Tennessee gets another shot to break losing streak vs Florida football at The Swamp

ATLANTA ― The last time Tennessee beat Florida football in The Swamp, George W. Bush was president, and The Matrix Reloaded topped the box office.

The date was Sept. 20, 2003, when the Vols rallied to top the Florida Gators 24-10, with quarterback Casey Clausen conducting the UT band in the postgame version of Rocky Top at Florida Field.

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Tennessee has lost 10 straight games in Gainesville since but will get another chance to break the losing streak on Nov. 22 at UF.

“That’s something we’re looking forward to,” Tennessee defensive lineman Bryson Eason said. “Just trying to go in there and attack and do things that haven’t been done in a long time.”

Overall, Tennessee has won two of the last three meetings against UF, both at Neyland Stadium. Last year, the Vols topped the Gators 23-17 in overtime, a game in which starting quarterback Graham Mertz was lost for the year with a torn ACL.

UF won its last meeting with Tennessee at The Swamp 29-17 on Sept. 16, 2023. Tennessee junior linebacker Arion Carter played one of his first career games at The Swamp as a true freshman, finishing with three tackles.

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“Gainesville brings a certain energy,” Carter said. “I like it. I feed off it. I feel like they have great fans, great tradition and being able to just go down there, play great SEC football.”

Tennessee enters the 2025 season with quarterback uncertainty after incumbent starter Nico Iamaleava left the Vols over an NIL dispute last spring and entered the transfer portal. Iamaleava transferred to UCLA. The Vols have brought in Appalachian State transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar to compete with returning UT signal-callers Jake Merklinger and George McIntyre.

“I’m really excited about who we have in there,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said. “The addition of Joey to who’s already inside of that group, highly competitive guys that are smart, that have the physical traits to be successful. Teammates have grown to have great trust in those guys through the course of this offseason during the summer, and now it’s about getting to training camp and going and competing. Somebody is going to earn the opportunity to be our starting quarterback through that process.”

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Tennessee football aims to break long losing streak at The Swamp vs Florida football