Using ESPN’s FPI (Football Power Index) as a guide, Florida (2-1, 1-1) has a 57.8 percent chance to beat Tennessee 2-2 (0-1) on Saturday.

TENNESSEE REPRESENTS A MUST-WIN FOR MUSCHAMP AND THE GATORS

The Tennessee Vols haven’t been much of an issue for the Florida Gators in nearly a decade. The Orange and Blue have emerged victorious in this rivalry since 2005, giving Florida a nine-game winning streak over its SEC East rivals.

Relegated to a 12 p.m. kickoff time, the Florida – Tennessee game is a long way away from it’s prior days as one of the premier match ups in college football. Still, for Will Muschamp, this game holds immense importance for him as a coach fighting to prove he deserves to still be the head coach of the Florida Gators at the end of the season.

Athletic director Jeremy Foley has never been a fan of numbers. He’s said on multiple occasions that Muschamp doesn’t need to hit a specific number of wins to keep his job. Rather, Foley just wants visual proof that the program is progressing. And while a win may not be the overwhelming evidence he’s looking for, a loss to the Vols would certainly be a huge step backward.

Tennessee is much improved this season in just Butch Jones’ second year as head coach, but for Muschamp, it’s important for him to defeat the rivals – and that definitely includes Tennessee. Behind Georgia, tomorrow’s game is probably the second-most important game on the schedule for Muschamp in determining whether or not he stays after this season. The Alabama loss wasn’t pretty, but that was against Alabama. The Gators have been expected to beat Tennessee for nearly a decade now and that doesn’t change simply because of a lackluster performance against a top SEC team.

For Muschamp, a win tomorrow gets the critics off his back for the time being – of course until the next week. But a loss tomorrow against one of the Gators’ biggest rivals only exponentially increases the number of his detractors and soon the noise may get too loud for Foley to ignore.

As usual though, Muschamp doesn’t express any added importance to one specific game on the schedule and takes the same approach every week.

“Every week is a must-win. When has that ever changed?”