There were ducks and trucks, guarantees, and months of trash talk from the Florida Gators. The confidence seeped out of every pore and Florida spent three weeks walking the walk. Jim McElwain loved the confidence his team exuded but it will be hard for the Gators to keep talking with their mouths full of humble pie.
“In life being humble there’s a lot of good things in that,” McElwain said after the game. “As I said, back it up. They didn’t back it up, did they? There might be lesson.”
Florida backed it up for 30 minutes but were left listless in the second half of the game. After a half where he completed just 7-of-21 pass attempts Josh Dobbs torched the Gators for four-second half touchdowns on 9-of-12 passing for 235 yards. Jalen Tabor was beat badly on a 67-yard connection between Dobbs and Jauan Jennings, giving Tennessee its first lead, 24-21.
“I told the team before we came to the Vol walk, I told them when you got a dude drowning, stick a hose in their mouth,” Tennessee senior Danny O’Brien said after the game. “I told them we gotta go out and take that, so we went out and took it and put the hose in their mouth at the end.”
Quincy Wilson, the deliverer of the smack talk of the week backed up his talk for the most part. Wilson didn’t allow a catch Saturday night and picked off Josh Dobbs in the end zone, but still had to face the music about his comment and guarantee after the game.
“It hurts. It always hurts to lose,” Wilson said after the game. “I mean we’re definitely humbled. We’ve just got to come out next week and make the corrections on film and come out and win next week.”
Guaranteeing a win didn’t throw those four touchdowns for Dobbs in the second half. It didn’t force Florida’s offense to go three-and-out for the third quarter either.
“You know, I don’t think — I think doing that, I don’t know if it helped us or hurt us or anything like that,” Alex Anzalone said. “So, I mean, a lot of the chirping stuff is not necessary, but if that’s what gets you going, that’s what gets you going.”
Neyland was alive on Saturday night. The comments from Florida fueled the fans, specifically the student section which hurled “f*** you Gators” and “f*** you Jalen [Tabor]” chants at the Florida bench. As the seconds ticked down the stadium quivered under the sheer volume of the fans, 11 years of waiting finally lifted.
It’s Tennessee’s turn to talk now.