2001 with legendary coach Howard Schnellenberger serving as head coach until 2011. Schnellenberger was a former offensive coordinator with the NFL's Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins who, as a head coach, turned around a moribund Miami football program and won a national championship in his fifth season in 1983 after back to back nine win seasons in 1980 and 1981. Schnellenberger also turned around a downtrodden Louisville football program, winning the Fiesta Bowl in 1990.
After competing their first four years as an NCAA Division I-AA independent, the Owls moved to Division I-A and the Sun Belt Conference. Starting with the 2013–14 school year, FAU athletics have competed in Conference USA.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
The teams did not meet very often in the SEC schedule, but following Georgia Tech's departure, the regular season rotation coincidentally had them facing off in Knoxville the following October. UT fans, who denounced Dickey as a "traitor", eagerly anticipated the match-up and were not disappointed, as the Vols beat his new Florida squad 38–7 behind quarterback Bobby Scott's then-school record 385 passing yards. The Gators assisted the rout by committing four turnovers, including two John Reaves interceptions returned for touchdowns.
Florida Gators football
Auburn and Florida played annually from 1945 to 2002. In the overall series won-lost record, Auburn is Florida's most evenly-matched SEC opponent. Beginning in the 1980s, one team was usually highly ranked coming into the game and it had conference- and national-title implications.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Dickey was the head of UT's athletic department during the intense UF/UT Spurrier/Fulmer rivalry of the 1990s and retired in 2002, after which he moved to Jacksonville, Florida.
Florida State Seminoles football
Florida State has a rivalry with Atlantic Division foe Clemson Tigers. Florida State leads the all-time series 20–12. The Seminoles dominated the contests through most of the 1990s but 1999 marked a milestone as the hire of Bobby Bowden's son Tommy led to the first meeting, in 1999, which was the first time in Division I-A history that a father and a son met as opposing head coaches in a football game. During the time Tommy coached at Clemson, the game was known as the "Bowden Bowl"; Bobby won the series in the 9 years it was played before Tommy's resignation, taking 5 of those games with all four losses within the last five seasons.
Florida–Georgia football rivalry
The two universities do not agree on when the rivalry began. The University of Georgia's athletic department counts a 1904 match its football squad played against a team from a school known as the University of Florida. The game was held in Macon, Georgia, and Georgia won 52–0. However, this was not the modern University of Florida in Gainesville, but one of its four predecessor institutions: a school previously known as Florida Agricultural College, based in Lake City. Florida's University Athletic Association does not include this game in the series record, as it occurred before the modern university was established by the Florida Legislature in 1905, and before the new entity fielded its first officially recognized football team in 1906. UGA sports historian Dan Magill sums up Georgia's attitude: "That's where Florida was back then. We can't help it if they got run out of Lake City."
History of Florida Gators football
The Great Depression and World War II saw the beginning of the rivalry with Miami and a decline in Florida football, which did not again rise to prominence until the 1952 team under coach Bob Woodruff. The 1950s also saw the beginnings of rivalries with Florida State and LSU.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Tennessee dominated the rivalry's early years, winning the first ten meetings and building a 13–2 series lead after their victory in the 1971 game. Florida has held the advantage since then, especially since the schools became SEC East rivals in 1992. After winning in 2018, Florida leads the all-time series 28–20.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
But in 2001, despite the teams' identical records and much to the chagrin of the Vols, the Gators were 17-and-a-half point favorites at kickoff.
Florida–Georgia football rivalry
The first game acknowledged by both schools was held in Jacksonville in 1915. The rivalry has been renewed annually since 1926, except for the 1943 season when Florida did not field a team due to World War II. The game has often had championship implications, with both teams competitive in the Southeastern Conference. Florida, which did not win the SEC title until 1991, had its hopes dashed several times by a loss to Georgia in Jacksonville, including during Steve Spurrier's senior season in 1966. The game took on new importance when the SEC split into Eastern and Western Divisions in 1992, with both Florida and Georgia in the Eastern Division. As the two teams are frequently at or near the top of the division standings, the game has often determined who will represent the Eastern Division in the SEC Championship Game. To date, Florida has fourteen Eastern Division titles while Georgia has nine.
While the two universities agree that Georgia leads the overall series, they disagree as to the overall series record due to the disputed 1904 game. As of the 2017 contest, Georgia leads with a 51–43–2 record by its reckoning, and 50–43–2 by Florida's count. Georgia dominated the series before 1952, with Florida winning just five of the first 29 (or 30, if counting 1904) contests. Georgia also had an advantage in the 1970s and 1980s, leading the series 15–5 during those decades. Florida dominated the series 18-3 in the two decades following Steve Spurrier's return to Florida in 1990. Since 2010, the series has been split, 5–4.
Florida–Miami football rivalry
Florida entered the game as a rare road favorite in the Orange Bowl, over a young Canes team. The Gators were giving 5.5 points in Las Vegas. The Gators played inspired football in a 35–23 win over Miami on September 7. The Canes did not lose at home again until September 24, 1994 (38–20 to Washington), an NCAA record winning streak of 58 games.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Steve Spurrier returned to his alma mater in 1990 to become the Gators' head ball coach. In yet another link between the programs, Spurrier had been a star quarterback at Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee during the early 1960s. Although Knoxville is nearby, he did not seriously consider attending UT because he was an excellent passer and the Vols ran a single-wing offense at the time which featured a running quarterback. Instead, he choose to return to the state of his birth (Spurrier was born in Miami Beach), eventually becoming the Gators' first Heisman Trophy winner in 1966. Tennessee and Florida did not face off during Spurrier's time as the Gators' quarterback. However, he did return to Knoxville in 1988 when he was the head coach at Duke, and his Blue Devils upset the Vols, 31–26.
Tampa Bay Rowdies
The Rowdies' traditional rivalry has been with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The rivalry began in 1977 between the original Tampa Bay Rowdies and the original Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the old NASL when the term "Florida Derby" was first used. It came back into use again in the late 1990s, when both cities had MLS franchises "(the Tampa Bay Mutiny & Miami Fusion)". Finally in 2010, after a nine-year absence "Florida Derby" re-entered the lexicon of American soccer, as the modern squads began facing one another. The rivalry currently sits in limbo, after Rowdies' owner, Bill Edwards won a 2017 summary judgement in a lawsuit against the Strikers. Edwards now controls the copyrights, trademarks and any rights to the use of the name “Fort Lauderdale Strikers” or any variation thereof.
Miami Hurricanes football
Miami's rivalry with Florida dates back to 1938, making it the oldest rivalry among Florida's "Big Three" of Miami, Florida, and Florida State. The Hurricanes defeated the Gators, 19–7, in the first meeting between the geographic rivals. The Seminole War Canoe was carved in 1955 out of a cypress struck by lightning and was given to the winner of the annual football game. The canoe is meant to symbolize the fighting spirit of the Seminole people that is often on display during games between the Hurricanes and Gators. The canoe is now on permanent display at the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame on the Coral Gables campus.
Florida State Seminoles football
The Seminoles also have a rivalry with the Virginia Cavaliers. Florida State and Virginia compete for the Jefferson–Eppes Trophy. The two schools have played for the trophy since its creation in 1995. It has been awarded a total of 18 times, with FSU receiving it 14 times (FSU vacated its 2006 win). The Seminoles hold the all-time advantage 14–3. Because of conference expansion, the teams no longer play annually; the teams last met in 2014, and they will meet once again during the 2019 season.
Minnesota–Nebraska football rivalry
The rivalry can be separated into distinct eras, the first two being Minnesota's glory days, followed by Nebraska's rise to prominence. These match-ups took place when the schools were non-conference rivals, facing each other on a semi-regular basis from 1900 to 1974, then on a more intermittent basis until 1990. The Big Ten era started in 2011, when Nebraska joined the conference and played in the Legends Division (now the West Division) with Minnesota. The trophy era began in 2014 with the creation of the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy.
Tennessee
In Nashville, the Vanderbilt Commodores are also charter members of the SEC. The Tennessee–Vanderbilt football rivalry began in 1892, having since played over 100 times. In June 2014, the Vanderbilt Commodores baseball team won its first men's national championship by winning the 2014 College World Series.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Lane Kiffin replaced Fulmer as Tennessee's coach in 2009. He verbally sparred with Gators coach Urban Meyer in the months leading up to their first meeting, but the Gators beat the Volunteers in Gainesville in 2009, and Kiffin left Tennessee after the season.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football rivalries
This series began in 1922. The Yellow Jackets were a longtime rival of the Fighting Irish and the two teams met periodically on an annual basis over the years, particularly from 1963 to 1981 when both schools were independents following Tech's departure from the Southeastern Conference. The 1975 Georgia Tech-Notre Dame game marked the sole appearance in an Irish uniform of Rudy Ruettiger, the subject of the film "Rudy". When Georgia Tech joined the Atlantic Coast Conference beginning in 1982, they were forced to end the series after 1981 because of scheduling difficulties. Consequently, the two teams have met very infrequently since then. Georgia Tech was the opponent in the inaugural game in the newly expanded Notre Dame Stadium in 1997, then a year later they met again in the Gator Bowl. The Fighting Irish and Yellow Jackets met in the 2006 and 2007 season openers and split both games. Notre Dame leads the series 29–6–1. The rivalry resumed in 2015 with a 30–22 Irish win in South Bend, and will continue on a semi-regular basis thereafter, due to Notre Dame's current commitment to scheduling several ACC opponents each season.
Kentucky–Tennessee football rivalry
The Tennessee-Kentucky football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Kentucky Wildcats and Tennessee Volunteers. Both border rivals have faced off on the gridiron since 1893, making it one of the oldest series in major college football. It was close in the early years, with Kentucky holding a series lead after the first 22 match-ups. But since the early 1930s, Tennessee has dominated the cross-border rivalry.
Both schools were charter members of the Southeastern Conference when it was established in 1932. Since that season, Tennessee has a 53–14–3 record against Kentucky, including a streak of 26 straight victories from 1985 to 2010, which is one of the longest such streaks in NCAA history. The Wildcats did not win any games against the Volunteers during the 1940s, 1990s, or 2000s. The only decade of the SEC era in which UK posted a winning record against Tennessee was the 1950s, when they went 6–3–1. The series was not without disappointment even during that period for Kentucky fans, however, as the Vols dealt Bear Bryant's 1950 Wildcat squad their only defeat during their school-best 11–1 season.
South Florida–UCF rivalry
Founded in 1956 and 1963, respectively, the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida are located apart from each other. The schools' distance, combined with their athletic programs concurrent establishment and rise to NCAA Division I helped create a natural rivalry between the two schools. The first meeting between the Florida Technical University Knights of the Pegasus (UCF) and the University of South Florida Golden Brahman was in 1972 in a basketball game in Tampa. The Golden Brahman won this game, 115–96. Since that time, the schools have played each other in 9 other sports.
Florida State Seminoles
Florida State maintains two traditional rivals in all sports with the Florida Gators and the Miami Hurricanes. Florida State University is the only school in the State of Florida to play both Florida and Miami year in and year out in all sports. Most notably is the football rivalry with the Gators who hold a 35–26–2 all-time lead against the Seminoles. The series began with Florida dominating for the first few years, but it has since become more balanced. In the past forty meetings, FSU has gone 23-17-1. The rivalry with Miami dates back to 1951, when the Hurricanes defeated the Seminoles 35–13 in their inaugural meeting. The schools have played uninterrupted since 1966, with Miami holding the all-time advantage, 33–30. Florida State holds a 10–5 advantage since the Hurricanes became a conference foe in 2004.
Clemson–Georgia football rivalry
The Clemson–Georgia football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Clemson Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs. It was for many years a spirited "border" rivalry between the two schools that are separated by a mere 70 miles. They met annually from 1897 to 1916, and again from 1962 to 1987 (aside from 1966 and 1972). The majority of meetings in over the first half century took place in Athens and Augusta, Georgia until 1967, not long after Clemson College expanded to University status, when the series shifted to become a more traditional, annual home-away series. Georgia leads the series 42–18–4, with 42 games played in Georgia, and 22 games played in South Carolina. Since 1987, the two schools have played intermittently.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Florida would go 12–0 through the regular season and the SEC Championship Game and played for the national championship in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, losing in a blowout to Nebraska. Tennessee would not lose another game all season, finishing 11–1 after a Citrus Bowl victory over Ohio State. The schools finished No. 2 and No. 3 in the final polls, with the AP Poll placing the Gators ahead and the Coaches' Poll reversing the order.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
After the Florida State College for Women became the co-educational Florida State University in 1947, the newly formed Florida State Seminoles football team achieved immediate success on the gridiron. Under head coach Don Veller, the Seminoles became the first collegiate football program in the state of Florida to go unbeaten and untied, finishing 8–0 in 1950. Under Coach Tom Nugent, the Seminoles made the move to major college status in 1955. Just three years later, Nugent would lead the Seminoles onto Florida Field to face the Gators, with Florida winning 21–7. With the arrival of Bill Peterson in 1960, the Seminoles began their move to national prominence. Under Peterson's direction, the Seminoles beat the Gators for the first time in 1964 and earned their first major bowl bid. Peterson also led the Seminoles to their first-ever top-ten ranking. While Peterson was taking the Seminole program to new heights, Ray Graves had been hired as the Gators new head coach to improve the Florida football program. When the two teams fought to a 3–3 tie in 1961, Graves likened the result to "a death in the family." From that point on, the game took on new significance and the rivalry intensified.
Auburn–Florida football rivalry
The University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina joined the SEC in 1991, and the conference was split into two six-team divisions in 1992. Since then, Florida has been a member of the SEC Eastern Division, and Auburn has been a member of the SEC Western Division. At first, every SEC team played two games every year against two permanent rivals in the other division and a third cross-divisional game that rotated among the other four teams in that division. Auburn's original two cross-division rivals were Georgia and Florida; Florida's were LSU and Auburn. In 2002, the SEC changed the cross-division format to one permanent rival and two rotating teams. Since Auburn's rivalry with Georgia was even older, Georgia remained Auburn's lone cross-division rival while Florida retained their annual game against LSU, and the previously annual Auburn–Florida football rivalry became an intermittent one.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
During the middle of the decade, both programs seemed to take steps forward under coaches McElwain and Jones. Florida made back to the SEC Championship Game in 2015 and 2016, and both Florida and Tennessee were ranked in the AP top 25 coming into their 2016 and 2017 meetings. However, the Gators and Vols faded to losing records in 2017, and both head coaches were fired. The 2018 meeting was the first between new coaches Dan Mullen of Florida and Jeremy Pruitt of Tennessee, and the Gators won in Knoxville, 47-21.
Louisiana–Monroe–Northwestern State football rivalry
The Louisiana–Monroe–Northwestern State football rivalry is a former American college football rivalry between the Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks and the Northwestern State Demons. The rivalry stems from the time the two teams spent competing together in the Gulf States Conference (1953–71) and later in the Southland Conference (1987–93). The game has been infrequently played since 1994, following Louisiana–Monroe's move to the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision.
Troy Trojans football
Troy's rivalry with Middle Tennessee, now dormant following Middle Tennessee's 2013 move to Conference USA, is known as the Battle for the Palladium. Troy and Middle Tennessee first played each other in 1936, but it wasn't until 2003 that the schools started playing annually for the Palladium Trophy.
Minnesota–Wisconsin football rivalry
The rivalry was first played in 1890 on Minnesota's campus, in Minneapolis, resulting in a 63–0 Minnesota victory. Theron Lyman led Wisconsin to its first win over Minnesota in 1894. The game became a conference rivalry with the creation of the Western Conference (later the Big Ten Conference) in 1896. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt suspended college football rivalry games for safety concerns, due to player injuries and fatalities on the field. It is, to date, the only time that the two teams have not played each other. It has been uninterrupted since then, currently making it the longest uninterrupted rivalry in FBS Division 1 college football.
Florida Cup
The Florida Cup (also known as the state championship of Florida) is the annual American football rivalry between the University of Florida Gators, Florida State University Seminoles and the University of Miami Hurricanes.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
Ron Zook made his rivalry debut as Florida's head coach in 2002, and the game marked the first time since 1986 that neither team was ranked in the AP Poll Top 10. Despite being a home underdog, Bowden's Seminoles won easily 31–14, starting a two-game series winning streak, which they continued in 2003 with a controversial 38–34 win in Gainesville known as "The Swindle in The Swamp".
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
The University of Florida administration, however, was reluctant to treat Florida State University as an equal, less for reasons of intercollegiate sports rivalry than for reasons of limited state funding for higher education and the perception that Florida State's demands for a greater share of those funds might undercut the University of Florida's role as the state's historic flagship university. As the impasse dragged on, a bill was proposed in the Florida Legislature in 1955 which would have mandated that the two schools compete against each other in football and other sports. While the bill was voted down, Florida Governor LeRoy Collins personally requested to University of Florida president J. Wayne Reitz that he take the lead in starting a yearly football series between the two state universities. Reitz agreed, and the schools negotiated a contract that began their football series in 1958, the first available opening on the Gators' non-conference schedule.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
As the season progressed, the postponed game took on greater and greater importance. Each squad suffered only one close loss (#6 Tennessee lost to Georgia 26–24, #1 Florida lost to Auburn 23–20) and entered the contest with Tennessee ranked #5 and Florida ranked #2. The winner would represent the SEC East and face LSU in the SEC Championship. With a win in that game, the Gators or Vols were likely to receive an invitation to the Rose Bowl to face the undefeated Miami Hurricanes with a national title on the line.
North Carolina Tar Heels football
The Tar Heels' rivalry with the Virginia Cavaliers began in 1892, and the rivalry has come to be known as the "South's Oldest Rivalry." The teams played twice during the 1892 season, with the Cavaliers winning the first game and the Tar Heels winning the second. The two teams have played a total of 116 times, more than the two teams have played any other program. It is the fourth most played rivalry game among college football's major conference schools. The all-time series record is 62–54–4, in favor of the Tar Heels.
Florida State–Virginia football rivalry
The Florida State–Virginia football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Florida State Seminoles football team of Florida State University and Virginia Cavaliers football team of the University of Virginia. The Jefferson–Eppes Trophy is awarded to the winner of the game. The trophy was created in 1995 and was named for former President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, and Francis W. Eppes VII, Jefferson's grandson and two-time mayor of Tallahassee, and president of the Board of Trustees of the West Florida Seminary, now Florida State University.
Georgia Tech–Tennessee football rivalry
The Georgia Tech–Tennessee football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Tennessee Volunteers. The series dates back to 1902 and features two of the most prominent programs in college football history, with Georgia Tech claiming four national championships, 15 conference titles, and 21 consensus All-Americans, and Tennessee claiming six national championships, 16 conference titles, and 38 consensus All-Americans. Tennessee leads the series 25–17–2. The series ended in 1987, but it was renewed in the September 2017 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.
Battle for the Palladium
The Battle for the Palladium was the annual college football rivalry matchup between the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders and Troy Trojans. The history between Middle Tennessee and Troy dated back further (1936) than any other two programs in the Sun Belt Conference, but in 1999 the rivalry was renewed after a 46-year hiatus. The lengthy period was a result of the two programs competing in different divisions. That all changed when Troy announced it would make the move from Division I-AA to I-A and join the Sun Belt Conference allowing the two programs to compete annually. With the program's history dating back longer than any other in the conference, the proximity between the schools, and the intense recruitment for the same players, the rivalry quickly re-ignited from 1999 to 2001. The rivalry escalated when both teams unintentionally attended the same movie theater and a few verbal taunts were traded the night before the 2001 contest. In 2003, The Palladium Trophy was introduced in Murfreesboro, Tenn. A year later, Troy officially joined the Sun Belt Conference after completing its final year of transition from Division I-AA to I-A.
Miami Hurricanes football
The Florida State rivalry dates to 1951, when the Hurricanes defeated the Seminoles 35–13 in their inaugural meeting. The schools have played every year since 1966, with Miami holding the all-time advantage, 33–30. Upon the conclusion of their 2003 regular-season schedules, the teams represented their respective conferences in the 2004 FedEx Orange Bowl (Miami being the champions of the Big East, and Florida State being the champions of the ACC). Miami won the bowl game 16–14; it was the only time the schools have met in post-season football play. The 63 meetings between the teams of FSU and Miami eclipsed the rivalry between the Hurricanes and the Gators (from the University of Florida) following their 2010 game; the series of games between UM and Florida is Miami's second-longest at 55 games.
Florida State Seminoles football
During the 1980s and 90s, the series emerged as one of the premier rivalries in college football. Between 1983 and 2013, the Hurricanes and Seminoles combined to win 8 national championships (5 for Miami, 3 for Florida State) and played in 15 national championship games (1983, 85, 86, 87, 89, 91, 92, 93, 96, 98, 99, 2000, 01, 02, 13). The rivalry has been popular not only because of its profound national championship implications and the competitiveness of the games but also because of the immense NFL-caliber talent typically present on the field when the two teams meet. The famous 1987 matchup featured over 50 future NFL players on both rosters combined.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Ultimately, neither team would win any championships that season. UT was upset by LSU in the SEC Championship Game the following Saturday and missed their opportunity to play for a second national title in four years. The Vols ended up beating Michigan 45–17 in the Citrus Bowl. Florida was invited to the Orange Bowl, where they beat Maryland 56–23.
Indiana–Kentucky rivalry
The Indiana–Kentucky rivalry is a college sports rivalry between the Indiana University Hoosiers and the University of Kentucky Wildcats. The rivalry between these two schools, located about apart, dates to their first college football game in 1893, and has continued across all sports, with the men's basketball series gaining particular attention. The football game was previously played for a wooden Bourbon Barrel trophy, which was discontinued in 1999.
Tennessee Volunteers football
"This is a list of the most recent bowl games Tennessee has competed in since 2000. For the full Tennessee bowl game history, see List of Tennessee Volunteers bowl games".
The Volunteers began wearing orange pants in 1977 under coach Johnny Majors. His successor, Phillip Fulmer, discarded the pants upon becoming Major's full-time replacement in 1993. The orange pants were worn three times under Fulmer: in the 1999 homecoming game vs. Memphis, the 2007 SEC Championship game vs. LSU, and the 2008 season opener at UCLA. Lane Kiffin wore the orange pants full-time on the road, except for the 2009 season finale vs. Kentucky, and selected home games.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
While the rivalry faded in national importance in the mid-2010s, the contests themselves were quite memorable, as four UF-UT games in a row featured a dramatic fourth quarter rally.Series record sources: "2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide", "2011 Tennessee Football Media Guide", and College Football Data Warehouse.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Ironically, even after UF beat UT 33-20 in 1997 for their fifth straight victory in the series, upset losses to LSU and Georgia put the Gators in the Citrus Bowl. Meanwhile, Tennessee and Manning won their first SEC Championship Game and went on to play in the 1998 Orange Bowl.
Tennessee Titans
Since their founding, the Jaguars have been seen from time to time as the Titans' primary rival due to constantly competitive games between the two franchises. The rivalry was heated in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to the success of both franchises at the time, including a season in which Jacksonville went 14-2 and Tennessee went 13-3. That season, all three of Jacksonville's losses (including the playoffs) came against the Titans, who went on to play in Super Bowl XXXIV. The rivalry then cooled with both teams experiencing misfortune in the late 2000s to early 2010s, but both teams ended lengthy playoff droughts in 2017.
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football
Middle Tennessee's rivalry with Troy, now dormant following Middle Tennessee's 2013 move to Conference USA, is known as the Battle for the Palladium. Troy and Middle Tennessee first played each other in 1936, but it wasn't until 2003 that schools started playing annually for the Palladium Trophy. Middle Tennessee currently leads the series 12-8.
Florida–Georgia football rivalry
The Florida–Georgia football rivalry is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the University of Florida Gators and the University of Georgia Bulldogs. The game was first played in 1915, and has been played every season since 1926, except for a war-time interruption in 1943. This match-up between Southeastern Conference opponents is one of the most prominent rivalry games in college football, and has been held in Jacksonville, Florida since 1933, with only two exceptions, making it one of the few remaining neutral-site rivalries in college football. The game attracts huge crowds to Jacksonville, and the associated tailgating and other events earned it the nickname of the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party", although that name is no longer used officially.
Auburn–Tennessee football rivalry
The series started in 1900 with a 23–0 Auburn victory in Birmingham, Alabama. When the SEC split into two divisions in 1992 the annual rivalry was suspended. Tennessee then started a rivalry with Georgia, while Auburn began an annual rivalry with LSU. Auburn is 6–3 vs Tennessee since the SEC expanded. Both teams met in the 1997, and 2004 SEC Championship Game. Tennessee won 30-29 in 1997 while Auburn won 38-28 in 2004. Since 2003 Auburn owns the longest win streak in series history at six. The teams will meet again in 2018 in Auburn, Alabama.
Carolina–Duke rivalry
Nonetheless, there is some tradition behind the football rivalry. The two teams first met in 1888, and the rivalry has been renewed every year since 1922. In the 1920s Duke began appearing as the last game of the Carolina football season with some regularity, Virginia being the other team with that spot.
The Tar Heels-Blue Devils matchup would be the last regular season game for both teams for all but a few years from the 1930s until the ACC split into two divisions in 2005. Now the schedules are less predictable. The matchups at Wallace Wade Stadium in 2014 and 2016 took place on Thursday night and were televised on ESPN, adding national exposure to the rivalry.
Notre Dame–USC football rivalry
Notre Dame and USC have traditionally been counted among the elite programs in college football, with the schools having won a combined 22 national championships and 14 Heisman Trophies. This football rivalry, which began in 1926, is considered one of the most important in college football, and is often called the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football. The rivalry game has been played every year from 1926 to the present, with the exception of three seasons, 1943-1945, during the World War II years. Accordingly, it is one of the longest-running rivalries in college football.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Lane Kiffin replaced Phil Fulmer as Tennessee's new head coach before the 2009 season. At his introductory press conference, Kiffin boldly predicted that he would "sing Rocky Top all night" in Gainesville after his team beat Florida the following September. Soon after, he incorrectly accused Florida coach Urban Meyer of breaking recruiting rules over a player that ended up going to Tennessee, sparking a series of public jibes between the coaches that continued all through the off-season and helped to make the 2009 meeting the most anticipated game in the series in several years despite the fact that Gators were ranked No. 1 and the Volunteers were unranked.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
In an otherwise unremarkable game coming into this eighth annual contest between the burgeoning rivals, this game established the rivalry in full due to the controversy that surrounded its outcome. In a tight contest, the Gators led the Seminoles late in the game, 22–19. FSU had the ball at the Gators' 45-yard-line with seventeen seconds left in the game. On first down, little used and previously injured wide receiver Lane Fenner entered the game in place of FSU's star receiver Ron Sellers. FSU quarterback Gary Pajcic took the snap, Fenner got behind UF defenders, and Pajcic lofted a pass to Fenner in the front corner of the end zone for what appeared to be a game-winning FSU touchdown. However, referee Doug Moseley signaled that Fenner did not have control of the ball before rolling out of bounds and ruled the pass incomplete.
Florida–Georgia football rivalry
The Florida–Georgia game has usually been played at neutral sites rather than the schools' respective home fields since the very beginning of the rivalry. Florida often played "home" games against major college opposition at off-campus sites before Florida Field was constructed in 1930. Up until that point, Florida's "home" games against Georgia were held in Jacksonville (3 times), Savannah (twice), and Tampa (once), along with three Georgia home contests in Athens. The teams met in Gainesville for the first time in 1931, then returned to Athens in 1932. From 1933 onward, the game has been played in Jacksonville except for a home and home set in 1994 and 1995 when the old Gator Bowl was being rebuilt as Everbank Field for the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL. In almost 100 meetings, the game has been played in Athens or Gainesville a total of only seven times, and there are currently no plans to do so in the future.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
The late-hit controversy that began after the team's regular season meeting intensified when the Texas Longhorns upset third-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Big 12 Championship Game and Florida defeated Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, creating an FSU–UF rematch in the Sugar Bowl. Spurrier continued to complain to the press about the issue while FSU coach Bobby Bowden responded that he thought the hits in question were clean while admitting that "we just hit to the echo of the whistle instead of the whistle."
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
One result of the SEC's 1992 expansion and split into divisions was the beginning of an annual match-up between Florida and Tennessee at a time when both programs rose to national prominence. Under head coaches Steve Spurrier and Phillip Fulmer, the Gators and Volunteers were annual contenders for conference and national championships, with both teams usually fielding wide-open offenses led by top quarterbacks such as Danny Wuerffel and Peyton Manning, among many other highly decorated players on both sides of the ball.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
With a strong advantage in resources, facilities and home field advantage (the first six games of the series were played in Gainesville), the Gators would dominate the rivalry in its formative years, as the Gators were 16–2–1 against the Seminoles from 1958 until 1976. One particularly poor stretch for the Seminoles was from 1969–72 when wide receiver Barry Smith was playing for Florida State. He didn't play in the 1969 contest since freshmen were not eligible then but recalled the 1970–72 games in a recent article in "The Tampa Tribune",
"My sophomore year . . . I ran a reverse . . . and I remember being nailed by Jack Youngblood. I remember watching the ball being pitched to me and thinking, when the ball was about halfway, that it was kind of race to see whether he was going to get to the ball first or me. He was foaming at the mouth. I still have nightmares from the hit he gave me . . . . My junior year, we were 5–0 and Florida was 0–5. There is no question that we were the much better team, and they beat us . . . . My senior year, we're playing Florida at home and we're 4–0. They had a decent team, but it wasn't like the year before . . . . Chan Gailey was their quarterback, and he had a big game. That game was a blowout. They torched us. It got so bad, I had to throw a touchdown pass . . . ." 
Bobby Bowden arrived at Florida State in 1976 and began to turn around the athletic program. After losing his first game against Florida in 1976, the Seminoles would win the next four in the rivalry, their first wins in the series since 1967. This would begin a decade and a half period in which the rivals would take turns running off winning streaks against the other.
South Florida–UCF rivalry
The South Florida–UCF rivalry, officially known as the War on I–4, is a college rivalry between the University of Central Florida Knights and University of South Florida Bulls. The rivalry is best known for its college football matchup, and originated in a series of football games played from 2005 to 2008. In 2013, when UCF joined the American Athletic Conference, the schools began competing annually in all sports, with the yearly football game played on Thanksgiving weekend. In 2016, the schools officially adopted the "War on I-4" as an official competition series. Each year, the team with the most wins across all sports receives an I–4 road sign trophy; the winner of the football game also receives a similar trophy.
Tennessee Volunteers football
Georgia Tech and Tennessee have played 45 times since 1902; Tennessee has a winning record of 25–17–2. When Georgia Tech was part of the SEC, both teams met very often. When Georgia Tech left the SEC, the annual rivalry still continued until 1987. The two teams renewed their rivalry on September 4, 2017 in a game that ended in a thrilling 42-41 double overtime win by the Volunteers.
Florida–Miami football rivalry
The Florida–Miami football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Florida Gators football team of the University of Florida and Miami Hurricanes football team of the University of Miami. The game was played annually from 1944 until 1987, and is now played intermittently. The winning team was formerly awarded the Seminole War Canoe Trophy. Today, the round robin winner of the three biggest schools in the state of Florida (either the Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles or Miami Hurricanes) receives the Florida Cup for beating the other two schools in the same season. Miami leads the series 29–26, and has won seven of the past eight match-ups including a 21–16 victory in the most recent game played in 2013.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Florida and Tennessee would not meet again for fourteen years, the longest gap in the series. They next faced off in the 1969 Gator Bowl. In that highly unusual post-season matchup between conference foes, Florida won 14-13, then hired away the Tennessee's head coach, former Gator quarterback Doug Dickey.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
Florida State and Florida combined for fourteen conference championships and three national championships during the 1990s. In addition, the winner of the game would play for the national championship five times in the decade. Through those years, FSU held a 7–4–1 advantage in a rivalry that was arguably the most important in college football during that time.
2014 Florida Gators football team
In one of only two SEC neutral site games, the Florida–Georgia rivalry is one of the most storied in SEC football. Held in Jacksonville, Florida since 1933 (minus 1994 and 1995) the rivalry attracts huge crowds to Jacksonville, and the associated tailgating and other events earned it the nickname of the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party." The designated home team alternates from year to year, with ticket distribution split evenly between the fans of the two teams. Georgia holds the overall series lead 49–40–2, and currently is riding a 3-game winning streak heading into this year's matchup. Current Florida head coach Will Muschamp (a former Georgia standout) is 0–7 in the rivalry, losing 4 games as a Georgia player and the last 3 games as Florida head coach. Due to much fan criticism and pressure, Coach Muschamp decided that Treon Harris, the much anticipated freshman, would replace Junior quarterback Jeff Driskel for his first start as a Gator vs the Bulldogs.
Florida–Florida State men's basketball rivalry
The Florida–Florida State men's basketball rivalry (known as the "Sunshine Showdown") is a college basketball rivalry between the two oldest public universities of the state of Florida: the University of Florida Gators and the Florida State University Seminoles. Although the in state rivalry between these two schools is most widely known in football, Florida and Florida State have had some memorable battles in basketball as well.
Clemson–Georgia football rivalry
More than just geography dictated from the beginning that the two teams would be rivals, though the spirit of animosity between them certainly was stoked by the fact that scarcely 70 miles separate the Athens and Clemson campuses. The history of the series stretches back to the earliest days of both football programs, which sprang from a common fountainhead: Walter Riggs, who founded Clemson football, learned the sport as a student at Auburn, where he played for George Petrie who learned the sport as a student at Johns Hopkins, where Petrie acquired his passion for the game with classmate Charles Herty, who founded Georgia football. That shared heritage and close proximity have combined to produce many family ties connecting the neighboring programs. Tavarres King and Jay Romeare two of several Georgia players whose fathers played for Clemson, whereas former Tiger quarterbacks Cullen Harper and Jon Richt were the sons of Bulldogs lineman Jeff Harper and Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt, respectively. In one instance, a president of what was then Clemson College (Patrick Hues Mell, 1902-1910) was the son of former chancellor of the University of Georgia (Patrick H. Mell, 1878-1888). To complicate matters still further, football players Jimmy Orr (who transferred from Clemson to UGA) and Wynn Kopp (who transferred from the Georgia to Clemson) each attended both institutions.
Georgia Bulldogs
The Bulldogs' most historic rivalry is with the Auburn Tigers, referred to as the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry and dating back to 1892. The other rivalries are between the Bulldogs and the Atlantic Coast Conference's Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets ("Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate") and the Florida Gators ("Florida vs. Georgia Football Classic"). In addition, UGA enjoyed a strong rivalry with the nearby Clemson Tigers for many years in football, especially in the 1980s. The Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers annual showdown on the second Saturday of October has become a rivalry as a result of the 1992 division of the Southeastern Conference into Eastern and Western divisions. Before 1992, the two teams had only met 21 times since 1899. Beginning in 1992, the two teams have played annually as members of the same division. Georgia also enjoys a healthy rivalry with the South Carolina Gamecocks, meeting on the football field 70 times since 1894.
Marching Chiefs
The 1949-50 football season saw the Seminoles' and the Marching Chief's first appearances in a postseason bowl game at the Cigar Bowl in Tampa, FL. 1954 marked the Seminoles next appearance in a bowl at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. The "Miami Daily News" proclaimed, "FSU's bid to Sun Bowl clinched by Marching Chiefs." In the spring of 1955 FSU received a charter of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity. The brothers of KKPsi, as the organization is commonly known, produced a newsletter named "The Chieftain" which aimed to keep band members informed of upcoming events and activities. In 1956 Charlie Carter arranged J. Dayton Smith's "The Hymn to the Garnet and the Gold" for band. The Charlie Carter arrangement had its premier performance at the 1958 homecoming game.
The in-state American football rivalry between Florida State and UF began with their first meeting in 1958 but it was not until 1964 that a standing home-and-away series was launched.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
Urban Meyer left Florida after the 2010 season, and while the program suffered through sub-par seasons under coach Will Muschamp (who was the Gators' coach from 2011 to 2014) their win streak over Tennessee continued during the first half of the decade. The Volunteers simultaneously suffered through some sub-par seasons of their own under coaches Derek Dooley (Tennessee's coach from 2010 to 2012) and Butch Jones (who arrived in 2013). The Gators ran their series win streak to eleven with a 28–27 comeback win in Gainesville in 2015, the first year under newly appointed head coach Jim McElwain. The 2016 and 2017 would also feature second half comebacks. Tennessee came back from a 21-0 first half deficit in 2016 to beat the Gatos and end Florida's series-long winning streak at 11 games, and Florida won in 2017 with a Hail Mary pass on the last play of the game.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
As of the 2018 game, Florida holds an 8–1 edge over Tennessee in the decade.
Auburn–Florida football rivalry
The Auburn–Florida football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University and Florida Gators football team of the University of Florida. Both universities are founding members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and both were members of the Southern Conference before 1933.
Kentucky–Vanderbilt football rivalry
The Kentucky–Vanderbilt football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Kentucky Wildcats football team of the University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt Commodores football team of Vanderbilt University. The rivalry between these two schools, located about apart, dates to their first meeting in 1896. They are founding members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and are currently members of the SEC's Eastern Division with a total of 91 meetings. This rivalry is Kentucky's second longest behind Tennessee and Vanderbilt's third behind Ole Miss and Tennessee. Kentucky leads the series 45–42–4.
East Carolina–UCF football rivalry
The East Carolina–UCF football rivalry is an American college football rivalry game played by the East Carolina Pirates football team of East Carolina University and the UCF Knights football team of the University of Central Florida. The teams first met in 1991, but for the majority of the rivalry both teams were members of the same conference – first Conference USA (2005–2012), and now the American Athletic Conference (2014–present).
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
The Gators changed leadership as well, hiring coach Charley Pell from Clemson University to replace Doug Dickey in 1979. After a dismal 0–10–1 first season, Pell quickly turned around the Florida program, fielding championship-contending teams by the early 1980s.
Under Pell's leadership, Florida took their turn dominating the rivalry from 1981–86, including putting a series-record 53 points on the scoreboard in the 1983 contest. However, an NCAA investigation of Florida's football program revealed multiple violations of rules in the early years of Pell's tenure. Pell was fired and the program put on probation beginning in 1985. For the next 3 seasons, Florida played with a reduced number of scholarship players and Gator football games could not appear on television, setting the program back considerably and allowing Florida State to sign more talented in-state high school recruits.
Florida Gators football
The University of Florida was established in Gainesville in 1906 and fielded its first official varsity football team that fall. In over 110 years of football, the Gators have played in over forty bowl games; won three national championships (1996, 2006 and 2008) and eight Southeastern Conference championships (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006 and 2008) and have produced three Heisman Trophy winners, more than ninety first-team All-Americans and fifty National Football League (NFL) first-round draft choices.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
From the arrival of Bowden in 1976 to the end of the 1980s, the series was tied 7–7. The return of a familiar face to the Gators' sideline before the 1990 season would bring the rivalry to new national prominence.
Fort Lauderdale Strikers
The Strikers' main rivalry is with the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The rivalry began in 1977 between the original Fort Lauderdale Strikers and the original Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League, In recent times, the rivalry between both fans and the media has been dubbed the "Florida Derby", referencing the two clubs' locations in South Florida. The heart of the rivalry between the two sides exists primarily within the two clubs' supporters groups. Presently, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers are supported by the former "Miami Ultras", whom also supported the Miami Fusion.
Sports in Jacksonville
The city has long supported college football. Florida's first college football game was held in Jacksonville in 1901, between Florida Agricultural College (a predecessor to the University of Florida) and Stetson College (now Stetson University). Jacksonville newspaper "The Florida Times-Union" recorded the state college championships and awarded the Championship Cup in the early years. The annual Florida–Georgia game between the University of Georgia Bulldogs and the University of Florida Gators has been played in the city nearly every year since 1933.
National Football League rivalries
The Packers–Vikings rivalry began in 1961, when the Vikings entered the league as an expansion team. The rivalry is known for being very close, both in the all-time series and in each game. It is also considered to be one of the most intense rivalries in the NFL, due these close games, the fact that both teams have often fought for the NFC North title, and the fact that the two states in which these teams reside (Minnesota and Wisconsin) have a rivalry in many sports, seen between the Big Ten rivals, the University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota. Events such as Randy Moss mooning the Green Bay crowd in the first playoff game between these two teams (won by the Vikings), and former Packer great Brett Favre's move to the Vikings have created more resentment between these teams.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
The rivalry held national championship implications over each of the following seasons, with both teams entering the contests ranked in the top 10 every year. Though they were not always the favorite, Florida won five straight against Tennessee from 1993 to 1997, winning four SEC titles and a consensus national championship in 1996. The 1994, 1995, and 1996 contests featured match-ups between starting quarterbacks Danny Wuerffel and Peyton Manning, who never beat Florida during his celebrated college career. But though Florida beat Tennessee in 1997, upset losses to LSU and Georgia propelled Tennessee to their own SEC championship in Manning's senior year. Tennessee broke Florida's winning streak in 1998 with a 20–17 overtime win and went on to win their second straight SEC championship and a national championship. In 1999, Florida upset the Vols in Gainesville to close out the decade.
Florida State Seminoles
Florida State recently developed a rivalry with their Atlantic Division foe Clemson. Florida State leads the all-time series 20–12. The rivalry began when Bobby Bowden's son Tommy faced his father in their first meeting in 1999. This was the first time in Division I-A history that a father and a son met as opposing head coaches in a football game. During the time Tommy coached at Clemson, the game was known as the "Bowden Bowl". Bobby won the series in the 9 years it played before Tommy's resignation, going 5–4. In the post Bowden era, Clemson leads the series 6–5. In addition to their in-state rivals, Florida State enjoys baseball rivalries, primarily with Georgia Tech.
History of Florida Gators football
During the 1910s, Florida began playing a wider range of opponents from larger universities across the southeastern United States and faced off against several future rivals - such as Georgia, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, and Auburn - for the first time. The program first rose to national prominence in the 1920s, when coach Charlie Bachman's 1928 team led the nation in scoring and were kept from a perfect season and a possible invitation to play in the Rose Bowl by a season-ending one point loss to Tennessee in Knoxville. The success of the 1928 Gators inspired a drive to replace primitive Fleming Field with a modern facility, and Florida Field opened in 1930.
2014 Florida Gators football team
In their third SEC game of the 2014 season, Florida squared off against their bitter rival, the Tennessee Volunteers. Both teams have met annually since 1990 and the Volunteers trail the Gators in the all-time series 19–24 (.442), and have lost 9 straight to Florida. In last year's contest in Gainesville, Florida defeated Tennessee 31–17.
Tennessee Volunteers football
The Tigers and Vols first met in 1900. Both teams met annually from 1956 to 1991. In 1991, the SEC split into two divisions, ending the rivalry. Both teams continue to meet occasionally, with the last meeting being October 13, 2018 (Tennessee 30-24 victory). Both teams have also matched up in two SEC Championship Games, the 1997 SEC Championship Game (Tennessee 30–29 victory) and 2004 SEC Championship Game (Auburn 38–28 victory). Auburn leads the series 28–22-3.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
The Gators and Seminoles played twice during the 1994 and 1996 college football seasons; in both cases, the second meeting was in the Sugar Bowl (1995 and 1997).
LSU Tigers football
LSU's oldest rival is Tulane; the first LSU-Tulane football game was played in 1893 and for the first fifty or so years of Tiger football, no team was more hated by LSU fans than the Green Wave. The series, in which they battle for the Tiger Rag, was played continuously from 1919 to 1994. The intrastate rivalry featured two teams which were geographically close (Baton Rouge and New Orleans are roughly apart) and drew on socio-political tensions between the state's capital and seat of government and its biggest and most culturally important city. As opponents in the SIAA, Southern Conference and SEC, the Tulane rivalry flourished for many years but slowly declined after Tulane left the SEC and de-emphasized athletics. Until 1949, the series was very competitive, with LSU leading 23–18–5; since 1949, LSU has dominated, going 45–4–2. The two teams renewed the annual series in 2006 and ended it again after the 2009 meeting.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
The Vols struck quickly. On the first play from scrimmage, Manning connected with receiver Joey Kent for a 72-yard gain. On the next play, Manning threw a touchdown pass to Marcus Nash, giving UT a 7–0 lead only 15 seconds into the game. After another Manning touchdown pass and two Gator turnovers, the Vols held a 30–14 advantage late in the second quarter in front of a stunned Florida Field crowd. Wuerffel led the Gators to an answering score, cutting the lead to 30–21 with a touchdown pass in the last minute of the first half. That would be the beginning of a historic run, as Florida scored 48 straight points despite a torrential second half downpour and won in a 62–37 rout. Many records were broken in the game: Wuerffel threw an SEC record six touchdown passes; Tennessee set school records for most points scored in a loss and most points given up in the modern era. After the game, "Sports Illustrated" chose to put Wuerffel on its cover instead of Manning.
Clemson–Florida State football rivalry
Clemson and FSU first played in 1970, predating Florida State's membership in the ACC. The actual rivalry started to emerge in 1988 when the No. 3 Clemson Tigers hosted the No. 10 Seminoles in a "clash of styles" marked by FSU's highly touted skill talent and passing attack, versus Clemson's well regarded option, linemen and linebackers, that was ultimately decided by Leroy Butler's 78-yard "puntrooskie" run, costing Clemson the victory and dashing their national title hopes. Clemson avenged the loss in 1989, dominating the trenches, with a 34–23 victory in Tallahassee, marked by a 73-yard scoring run by Terry Allen and a 73-yard interception return by Wayne Simmons. The Seminoles and Tigers finished the 1989 season with 10–2 records, and ranked No. 3 and No. 12 in the final AP poll, respectively. The series also marked the only two games coached by Danny Ford and Bobby Bowden, who were the 3rd and 9th ranked coaches in winning percentage in college football at the time.
Ole Miss–Tulane football rivalry
The first game took place on December 2, 1893, in New Orleans, and the two schools have continued to play each other with few interruptions since. Tulane and Ole Miss spent much of their athletic histories as members of the same conference: the SIAA from 1899 to 1920, the Southern Conference from 1922 to 1932, and as charter members of the SEC from 1932 to 1966. Ole Miss did not play a game against Tulane at home in Oxford, Mississippi, until 1920, and it wasn't until 1951 that the teams began to frequently alternate hosting the game.
History of Tennessee Volunteers football
After the 1932 season, Tennessee joined the newly formed Southeastern Conference, setting the stage for decades of new and now storied rivalries with such teams like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt. In 1933, Wallace Wade's Duke Blue Devils upset Neyland's Vols 10–2, the first loss for the Vols in over two and half seasons. It caused Neyland to say of Fred Crawford, the first first-team All-American from the state of North Carolina: "He gave the finest exhibition of tackle play I have ever seen." After the 1934 season, Neyland was called into military service in Panama.
Tennessee struggled to a losing record during Neyland's time in Panama. He returned to find a rebuilding project in 1936. In 1936 and 1937, the Vols won six games each season. However, in 1938, Neyland's Vols began one of the more impressive streaks in NCAA football history. Led by the likes of Tennessee's only three time All-American Bob Suffridge, the 1938 Tennessee Volunteers football team won the school's first National Championship and earned a trip to the Orange Bowl, the team's first major bowl, where they pounded fellow unbeaten Oklahoma by a score of 17–0. They outscored their opponents 283–16. The 1939 regular season was even more impressive. The 1939 team was the last NCAA team ever to hold their opponents scoreless for an entire regular season. Surprisingly, the Vols did not earn a national title that year despite being ranked #1 for most of the season, but did earn a trip to the famed Rose Bowl. The Vols were without the services of tailback George Cafego, who would finish fourth in the Heisman voting and be the top pick in the NFL draft, due to a knee injury. Cafego's backup was also injured. For a single-wing squad heavily dependent upon the tailback position, it proved to be too much for the Vols to overcome. In front of a crowd of over 90,000, Tennessee fell by a score of 14–0 to Southern California. That loss ended UT's streak of 17 straight shutout games and 71 consecutive shutout quarters, NCAA records to this day.
2008 Florida Gators football team
Florida entered the game with a three-game winning streak started during Florida head coach Urban Meyer's first season at Florida. Tennessee led the series 19-18 all-time against the Gators dating back to 1916. Coming off of an SEC East title the previous season, Tennessee opened SEC play against the Gators after having lost early to UCLA out of conference on the road. The Gators and Volunteers last met in the Swamp in 2007 where the Gators won 59-20. The previous time the two met at Neyland Stadium, the Gators were able to win by a slim one point and then went on to win the BCS National Championship. The Volunteers would be the first of four regular season teams the Gators faced that were coached by a championship-winning head coach (the other three being Les Miles of LSU, Steve Spurrier of South Carolina, and Bobby Bowden of FSU).
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
During the mid-1990s, the second highest ranked SEC squad was usually invited to play in the Citrus Bowl after the season. Florida won four consecutive SEC titles from 1993 to 1996, beating Tennessee each time and twice sending them to the Citrus Bowl. Spurrier, who was often known to poke fun at rivals, made jokes at Tennessee's expense during off-season Gator Booster dinners in the spring of 1997, pointing out that "you can't spell Citrus without UT" and suggesting Peyton Manning had returned for his senior season at UT because "he wants to be a three-time Citrus Bowl MVP".
Tennessee Volunteers football
Despite the heated in-state rivalry with Auburn, former Alabama head coach Bear Bryant was more adamant about defeating his rivals to the north, the Tennessee Vols. The series is named the Third Saturday in October, the traditional calendar date on which the game was played. Despite the name, the game was played on the third Saturday just five times between 1995 and 2007. The first game between the two sides was played in 1901 in Birmingham, ending in a 6–6 tie. From 1902 to 1913, Alabama dominated the series, only losing once, and never allowing a touchdown by the Volunteers. Beginning in 1928, the rivalry was first played on its traditional date and began to be a challenge for the Tide as Robert Neyland began challenging Alabama for their perennial spot on top of the conference standings. In the 1950s, Jim Goostree, the head trainer for Alabama, began a tradition as he began handing out cigars following a victory over the Volunteers.
Florida–Georgia football rivalry
Dooley's teams would split their first seven games 3–3–1 against Graves' Gators. Thereafter, Dooley's 'Dogs would go on to dominate the rivalry, winning fourteen of the nineteen games from 1971 to 1989.
Florida–Florida State football rivalry
One of the stipulations in the first contract was that all games be played in the Gators' home stadium, Florida Field in Gainesville, because the Seminoles' home field at Doak Campbell Stadium had a capacity of under 20,000. The first six games in the series were all played in Gainesville. Florida State initiated a series of expansions to Doak Campbell Stadium, and beginning in 1964, the game site has alternated on an annual home-and-away basis between Gainesville and Tallahassee. The Gators hold a 20–11–1 series advantage in games held in Gainesville, and have a one-game edge for those played in Tallahassee, 13–12–1. The Gators and Seminoles have split two neutral-site games—both Sugar Bowls played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans (1994 and 1997). Since alternating the game site, the Gators hold a 29–23–1 edge over the Seminoles. Since Bobby Bowden became the head coach at Florida State in 1976, the Seminoles hold a 21–19–1 advantage over the Gators.
Deep South's Oldest Rivalry
The Tigers and Bulldogs have played each other nearly every year since. There have only been three exceptions since 1898, when World War I and World War II interrupted the series. Through the 2017 season, the rivalry is tied for the second most played college football series at 122 games, and is led by Georgia 59–56–8. When the Southeastern Conference split into its Eastern Division and Western Division in 1992, with Auburn placed in the west and Georgia in the east, the game was designated as the teams' annual cross-divisional rivalry game, leaving open the possibility for the two teams to meet in the SEC Championship Game. This happened for the first time in 2017, when Georgia beat Auburn 28–7 to claim their 13th SEC championship. This championship game matchup tied the rivalry with the South's Oldest Rivalry between Virginia and North Carolina for the 2nd most played rivalry game in FBS football.
Florida Gators football
Since becoming annual opponents, the Gators and Volunteers have combined to represent the Eastern Division in the SEC Championship Game fifteen times in twenty seasons. Florida had an eleven-game winning streak against Tennessee (from 2005 to 2015) and leads the series 28–20 through the 2018 season.
Florida–Tennessee football rivalry
The teams' December meeting would become even more historical in early January, when Steve Spurrier announced that he was resigning as Florida's head coach after 12 seasons. The 2001 game was thus the last matchup in the Spurrier-Fulmer chapter of the rivalry (they would meet several additional occasions after Spurrier became South Carolina's head coach in 2005) and Spurrier's last home game at Florida Field.