Order has been restored in Tennessee football – sort of.
Two-touchdown underdog Florida was vanquished in overtime, barely, at sold-out Neyland Stadium. The Gators made enough mistakes to lose two games. Josh Heupel thanked the enthusiastic crowd for helping make one worthy of celebration.
Tennessee was less klutzy. Dylan Sampson scored all three touchdowns. James Pearce made a sensational play and the defense sometimes came through in the clutch. Leading linebacker Keenan Pili was injured. Nico was not sharp (cold, hard truth wrapped in gentleness).
Some doubted the sun would come up Sunday morning – but it did. We can now look ahead – cautiously – to incoming Alabama, two-point favorites in early betting. The Tide is 5-1 but it hasn’t been all that hot.
Without much to brag about, the Volunteers are 5-1. The loss at Arkansas is past tense. The orange shirts nipped Florida, 23-17. It was an uncommon experience, only the third victory over the Gators in 20 years. Let the applause ring out. There are no ugly wins in this intense rivalry.
The Vols did drop in the polls. Coaches have them 10th and the AP says 11th.
Heupel outcoached his counterpart, Billy Napier. Josh borrowed two big defensive tackles for his jumbo blocking package that worked for key plays, including a gamble deep in UT territory and the decisive score.
Another example: After three consecutive sacks, Nico Iamaleava was rescued from the leaky pocket and coached to throw on the run. He didn’t set a completion record but the muggings stopped.
Opposite example: There was a segment when the Florida offensive line was beating up Tennessee’s defensive front. A rock-solid principle from the Robert R. Neyland era was relevant: The shortest distance between point A and point B is a straight line.
Napier showed us a new trick, a fly sweep on fourth down with inches to go at the UT 18. Vol corner Rickey Gibson stayed home, played his position perfectly and decked Eugene Wilson for minus one.
There were other coaching flaws. Twelve Gators on the field for a hurry-up field goal cost three points.
Serious setbacks: Florida quarterback Graham Mertz was lost to a non-contact leg injury. Running back Montrell Johnson was hurt in combat.
Tennessee had a couple of individual defensive highlights. Florida was inches from a touchdown in the second quarter when Mertz attempted a sneak. Pearce pulled the ball from his grasp and recovered the fumble.
“I expect that,” said defensive tackle Bryson Eason. “It was James Pearce being James Pearce.”
Linebacker Arion Carter intercepted a Gator pass, ran it back 15 to the UF 20 and set up a Max Gilbert field goal.
Tennessee’s offense sputtered most of the evening. The Vols trailed 3-0 at intermission. The look was much worse. Florida was up 10-0 when the home team got its act together. It rallied for 10 points in the third quarter and seven in the fourth.
The Vols failed to control the clock to protect their 17-10 advantage and suffered an untimely defensive relapse. With 2:43 remaining, a Jackson Ross punt was returned 27 yards to the UT 31. The Gators didn’t accomplish much.
Half a minute was left when freshman QB DJ Lagway threw down the middle, behind the linebackers and between the safeties to an open Chimere Dike for a touchdown.
Coach Napier appeared to wrestle with whether to go for two or kick for a tie and overtime. His choice netted nothing – incompletion, false-start penalty, short pass overwhelmed by Eason, short run stopped by Pearce and Jeremiah Telander and a wide-right field-goal try.
The Vols were far more efficient – Nico completion for three, Sampson up the middle for eight, Nico to Dont’e Thornton for 11, Sampson behind the big guys for two, Sampson again for the TD.
Heupel didn’t try to mask offensive deficiencies. He saw what fans saw: Nico muffed a handoff and lost the interception by throwing into triple coverage. The Vols went 4-of-15 on third downs. They allowed eight tackles for losses.
“Missed assignments, fundamentals, technique. It’s guys open, we don’t hit it. Guys open, we’re getting pressured. At some point we’ve got to say ‘We’re going to man up and do our job and make this thing go the way that it’s capable of.’”
Nico said: “We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot, man … We haven’t been helping ourselves with the penalties … The first drive, we’re in a good drive, and then we fumble the ball. That’s on me. I’ve got to be better with the handoff … Defense gets a strip on the goal line and I throw a pick … Stuff like that, man, I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to operate at a higher level. We just can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Heupel made the jumbo blocking package sound more a necessity than anything fancy. He sent defensive tackles Jaxson Moi (6-2 and 307) and Nathan Robinson (6-6 and 275) toward the point of attack to strengthen the running game.
He first used the big combo in what looked like a major gamble, fourth and one at the UT 10 after the Pearce take-away. DeSean Bishop followed the surge for a six-yard gain.
The coach said he didn’t want to give the ball back to the Gators.
Heupel deployed the big men to help Sampson’s touchdown runs. Dylan said the Gators “couldn’t even see me when they put everybody like that.”
Bits ‘n pieces: Sampson’s 15 rushing touchdowns are the most by a Vol since 1990 when Tony Thompson had 16. Reggie Cobb had 17 in 1987 and Gene McEver 18 in 1929 … offensive tackle Lance Heard had very low Pro Football Focus grade of 38.3 for 72 snaps … 312 yards of total offense was the lowest in a Heupel victory at Tennessee … praise for Vol defense tempered by Florida drives of 72, 79 and 92 yards … yikes.
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com.