GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we continue to preview the Florida Gators vs. Tennessee game this Saturday in the Swamp.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre are joined by Trey Wallace from Fox Sports Knoxville to get his take on this game, plus we get his biggest keys for the game.
Andrew and Nick also breakdown their keys for the game on Saturday, plus we talk about the keys for Florida’s offense on Saturday.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, it’s Tennessee hate week. We’re going to be joined here in a few minutes by my good friend and fellow 251 companion Trey Wallace from Fox Sports Knoxville. Does a good job up there. We’ll talk about what’s going on up in rocky bottom.
Nick:                         Rocky bottom. Trey, a friend of the show, great guy, and enjoyed hanging out with him last year in Knoxville. We’ll see if he’s coming down to Gainesville this year or not. Always plugged in there at Tennessee. Does a great job up there. He’ll help break down the mess that is the program at Tennessee, as well as some of the game and how it matches up.
Andrew:                 You know, Nick, I’m going to say this before we get into talking more with Trey. Hear me out when I say this. I really, really think this is a game that Florida has to be careful with, because Florida’s so much better than Tennessee. In every shape and form, they’re so much better than Tennessee, but you’re coming off an emotional win against Kentucky with your backup quarterback. I don’t want to say it’s a trap game, because there’s no big game next week. I just think that this game has to be taken serious for the simple fact that it still is Tennessee.
Nick:                         It’s a rivalry game. I wonder though, I think it’s a rivalry growing up in the ‘90s, because Phil Fulmer and …
Andrew:                 Spurrier hated each other.
Nick:                         Spurrier hated each other. It was also more competitive. I felt growing up …
Andrew:                 Whoever won that went to the title.
Nick:                         Yeah. I felt growing up Florida-Tennessee was a more bitter rival, because growing up Florida owned Georgia. Spurrier owned Georgia. He just whooped their tails whenever he wanted to, so to me it was because of there being more losses, I think you come to hate a team more when they’re beating you, and Georgia was never beating Florida. To me, Tennessee was a bigger rival. Obviously, that has changed in recent years in terms of on the field.
Andrew:                 Right. No, I agree with you. Florida-Tennessee, whoever won that game was going to the title game for all those years. You had the cancellation game for 9-11 that year. That was a game that was controversy. You had Florida never losing to Peyton Manning. You had all those big moments there, and then it just kind of died off, because Florida has owned this series as of late. I still think there’s a little bit of a rivalry there, but it’s different.
You have Florida-Georgia. That’s the hated rivalry right now, because that’s been a back and forth series. Florida-LSU, in my opinion, is always a rivalry game, and Florida-Florida State is always a rivalry game. I’ll say this. I think Tennessee fans would say Alabama’s more of a rival than Florida is, and Alabama fans would probably say the same thing about Tennessee. They hate each other.
Nick:                         That’s a pure hate. Somebody was asking me, it was a Kentucky writer, and he was asking, do Florida fans consider Kentucky a rival? He was an older gentleman, and I think a former radio guy, so I didn’t want to laugh, but I go, no. No, they don’t. He goes, so they think Tennessee and Georgia are bigger rivals? I was like, yeah, man. Yeah.
Andrew:                 Kentucky’s a rival in basketball only.