One rush for three yards.
This was Robert Gillespie’s introduction to the Tennessee-Florida rivalry.
As a freshman playing for the Gators in 1998, the current UT running backs coach played in front of 107,653 at Neyland Stadium as then-UT coach Phillip Fulmer knocked off then-Florida coach Steve Spurrier for the first time in his career.
“I look back, and I didn’t know much,” Gillespie said Wednesday, recalling UT’s 20-17 overtime win over his alma mater that is now 15 years in the past. “I was just a young guy and didn’t understand really the big stage that I was on.”
That stage – a sellout crowd and national CBS television audience – proved to be a crucial act in Tennessee’s run to a national title, and it remained a pivotal point on the SEC schedule for Gillespie’s entire playing career.
His Gators knocked Tennessee off the following two seasons before the Vols posted a win at Florida in 2001, meaning Gillespie finished his Florida career 2-2 against the Vols.
A total of one point separated the two teams during those four contests, and the winner represented the Eastern Division in the SEC Championship game each year.
“I had two pretty special memories,” Gillespie said, referring to the times his Gators came out on top, “and the other ones are the ones that live with you forever.”
Now on the other side of the once-great UT-Florida rivalry as a coach, Gillespie is putting aside any loyalties to Gator blue – at least for one day – while hoping to help reinvigorate the Florida-dominated series.
Even if it means a loss for his alma mater, Gillespie wants the memories his current team takes from Saturday’s game to be of the positive variety.
A UT win in The Swamp would be its first since 2003.
“It’s not about coach Jones and it’s not about me,” Gillespie said. “It’s about trying to help Marlin Lane and Raijon Neal have something they can brag about for years to come.”
Gillespie is not the only Tennessee coach with Florida ties. UT receivers coach Zach Azzani coached at Florida in 2010 under Urban Meyer and recruited some of the current Gators.
Though not a UF alumnus like Gillespie, Azzani knows first-hand what is at stake when the Vols and Gators collide.
“There was a lot of buildup for that game just like there is here,” Azzani said. “Now we’re on the opposite. We want to be the guys that right the ship here.”
On the topic of buildup, Gillespie’s memory is especially fond in regards to the 2001 UT-Florida match up.
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2011 forced the matchup to Dec. 1 and raised the stakes higher than usual, setting up a winner-take-all scenario in the SEC East standings.
Gillespie caught 10 passes in the game, but Tennessee left Gainesville with a 34-32 win.
The memory is not Gillespie’s fondest, but one that he respects – especially now that he sees the rivalry from the other side.
“That’s what we want to get back to,” Gillespie said, “where it’s down to the wire, tooth and nail to come out with the victory.”
Whether his players realize it or not, Gillespie knows as well as anyone that Saturday’s game will one day mean to his players. After all, it started with just one rush for three yards in his first career road game. But over a decade later, the recollection of playing in a UT-Florida game is as clear as any.
“There are a lot of memories from those games and it’s our job to help these players create their own memories from these games,” Gillespie said. “Us old guys can sit back and laugh and reminisce.
“That’s the important thing about this game is you can have memories for a lifetime that you’ll never forget.”
