Tennessee cannot break the “Dallas Baker Curse.” That’s how Baker’s family and friends see it, anyway.
The last time the Volunteers beat the Gators, Baker was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct in the game’s final minute. The flag helped UT rally for a 30-28 win on Sept. 18, 2004.
“It’s kind of funny,” Baker said of the curse. “We joke all the time.”
Official Bobby Moreau threw the flag when Baker retaliated with a shove after Tennessee’s Jonathan Wade hit him in the facemask between third and fourth down.
“I wasn’t really thinking,” Baker said. “It all happened in slow motion.”
Teammates had told Baker in previous weeks to toughen up and play with more passion. In that instance, the sophomore wide receiver simply went too far.
“I made a boneheaded decision,” Baker said. “That wasn’t my way to show passion and fire and stuff like that. That was the first thing I thought about.”
The personal foul cost UF 15 yards and stopped the clock, helping UT win with six seconds remaining.
“On the way home, I remember I was fighting back the tears because my teammates kept telling me it was OK, that we all make mistakes,” Baker said. “But inside, I felt like I was the reason we lost.”
The backlash in Gainesville was fierce.
“Thanks, Dallas,” frustrated Florida fans wrote on the 34th Street wall.
“That crushed me even more,” Baker said.
Tennessee kicker James Wilhoit was on track for a similar fate that same night.
Before Baker’s pivotal flag, Wilhoit was the goat as the Volunteers trailed 28-27.
Tennessee had matched Florida touchdown for touchdown all night, but a botched extra point by Wilhoit in the final minutes allowed UF to run out the clock.
The Gators seemed destined to claim their third straight victory in Knoxville, Tenn.
Wilhoit took the kick for granted. He had never missed an extra point before then as a Volunteer. He admitted he got lazy. He shanked the kick wide right. He was in shock.
“The sudden reality started to kick in,” Wilhoit said. “And I said, ‘If this game ends the way it could, then it’ll be my fault that we lost the game.’ I was desperate for an opportunity. Once I missed that extra point, I knew that it was my fault and I had just had a really bad mistake.”
Wilhoit was dying for a second chance. Wade and Baker’s exchange gave him hope.
When Tennessee got the ball on its own 39-yard line with no timeouts and 43 seconds remaining, Wilhoit sought out Volunteers offensive coordinator Randy Sanders.
“Just get me across midfield, and I’ll make it,” Wilhoit told Sanders.
Thirty-seven seconds later, Wilhoit split the uprights from 50 yards away. Gators fans mockingly thanked Baker following the game, but Wilhoit said they should be thanking him.
“Ron Zook was your coach at the time,” Wilhoit said of what he tells Florida fans. “Making that field goal, and then you guys losing to Mississippi State a couple of weeks later, all of a sudden that led to Urban Meyer being the head coach. So, in the long run, you guys may have lost the battle, but you won the war.”
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The war raged throughout the 1990s between the Gators and the Volunteers. After the Southeastern Conference split into two divisions and established the SEC Championship Game in 1992, either Florida or Tennessee represented the East every year until 2002.
“It became a big rivalry for Florida and for Tennessee, I guess, because we were, in the early ‘90s, the two best teams in the East,” former Gators coach Steve Spurrier said. “Tennessee and us were usually fighting it out for the division championship in those years, so it was a huge game.”
Wilhoit, who grew up a Volunteers fan, was always invested in the UF-UT series.
He said Tennessee’s rivalry with Florida even surpassed the Vols’ rivalry with Alabama, known as the “Third Saturday in October.”
Wilhoit looked up to former Volunteers kicker Jeff Hall, who also beat Florida with a game-winning field goal. Hall’s kick preserved Tennessee’s perfect record en route to winning the 1998 national title.
“Florida was our hated rival,” Wilhoit said. “That was the game that I wanted to perform well, and that was one that I always remembered. So to play well in that game and to make that kick made it that much sweeter.”
After beginning the annual series in 1990, Florida took six of the first eight games as part of a run of four straight SEC titles from 1993-1996. Tennessee played in the Florida Citrus Bowl — now known as the Capital One Bowl — three times during that span.
In the spring of 1997, Spurrier famously joked, “You can’t spell Citrus without U-T.”
But once Peyton Manning — who never beat Florida — left Tennessee after 1997, the series intensified. Tennessee took four of the next seven contests — five decided by single digits — with an average margin of victory of only 6.3 points per game.
UF even ended up in the Citrus Bowl a couple of times, prompting UT fans to jab right back at Spurrier. A plane flew over the 1998 Florida Citrus Bowl between Florida and Penn State with a banner that read: “Vols: Welcome the Gators to the FLA Citrus Bowl!”
Spurrier also enjoyed the increased competitiveness in the late ‘90s. He said he remembers every game against Tennessee, but he has a soft spot for Florida’s 27-23 comeback win in 2000.
“All their students were ready to swarm the field,” Spurrier said. “They were ready to come out there and then all of a sudden they just stood there and looked at each other for a while. So I’d say that was my favorite.”
Although Spurrier got on the nerves of Wilhoit and other Tennessee fans, the kicker always respected the Ol’ Ball Coach. Wilhoit admired Spurrier’s will to win.
“I liked his moxie and his ability and his mentality to kind of go for the throat,” Wilhoit said. “He was going to go for the jugular. So I respected that part of it. He’s a great coach.”
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The Volunteers faced a nemesis worse than Spurrier when Urban Meyer came to Florida. After Ron Zook went 4-5 in games against Georgia, Florida State and Tennessee, Meyer vowed to crush Florida’s rivals.
And crush them the Gators did, running up a 16-2 record against UGA, FSU and UT during Meyer’s six years in Gainesville. The Bulldogs and Seminoles each managed a victory during that span, but the Volunteers were 0-6.
Florida has won eight straight contests against UT by an average margin of 15.5 points per game. The past six games were decided by double digits.
Tennessee has only three winning seasons since Meyer started at UF in 2005 and has lost six or more games six times during that span.
UT last won the SEC East in 2007. The Gators beat the Vols 59-20 that year.
The rivalry flared up when Lane Kiffin accused UF of a recruiting violation involving Nu’Keese Richardson in 2009. But the claim was unfounded, and Meyer beat Kiffin in the latter’s lone year as Tennessee’s coach.
Will Muschamp picked up where Meyer left off, defeating UT in each of his first two years.
Meanwhile, the Volunteers have had five different head coaches since 2008.
Blame the “Dallas Baker Curse”?
“The guy watched us both — then threw a flag, and they haven’t beat us since,” Baker said. “So I feel like maybe there is a ‘Dallas Baker Curse.’”
The lopsidedness of recent meetings has resulted in mixed opinions of whether or not the once-great SEC matchup is still a rivalry. Both coaches think so.
“It’s still a huge rivalry,” Muschamp said. “It’s a very important game at the University of Florida.”
“Our players understand the rivalry, what is at stake,” UT coach Butch Jones told the Associated Press. “I think they understand what has gone on before them.”
So does Jeff Driskel.
“It goes way back,” the quarterback said. “Two storied programs. Since I’ve been here, for a while, we’ve dominated the series, but I know they’re gunning for us. They always do. And they always put up a good fight against us.”
Lighthearted questions on players’ opinions of “Rocky Top” dominated game week rather than the SEC title implications that seemed at stake every time UF and UT met in years past.
Some former players believe the rivalry has lost its edge.
“This isn’t a rivalry for Florida for the fact that they don’t think that they’re going to lose to us,” Wilhoit said. “I don’t think that this rivalry is truly going to heat up until we start getting a couple of victories.”
Former Gators wide receiver Jacquez Green added: “I think the fans and sportswriters make it more of a rivalry now. I think a rivalry is when both teams have an equal chance of winning on a yearly basis.”
But whether the rivalry is alive or dead, the nostalgia remains.
“I remember telling (Tim) Tebow and all those young guys, ‘This is a game here that you dream about playing in,’” Baker said. “I remember telling them, ‘This is a game that you never want to lose.’”
Follow Joe Morgan on Twitter @joe_morgan.
Former Gators wide receiver Dallas Baker (81) breaks a tackle during Florida’s 21-20 victory against Tennessee on Sept. 16, 2006 in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.
Former Gators coach Steve Spurrier reacts to the action on the field during Florida’s 34-32 loss to Tennessee on Dec. 1, 2001, in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Spurrier went 8-4 against the Volunteers during his 12 years as Florida’s coach.
