Tennessee’s coaching box used a lot of angry curse words for 6o minutes against Florida on Saturday night. But as Dylan Sampson drove into the end zone from one-yard out to make the final score 23-17, it was curse words of excitement echoing through the press box.
It was ugly. It was nasty and it wasn’t enjoyable for any non masochist. But it ended in Tennessee’s third victory over Florida since 2004. Here’s four quick takeaways.
Deja Vu?
Tennessee scored points in the first half in Josh Heupel’s first 43 games as head coach. That changed last week when Tennessee was held scoreless through the first 30 minutes at Arkansas. It continued against Florida with another scoreless first half.
But like the Arkansas game, Tennessee wasn’t in an awful spot at halftime thanks to strong defense and some bad Florida mistakes.
The Gators settled for three points in one drive in Tennessee territory. Then on first-and-goal at the one-yard line, James Pearce Jr stripped Graham Mertz on a quarterback sneak and recovered it to save seven points.
Florida took over on first-and-10 at the Tennessee 11-yard line for the final drive of the first half following an Iamaleava interception. The Gators immediately went backwards with a false start. Then when Boo Carter and Omarr Norman-Lott sacked Mertz on third down and Florida was out of timeouts, the Gators had to run their field goal unit on the field. Florida hit the field goal as the clock ran out. Only they had 12-men on the field, ending the first half.
It felt like Florida should have a healthy lead at halftime. Instead, the Gators only led by 3-0 and Tennessee was very much in the game.
Brutal Nico Iamaleava Mistakes
Tennessee’s offense had more rhythm then it did a week ago against Arkansas. But mistakes from Nico Iamaleava were costly and constantly put the Vols’ defense in a bad spot.
The first mistake came on the opening drive of the game when Iamaleava and Dylan Sampson fumbled a handoff exchange to end a promising opening drive that was deep in Florida territory.
In the second quarter, Tennessee had Squirrel White and Chas Nimrod open behind the defense twice in a three play stretch. Iamaleava overthrew White and misfired to Nimrod— though it seemed like there may have been a miscommunication on the route. Connecting on either play would have been a badly needed touchdown for Tennessee’s offense, but neither happened.
Then lastly, Iamaleava threw an interception into triple coverage on the Vols’ final drive of the first half. That mistake gave Florida fantastic field position but the Gators weren’t able to convert due to a strong stand from Tennessee’s defense and incompetent clock management.
More From RTI: SEC Nation Officially Heading to Tennessee For Rivalry Game Against Alabama
Third Quarter Momentum Swing, But Vols Leave Points On Table
Tennessee felt all but dead when Florida went 92 yards in nine plays for a touchdown on its second drive of the second half. The drive gave the Gators a 10-0 lead midway through the third quarter against a struggling offense.
That’s when Tennessee’s offense showed some competence, going 75 yards on 11 plays for its first score of the game. Iamaleava hit a pair of nice plays to Chas Nimrod and Chris Brazzell before the running game did the rest of the damage. The touchdown came on a Dylan Sampson six-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-one.
Then, with DJ Lagway replacing the injured Graham Mertz, Tennessee’s defense made a game changing play. Lagway forced the ball into trouble and Arion Carter made a leaping interception to give Tennessee the ball deep in Florida territory.
Tennessee didn’t full capitalize, going three-and-out and missing a potential touchdown due to a missed bloking assignment on third down, but still go three points to tie the game. A touchdown would have completely flipped the game but tying the game still marked a major swing.
Tennessee Barely Wins The Rushing Battle
For decades, the winner of the Tennessee-Florida game was almost always decided by who won the battle on the ground. After 60 minutes, they were all knotted up at 132 yards a piece.
And in overtime, that’s where the game was decided. The Vols blew up a screen pass forcing Florida into third-and-20 and the Gators could only run for six yards. That kept the field goal at 47 yards and Trey Smack’s kick missed wide right.
Tennessee threw two quick passes on RPOs on its overtime possession but an eight-yard run from Dylan Sampson was the biggest play of the period. He punched it in on two more runs from the three-yard line.
The Vols out-rushed Florida 143-138 to earn the win in overtime.
