The CheckerBoard

"UT has long suffered a mental block against the Gators, who have won seven consecutive games in this series."

That comes down to two men: Spurrier & Fulmer. Spurrier said UT played that game not to lose while Florida played to win. He was right. Fulmer had a psychological block with Spurrier who always got the best of him with public verbal jabs. Both men's teams tended to be an extension of their own personalities, with fairly predictable results.

UT lost '09-'11 because of talent, but '10 started a new era with Dooley. Now those two teams are extensions of Dooley and Musgrove/Meyer.

Majors had a brain block against Bama. It took Fulmer 2-3 years to beat Bama, but once he did, he beat them every year for a decade. We may see such a trend start this year with Dooley. Here's hopin'.