By: Matt Laws
KNOXVILLE-- The No. 23 Tennessee Volunteer
football team was a quarter away from sending a strong message that they were
back on the national scene. However, No. 18 Florida had a different idea in the
fourth.
Tennessee was unable to respond to a 14 point Florida run in a three minute stretch in the third quarter as the Gators took a 37-20 win in front of a national audience in Neyland Stadium on Saturday night. It was the eighth straight victory over the Vols for Florida.
“We thought we could go toe-to-toe with
them for four quarters, yes,” Head Coach Derek Dooley said. “There’s no
excuses. We didn’t get it done. Give Florida credit. They did what they needed
to do. I don’t know what else to say. We didn’t get it done.”
Tennessee held a 14-10 lead after the
break, and Florida added a 25-yard field goal on their opening drive of the
second half. However, the Vols responded when AJ Johnson ran into the endzone
from a yard out with seven minutes left in the third, and the Tennessee defense
stopped Florida on a fake punt on the ensuing drive.
From there, it only got worse for the
Volunteers.
Tennessee was forced to punt after a
three and out, and Florida took full advantage on their next play as Trey
Burton raced 80-yards for a touchdown in a wildcat formation to tie the game at
20.
The next Volunteer drive was stopped
when Tyler Bray was intercepted and it only took Florida three plays to cover
70 yards as J. Reed caught a Jeff Driskel pass from 23 yards out.
“We were going pretty good,” Dooley
said. “Then it was like it the first football game. We were sitting there and
they got the ball with 3 minutes, and 15 seconds to go — is that what it was? At
that point, we were ahead in the game. They were doing a good job, a real good
job, and there were a lot of shifts and formations. We knew where they were,
and it was challenging our ability to adjust. We held up pretty good up until
that point. From that point on, we gave up a huge play there. Then we gave it
back to them. They go 150 yards in four plays. Big plays. turnovers. We lost
both of those. I say it every week: big plays and turnovers.”
From there, it was all Florida as they
kept the Tennessee offense stymied as they were held to three and outs on their
final three drives, while the Gators scored 10 more points in the final 10
minutes.
“It’s disappointing,” Dooley said. “They’ve
got to be hurting in [the locker room] because we came in here expecting to
win. We knew it was going to be tough. We had a great game going and we just
let it slip away.”
Bray was 22-of-44 for 257 yards and
two touchdowns for the Vols, but recorded two costly interceptions. He finished
1-for-9 in the final quarter.
“I thought he was working through the
game pretty good,” Dooley said. “In the end, I just want to see it. I don’t
know how much to put on Tyler. We just seemed to run out of juice right at the
end, on both sides. When the ball broke out, it looked like we were lumbering
to get the guy.”
On the ground, Rhajon Neal had 87
yards on 23 carries, while sophomore AJ Johnson recorded a touchdown from Tennessee’s
version of the wildcat formation.
Tennessee returns to action on
Saturday, Sept. 22, when they host Akron. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. on
CSS.
