Florida Mertz

[LouderVol]

Who’s “y’all”?

And, I am not guaranteeing a win just arguing that some curse that transcends teams and coaches is not real.

why not? How many more decades of us just falling apart against Florida do you need to see?

I don't think we are cursed against Bama, haven't seen anyone say that. They are better, and have beat us accordingly.

Florida? Florida is not always better. Curse, jedi mind tricks, self inflicted mental block. whatever you want to call it is very real.

 

[VAVol85]

why not? How many more decades of us just falling apart against Florida do you need to see?

I don't think we are cursed against Bama, haven't seen anyone say that. They are better, and have beat us accordingly.

Florida? Florida is not always better. Curse, jedi mind tricks, self inflicted mental block. whatever you want to call it is very real.

I looked at final AP rankings as an indicator of team quality. Over the last 25 years, there have been only 4 times when we had the better team (i.e., finished the season ranked ahead of Florida) but lost to Florida:
- 2023: 17th ranked UT lost to Unranked UF...in Gainesville
- 2015: 22nd ranked UT lost to 25th ranked UF...in Gainesville
- 2007: 12th ranked UT lost to 13th ranked UF...in Gainesville
- 1999: 9th ranked UT lost to 12th ranked UF...in Gainesville
The Swamp is a tough place to play.

There were three times (2002, 2010, and 2014) when both teams were bad (finished unranked) and we lost in Knoxville. Maybe you can blame those on a curse (I would call ‘10 and’14 the Dooley-Butch curse).

Summary: Over the last 25 years we have generally had the worse team and have lost. When we have clearly had the better team we have won except for a very few games in Gainesville.

If people want to claim that we are always the better team but lose to UF because of some kind of voodoo, I guess that is fine. But I would rather approach each game with the current facts (who has the better team, who has the better coach, who has the homefield advantage) and then hope the breaks go our way.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

I looked at final AP rankings as an indicator of team quality. Over the last 25 years, there have been only 4 times when we had the better team (i.e., finished the season ranked ahead of Florida) but lost to Florida:
- 2023: 17th ranked UT lost to Unranked UF...in Gainesville
- 2015: 22nd ranked UT lost to 25th ranked UF...in Gainesville
- 2007: 12th ranked UT lost to 13th ranked UF...in Gainesville
- 1999: 9th ranked UT lost to 12th ranked UF...in Gainesville
The Swamp is a tough place to play.

There were three times (2002, 2010, and 2014) when both teams were bad (finished unranked) and we lost in Knoxville. Maybe you can blame those on a curse (I would call it the Dooley-Butch curse).

Summary: Over the last 25 years we have generally had the worse team and have lost. When we have clearly had the better team we have won except for a very few games in Gainesville.

If people want to claim that we are always the better team but lose to UF because of some kind of voodoo, I guess that is fine. But I would rather approach each game with the current facts (who has the better team, who has the better coach, who has the homefield advantage) and then hope the breaks go our way.

They may have been better the majority of the time, but there have multiple times where we have outplayed Florida and they have somehow managed to pull out the improbable W. 2000, 2006 (maybe) 2014, 2015 come to mind. 1999 we clawed back and could’ve won that game if it weren’t for some poor play calling and maybe just maybe doubled Alex Brown.

 

[LouderVol]

I looked at final AP rankings as an indicator of team quality. Over the last 25 years, there have been only 4 times when we had the better team (i.e., finished the season ranked ahead of Florida) but lost to Florida:
- 2023: 17th ranked UT lost to Unranked UF...in Gainesville
- 2015: 22nd ranked UT lost to 25th ranked UF...in Gainesville
- 2007: 12th ranked UT lost to 13th ranked UF...in Gainesville
- 1999: 9th ranked UT lost to 12th ranked UF...in Gainesville
The Swamp is a tough place to play.

There were three times (2002, 2010, and 2014) when both teams were bad (finished unranked) and we lost in Knoxville. Maybe you can blame those on a curse (I would call ‘10 and’14 the Dooley-Butch curse).

Summary: Over the last 25 years we have generally had the worse team and have lost. When we have clearly had the better team we have won except for a very few games in Gainesville.

If people want to claim that we are always the better team but lose to UF because of some kind of voodoo, I guess that is fine. But I would rather approach each game with the current facts (who has the better team, who has the better coach, who has the homefield advantage) and then hope the breaks go our way.

rankings don't say everything. I would take a lot of unranked SEC teams over a ranked ACC team and not really consider it an upset. and its a bit of a flawed argument anyway, generally when you lose to a team you are going to be ranked lower than them regardless of how you play. them beating us lowers us and raises them, so by the end of the year they look better than they otherwise would/should. so looking after the fact at the rankings is a self fulfilling prediction. Oh we lost, see we are lower ranked. we won, we are higher ranked.

As RDU stated, it comes down to how the game is played day of. and either we have a mental block and just shart the game away, or there is just some once in a decade remarkable play by Florida. The catch that wasn't a catch, Emmanuel Moseley just giving up on the last play of the game, some 4th & 18 play or scramble. our DB knocking the ball out their WR's hands but another WR catches it.

there is not another game in the year where we play as bad as we do, as we do against Florida. There is not another game we play where I expect more weird, bad things to happen to UT, thank playing Florida.

 

[MercyPercy]

Mertz is not the type of player to ever put up heisman numbers even if he actually had a decent team around him. That being said he played well last year and was the least of our problems. I thought he was gonna suck ass but it turns out he was one of our best players and most of the rest of the team sucked instead lol

 

[vavolfan6]

Mertz is a vastly underrated QB in my opinion. Josh Pate agrees. He had UF QB room rated an 8.5/10. Good thing for us Tennessee fans that UF has no one around to support him.

 

[greenbacknative]

Not sure if it is Florida or the first SEC Opponent. Whenever Florida hasn't been our first SEC opponent (2001, 2004, etc.) we have done very well and won it.

Under that logic, Oklahoma will be our Florida game this year.

The Sooners will be the first to pop us in the mouth this year. I hope we respond well