KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An unranked Tennessee team has never beaten a ranked Florida team. The Vols are 0-8 in that situation.
The odds will certainly be stacked against Jeremy Pruitt's team when they head into Gainesville to take on no. 9 Florida on Saturday at noon.
Tennessee is on a 30-game losing streak against top-ten opponents dating back to 2006. The Vols are 2-14 in The Swamp since 1977. The last win came in 2003.
"We will definitely have our hands full," Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt said Monday after noting that the Gators lead the country in sacks with 16.
Tennessee has seven guys listed as starters on its depth chart that have never played in a road SEC game.
"To me it's fun going on the road, I like going on the road. You find out who you are, everybody's against you. You kind of see a little bit about your character and it'll be good for us," Pruitt said.
The Vols (1-2) picked up their first win of the season in a 45-0 rout of Chattanooga on Saturday.
Florida (3-0, 1-0 SEC) rallied from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Kentucky in Lexington, 29-21. The Gators lost starting quarterback Feleipe Franks for the season in the third quarter of that game but backup Kyle Trask took over and led Florida back, completing 9-of-13 passes for 126 yards and adding a rushing touchdown.
The Gators outscored Kentucky 19-0 with Trask in the game.
"This guy is plenty capable, you saw it the other night. Very efficient in what they did, they didn't really changed much of who they are, the guy's plenty capable, he's a big strong guy that's got a good arm and he's physical in the run game," Pruitt said.
Trask is a redshirt junior who backed up Franks last season before breaking his foot in practice in November. He redshirted in 2016 and missed the 2017 season with an injury. The Texas native has appeared in five career games and is expected to make his first career start on Saturday against Tennessee.