Former Tennessee football player drops epic Phillip Fulmer story that will have Kentucky fans hating the Vols even more

The Tennessee Vols and the Kentucky Wildcats will continue to play each other every season as the two programs were recently announced as permanent SEC opponents for each other starting in 2026.

Tennessee and Kentucky have played each other 120 times, with the first meeting coming in 1893.

The Vols lead the all-time series 84-26-9.

Former Tennessee player drops epic Phillip Fulmer story that will have Kentucky fans hating the Vols even more than they already do

Former Vols defensive back Buck Fitzgerald, who played at Tennessee under Phillip Fulmer in the late 90's, recently joined the Tatum Talk Show and he shared some great stories from his time as a player in Knoxville.

One of the stories that Fitzgerald shared was about Fulmer and the way he would address the locker room each year before Tennessee played Kentucky.

Tennessee was usually in a spot to compete for a national championship in those days (Fitzgerald was a member of the 1998 national championship team), and Kentucky usually wasn't very good.

The Wildcats, though, would always play hard against the Vols. And Fulmer made sure to remind his team of that -- in his own unique way.

"Coach Fulmer used to have this speech every year," said Fitzgerald. "Because we would always kind of be vying for a national championship. That (game against Kentucky) would always be at the end (of the regular season). You know you're going to win, but you need to win it to go to the SEC championship, and [it was a] you can't screw it up type of thing. So he would always have these speeches.

"He would always say, 'Alright guys, y'all are gonna go up there and y'all are not taking this s--t seriously. And you're gonna go up there and damn it' -- he called y'all blue bastards -- 'Those blue bastards are gonna start crying and snotting and singing that old my damn old Kentucky home, and they're gonna try to beat your ass'. And he used to say, 'They're dirt daubers. They don't want s--t. They just want to f--k it up for you.'"