Tennessee Vols trolled on social media by the Citrus Bowl
You know the joke by now. It's only been said about the Tennessee Vols a few hundred thousand times since the 1990s. "You can't spell Citrus without UT." Former Florida head coach Steve Spurrier made that joke famous in the 1990s, as the Gators prevailed over the Volunteers repeatedly to win the SEC East and […]
You know the joke by now. It's only been said about the Tennessee Vols a few hundred thousand times since the 1990s. "You can't spell Citrus without UT."
Former Florida head coach Steve Spurrier made that joke famous in the 1990s, as the Gators prevailed over the Volunteers repeatedly to win the SEC East and send Tennessee to the Citrus Bowl while Florida won the SEC title and ended up in a major New Years Day bowl game.
Well, it turns out that the joke still isn't lost on the Citrus Bowl. The bowl's Twitter/X account thumbed out post making reference to Spurrier's infamous joke about Tennessee.
At first glance, one might think that it was just a post by a young social media employee for the bowl game thinking they had something clever. Well, that was definitely not the case.
Tennessee ended up in the Citrus Bowl following the 1983, 1993, 1995, 1996, and 2001 seasons, winning four of the five matchups. But it indeed was a disappointment, especially in the 1995 and 1996 seasons, when Tennessee had high hopes for SEC and national championships with Peyton Manning under center.
Since the 2001 season, the Citrus Bowl would be a step forward for the Vols from where they've ended up. Tennessee has reached double digit wins just four times (2003, 2004, 2007, 2022) and has made just one major bowl game during that stretch.
As such, the joke is certainly no longer the slap in the face that it used to be. The Citrus Bowl is honestly as good as the Vols could have hoped for after falling 38-10 to Georgia a little over two weeks ago. And if you don't take things too seriously, it's kind of amusing.
But it's still an interesting quip from the bowl game that's supposed to promote each of its participating schools in a positive light.
