From Spurrier to Kiffin, Florida-Tennessee has had it all
— -- It wasn't too long ago that Florida vs. Tennessee was as big as it got in college football.
For 18 consecutive years, from 1990-2007, the Gators and Vols were both nationally ranked when they met, and 11 of those were top-10 matchups. On Saturday, neither team will be ranked for the second year in a row.
And even though this will be the first time since 1955 they've met in the Swamp with both teams being unranked, try telling either side that this isn't a big game.
Here's a look back at the 10 most memorable moments in the series, which has been played every year since 1990:
Faxgate
Before Spygate, there was Faxgate. Jack Sells, a former Tennessee assistant who was fired in 1991 for what Tennessee said was NCAA recruiting violations, was caught faxing part of Tennessee's playbook to then-Florida defensive coordinator Ron Zook the week of the game. Sells and Zook were friends from when Zook coached at Tennessee in the 1980s. Sells sent the diagrams from a Kinko's near campus, and one of the employees recognized him and alerted the Tennessee football office. Zook initially denied receiving anything, and both sides have downplayed it. In fact, some at Florida have claimed Tennessee also had a copy of its playbook. The Gators wound up winning 35-18, and Sells wound up suing Kinko's for violating his privacy and destroying his career. In that suit, he said he was harassed by Tennessee fans and was even punched in the mouth by a fan in a Chattanooga bar. After the suit was settled years later, Steve Spurrier joked, "I guess Jack's got him a brand-new house somewhere."
How do you spell Citrus?
Spurrier might be a master play-caller, but he's also a master irritator, and the Head Ball Coach saved some of his best barbs for Tennessee when the Gators were dominating the series in the 1990s. The frustrating part for the Vols was that they had top-10 teams in a lot of those years, but would lose to the Gators and be relegated to the Citrus Bowl. Hence Spurrier referring to Orlando as the "winter home of the Vols," joking that you "couldn't spell Citrus without UT," and even taking a dig at Peyton Manning and saying the real reason he came back for his senior season was because he "wanted to be a three-time MVP of the Citrus Bowl." It didn't matter to Tennessee fans that Spurrier's zingers all came while making the rounds at Gator booster club engagements. The Head Ball Coach was still Public Enemy No. 1 on Rocky Top.
