Today's Florida-Tennessee Game Seen as a Survival Contest By Many

Today's University of Florida football game is an early one, starting at noon in Knoxville against the University of Tennessee.  Both the Gators and Volunteers see this as a pivotal game in their seasons, as they both are proud schools with winning traditions but recent hard times.  This is more a survivor's game than anything, for the loser will most definitely become stamped within their own community as a failure...even if they go on to a winning season and bowl appearance.  Tennessee may be able to withstand a loss better than Florida: so far this year,the Gators actually have won the games they were expected to win and their one loss was to powerhouse Alabama on the road...but try telling that to some of their many unreasonable fans, who expect perfection from them week after week.  Well, that lot will probably never be satisfied with anything the Gators do. Even if they win today's game, they'll find something negative to focus on and crow about, probably culminating in yet another call to sack coach Will Muschamp and bench starting quarterback Jeff Driskel.  But I've seen this scenario play out every season since poor Ron Zook's first season in 2002 to succeed legend Steve Spurrier as head coach.

Maybe my attitude makes me not as much of a Florida fan as others see themselves, but I'm quite happy to have a moderately successful team that challenges for their divisional title...and makes it to their very competitive conference's title game every once and a while.  And in that regard, the Gators are square in the driver's seat. A loss to Tennessee, for me, would surely be a disappointment.  But as Billy Preston once expressed in his old 1973 summertime hit Will It Go Round in Circles, it's O.K. to "let the bad guy win every once in a while"...