Morning Reading: The Florida/Tennessee Rivalry is Back

My feelings toward

Part of what made the Florida/Tennessee rivalry so great during my younger days were the jabs Phillip Fulmer and Steve Spurrier threw back and forth at each other. It intensified the rivalry and made fans everywhere never want to just beat the other team, but absolutely annihilate them. It’s part of the reason I’m happy with Saturday’s 10-point win, but could be much happier. It’s also part of the reason a number of Tennessee fans aren’t quite as upset as they thought they’d be.

Then Spurrier moved on and we got stuck with Ron Zook. Zook was too busy creating division in the locker room and trying to stand up against campus fraternities to take the time to ruffle the feathers of any of Florida’s rivals. We got sort of a dead period. Not that the games weren’t great and the rivalry wasn’t alive, but it didn’t have what it did during the Spurrier years.

But now, Lane Kiffin and Urban Meyer have made sure it’s returned. We all know the comments Kiffin made from the time he was hired to only a few weeks ago. And we all know the Meyer is more of the subtle trash talker, but still gets his punches in. The game came and passed with not much said leading up to it, but now that it’s over, the gloves are off again. Meyer has commented that a number of key players were sick and even went as far as saying he “didn’t feel like they were going for the win” when referring to Tennessee. And now Kiffin has shot back stating if the Vols aren’t exciting about their performance in the future, they will just tell everyone they were sick.

As a fan of either school, you may get enraged, but I love it. I said early on, if Kiffin brings anything to the SEC, it’ll be entertainment. And entertaining he has been. Hate him all you want Gator fans. And Vol fans, feel free to loathe Meyer. You are supposed to. This is a rivalry at its best and I’m sure we all can’t wait for next year.