They came in record numbers, expecting a blowout at the Blue Out Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Florida’s blue-clad fans wanted to see brash young Lane KIffin strung up by his thumbs or at the very least, tarred and feathered. What they got wasn’t exactly a public flogging of Kiffin or the Tennessee Vols, but it was a win and that’s really all that mattered.
The final score was a grind it out 23-13 and while so many of the biggest crowd ever at The Swamp (90,894) left feeling the Gators had underachieved their way to their school-record 13th straight win, it really was only a fourth quarter fumble away from the blowout they came to see. Tim Tebow’s fumble at the two with just under 12 minutes to go in the game turned out to be a 14-point swing. Instead of a 30-6 lead, the Vols got the ball on the fumble return at their own 37 and they put a decent drive together to score and make the game seem a whole lot closer than it really was.
And it really wasn’t all that close. Florida allowed only one touchdown and just 210 yards while playing with a short-handed defense. All-American middle linebacker Brandon Spikes went as far as he could go but his tender Achilles forced him to the sideline in the second half.
“He has tendinitis in the Achilles and Wednesday he really struggled in practice then on Thursday they refit with some orthotics,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said. “It’s not a major deal but it’s a painful injury.”
It’s not major in terms of a season-threatening injury, but it is major in terms of what Spikes brings to the Florida defense when he’s on the field and healthy enough to make plays. He’s the heart and soul of the defense and as coordinator Charlie Strong continues to say, as Spikes goes, so goes Florida’s defense.
In addition to Spikes, defensive end Jermaine Cunningham wasn’t up to full speed after spending two days in isolation with the stomach flu.
Over on the offensive side, wide receiver Deonte Thompson tested his hamstring before pregame warmups but he couldn’t go and didn’t even suit up. Tight end Aaron Hernandez played after spending Friday in isolation because of the flu and tailback Jeff Demps played even though he had a 101-degree temperature.
“Jeff Demps looked like he saw a ghost,” Meyer said.
Not having Demps and Hernandez at full speed didn’t help, but Thompson’s absence was felt the most. Without Thompson and his 10.3 100-meter speed to occupy a corner and a safety, Florida’s wide receiver corps seemed very pedestria. Riley Cooper (three catches, 25 yards), David Nelson (two catches, 26 yards) and Brandon James (three catches, 23 yards) didn’t exactly threaten a Tennessee defense that spent most of the game lined up in a Monte Kiffin version of the old Buddy Ryan 4-6. Florida’s lack of speed on the perimeter kept 10 Vols within five or six yards of the line of scrimmage almost the entire game.
“We have to recruit some receivers,” Meyer said. “We have to do better and we have to keep recruiting receivers. We’ve had a little bit of a dropoff and when you pull Deonte Thompson out of the lineup there’s a little bit of a dip. We have to improve that right now.”
Cooper, Nelson and James played the role of ironmen. Redshirt freshman Frankie Hammond was on the field as a wideout for a play or two, but Justin Williams and Omarius Hines only saw the field on special teams. It was obvious the only receivers that were going to see the field were the ones the coaching staff trusts to block because it didn’t take long to figure out that Tennessee was going to try to take the passing game away and make the Gators beat them on the ground.
“You get in the SEC season and there’s no margin for error,” said Florida offensive coordinator Steve Addazio. “You’re going to go with the guys you know are game tested. We got into the game and felt like let’s ball control this. Let’s eat the time of possession. That was our mindset. There was no time to start flinging it everywhere.”
From the first possession it was evident the Vols were going to limit Florida’s ability to throw the ball downfield by forcing Tebow to get rid of the ball in a hurry. They brought plenty of pressure and played a zone defense that was like a picket fence, designed to keep everything in front of the safety. The Vols were more than willing to give up 5-7 yard plays rather than giving Tebow time to stand in the pocket and find a receiver down the field. Florida’s longest pass completion was an 18-yard play to Hernandez and that came on a middle screen. The longest downfield completion was 14 yards to Nelson.
The Tennesse blitz got to Tebow three times, two on coverage sacks. The only two times Tebow really got a good look downfield he came up empty. Near the end of the first half, Tebow scrambled to his left and could have run for a first down at the Tennessee 11 but he saw James in the end zone. His throw hit James in the hands about the same time Tennessee’s Janzen Jackson arrived at pad level. On the same drive the Gators extended their lead to 23-6 in the third quarter, Tebow rolled left and away from the pressure on first down at the Tennessee 19 to find Cooper open at the four. The ball hit Cooper in the hands but Cooper was looking for a Tennessee safety instead of looking the ball into his hands.
With limited opportunities in the passing game, the Gators had to settle for a grind it out kind of game against a Tennessee defense that gave up only 119 total yards on the ground in its first two games. Florida began to dominate the line of scrimmage in the third quarter when the Gators rushed for 86 of their 208 rushing yards on the game, and they were on their way to a knockout touchdown when Tebow fumbled in the fourth quarter.
The Gators had only four first half possessions but they scored on three of them to forge a 13-6 halftime lead. The Gators scored on a 37-yard Caleb Sturgis field goal on Florida’s first possession of the game with 11:33 remaining in the first quarter; a one-yard touchdown run by Tebow that capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive with 12:48 left in the half and another field goal by Sturgis, this one from 29 yards with 51 seconds left in the half right after Tebow missed the hookup in the end zone to James. The Gators gave up a first quarter field goal on Tennessee’s first possession and held the Vols to a field goal after Tebow had a pass picked off at the Florida 20 by Tennessee All-American safety Eric Berry, who dived in front of Cooper to make a spectacular grab.
Florida’s demeanor changed at hafltime on both sides of the ball. Defensively, the Gators took charge, beginning with a Joe Haden interception of Tennessee’s Jonathan Crompton on the third play of the third quarter. The Florida offense took the field and ripped off 42 yards on the ground on four straight plays for a first down at the Tennessee 23 but the drive took on second quarter proportions on the next three plays — a two-yard loss, a one-yard loss and an eight-yard Tebow to Hernandez pass that left them short of a first down. Sturgis came on to kick his third field goal of the game, a 35-yarder with 9:33 left to make it 16-6.
The defense forced another three-and-out after Tennessee started the ensuing possession with its second chop block penalty of the game. Florida took over on its own 31 and used 13 plays to get it into the end zone, scoring on a seven-yard run by Demps with eight seconds left in the third quarter. That drive got life when Tebow did a Houdini act on third and three. Chased out of the pocket, he escaped twice, reversed his field once, tiptoed down the sideline and then dived past the first down marker to the Florida 42.
At 23-6, the Gators were in full control and well on their way to the blowout everybody came to see after they forced another three-and-out on Tennessee’s next possession. Tebow passes of 14 yards to Nelson and seven to James were followed by consecutive runs of 11 and 12 yards by Chris Rainey to give the Gators a first down at the Vol 18.
At that point, Gator fans were sensing the rout was on. The Tennessee defense was gassed and the Gators were pounding away, but on second and four from the Vol 13, Tebow rolled right, found an opening and got into the Tennessee secondary. He got hit by Marsalous Johnson at the Tennessee five and as he fell forward, the ball spun out of his hands. Tennessee’s Dennis Rogan picked it up at the two and ran it back to the 37, setting up the Vols’ only touchdown drive of the game.
“We had the ball in the third quarter for 11 minutes,” Meyer said. “I thought the checkmate of the game was when we fumbled down in there deep and it was 23-6. I think in that kind of game, that’s the checkmate. We had a bootleg called and we fumbled the ball.”
At 23-13 it was a respectable outcome for the Vols but certainly not what the fans expected coming into the game. Had the Gators scored that touchdown to make it 30-6, the game probably would have turned into a rout, not the 50-point blowout that some folks were predicting, but a very satisfying win by more than three touchdowns.
Even with Florida’s lack of production in the passing game — 115 yards and no touchdowns, bringing an end to Tebow’s streak of 30 straight games with a touchdown pass — Florida outgained the Vols 323-210 and held the ball for 32:40. The defense gave up one six plays of 10 yards or more and the longest play the Vols managed was a 21-yard pass to running back Bryce Brown that was helped by a couple of missed tackles. Tennessee managed only one downfield completion to a wide receiver and that was only 17 yards. Florida’s secondary held the Vols to 93 passing yards and in addition to the pick by Haden, Ahmad Black came up with his first interception of the season in the fourth quarter to snuff out Tennessee’s last chance to score.
Pretty it wasn’t. Grind it out games rarely are, but even though the Gators misfired in some areas, they did the things necessary to win. Very few teams win every game by a blowout. Sometimes you have to win it whichever way you can.
“You do what you have to do to win the football game,” Addazio said. “It’s about winning, which is what we did. I think it’s good to have a game where you have to be physical and tough like that. I thought what you saw up front is we dominated and started to punch them out in the third quarter. You need some of those kinds of games.”
Florida fans would have probably left the stadium much happier if the rout they came to see had actually materialized and while they might have been disappointed that the Gators played it close, Meyer was happy to get a win and start the SEC portion of the schedule at 1-0.
“The objective is to win the game,” Meyer said. “If it’s 30-6, obviously people feel a lot better. Let’s lighten the mood a little bit. Let’s enjoy the win.”
The Gators are 3-0 now, hitting the road next week to face Kentucky in Lexington, and while there are questions at receiver and about the overall health of one Brandon Spikes, there is no reason to push the panic button. Sometimes the wins are easy and sometimes they take a grind it out approach. The W’s all look the same in the win column.