Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs led the Vols in rushing, passing and receiving, but that was not enough to keep the Vols from losing to Florida -- for the 11th straight time -- at The Swamp on Saturday in Gainesville, Fla.
photo by Tennessee Athletics
When it comes to Florida, Tennessee has apparently forgotten how to beat the Gators.
Hoping to end a 10-game losing skid, the Vols instead gave up a 63-yard touchdown pass with 86 seconds left in the game, blew another fourth-quarter lead and dropped a heartbreaking 28-27 loss at The Swamp on Saturday before 90,526 fans.
“Down deep, you just don’t lose to Tennessee,” Florida coach Jim McElwain said matter-of-factly in online postgame remarks provided by Tennessee’s sports information department.
Thanks to the long fourth-and-14 touchdown hook-up between quarterback Will Grier to freshman Antonio Callaway, who avoided three Vols defenders near midfield and outran everyone else to the end zone, the Gators (4-0, 2-0 SEC) stretched their winning streak to 11 straight in the series that Florida now leads 26-19, including a 13-5 mark in Gainesville.
Amazingly, Florida converted all five fourth-down tries, including three in the fourth quarter, and are 10-for-10 on the season.
The Vols (2-2, 0-1) must be wondering if they’ll ever beat the Gators, even if the game was played on another planet.
“Three fourth-down conversions that if we get off the field we’re going to win the football game,” said Jones, who was roundly panned for several questionable plays calls and clock management in the final seconds.
“You have to get off the field, run the victory formation milking the clock and the game is over.”
Of course, that didn’t happen.
A headline in USA TODAY blared: Tennessee’s Butch Jones should coach with common sense, not off a card.”
The final outcome came down to Tennessee’s last possession and the Vols’ less than spectacular clock management, plus a penalty for having 12 players on the field, forced the Vols to attempt a 55-yard field goal as time expired.
Aaron Medley’s kick sailed wide right – he had plenty of distance. Florida, however, called timeout before the snap to ice Medley.
Medley had another crack at the uprights.
The second again missed to the right, but only by inches.
Vols players and Jones thought the kick was good.
Florida waited a second or two to make sure it had won before heading to the field for another wild celebration of another win over Tennessee, a feeling the Vols haven’t enjoyed since 2004.
“We would like to have that field goal,” Vols running back Alvin Kamara said. “But we all love up on (Aaron); we will get on the plane and hug up on him.”
Leading 20-7, the Vols appeared to force a Florida field goal on fourth-and-6. Fearing a possible fake, Jones called timeout. Afterwards, McElwain sent his offense back on the field. The Gators got a first down at the Vols’ 4 and then Grier threw a strike to Kelvin Taylor for a touchdown.
And when Tennessee went up 26-14 with 10:9 left in the game, a lot of coaches – likely a large majority – would have gone for a two-point conversion. Jones decided to go for the one-point kick. Medley made it, but that decision would haunt the Vols when Florida went ahead 28-27.
“There are a number of reasons (for not going for two) and we discussed that before the drive,” said Jones, 6-15 against Power 5 teams in three seasons in Knoxville. “We have a chart that is pretty standard in football that maps it all. We felt at that stage of the game, we had great confidence in our defense getting off the field.
“We felt very comfortable with that decision.”
Rationalizing doesn’t eliminate the sting of another tough loss to Florida, though.
“The outcome is very hard to deal with,” senior linebacker LaDarrell McNeil said, “but you have to look past it and you have to keep moving forward.”
What the Vols are looking at are games next week against Arkansas, which lost to Texas A&M in overtime and No. 7 Georgia the following week. Both games are set for Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.
After Georgia, the Vols take on Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina before bouncing out of the conference to play North Texas on homecoming.
That’s a lot of time to think about one intriguing stat that came out of the Florida game:
Nationally, teams are 188-3 when leading by at least 13 points in the fourth quarter, and two of those losses belong to Tennessee. The Vols blew a fourth-quarter lead against Oklahoma and lost in two overtimes.
The Vols were outscored, 49-17, in the fourth quarter by the Sooners and Gators.
Tennessee outgained Florida 419-392; outrushed the Gators 254-109; and Florida had 283 yards passing to the Vols’ 165.
The pattern in this series, now being totally dominated in the win-loss column by Florida, is the team that rushes best wins.
Tennessee blew that trend out of the water.
Dobbs led the Vols with 83 yards passing, 136 yards rushing and 58 yards receiving. He got the Vols’ first touchdown, a throw-back play from wideout Jauan Jennings, a play that enabled the Vols tie the game at 7-7 in the first quarter.
Dobbs is the first Tennessee quarterback to catch a touchdown pass since Peyton Manning did it against Arkansas in 1997.
After the game he was asked if the Vols are snake bit.
“SEC defenses play relentless,” he said. “We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves.”
Jalen Hurd’s 10-yard touchdown run gave the Vols a 27-14 lead. Hurd scored in the second quarter on a 1-yard run and finished with 102 yards rushing on 28 carries.
Medley kicked field goals of 34 and 37 yards.
Tennessee 7 10 3 7 – 27
Florida 7 0 7 14 – 28
First Quarter
UF – Kelvin Taylor 5 run (Jorge Powell kick), 10:23
UT – Dobbs 58 pass from Jauan Jennings (Aaron Medley kick),
Second Quarter
UT – Jalen Hurd 1 run (Medley kick), 8:18
UT – FG Medley 34, 3:13
Third Quarter
UT – FG Medley 37, 11:07
UF – Taylor 4 run (Powell kick), 5:42
Fourth Quarter
UT – Hurd 10 run (Medley kick), 10:19
UF – Brandon Powell 5 pass from Will Greer (Powell kick), 4:09
UF – Antonio Callaway 63 pass from Grier (Powell kick), 1:26
Attendance – 90,527
YARDSTICK
UT UF
First Downs 20 17
Rushes-Yards 51-254 28-109
Passing Yards 165 283
Comp-Att-Int 12-19-0 23-43-1
Plays-Total Yds 70-419 71-392
Fumbles-Lost 3-1 0-0
Punts-Avg 6-51.3 7-49.6
Penalties-Yards 4-25 4-25
INDIVIDUALS
RUSHING – Tennessee: Joshua Dobbs 18-136, Jalen Hurd 28-102, Alvin Kamara 5-16; Florida: Kelvin Taylor 19-102, Brandon Powell 1-7, Will Grier 8-0.
PASSING – Tennessee; Dobbs 10-17-0 83, Jauan Jennings 1-1-0 58, Kamara 1-1-0 24: Florida: Grier 23-42-1 283, Alvin Bailey 0-1-0 0.
RECEIVING – Tennessee: Dobbs 1-58, Ethan Wolf 3-45, Kamara 3-33, Cody Blanc 1-10, Hurd 1-7, Josh Smith 1-6, Alex. Ellis 1-5, Jennings 1-1; Florida: Antonio Callaway 5-112, Powell 5-64, Jake McGee 5-57, DeAndre Goolsby 1-6, Taylor 1-minus 4.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)