Florida Gators 23 – Tennessee Volunteers 13
Let’s go ahead and get the few positives out of the way first.
Florida
did beat
Tennessee
. When all was said and done, the Gators got their first conference win of the seasons and remained undefeated. Sometimes you have to take a game for what it is in the end – a win or a loss. Basically I’m saying there was another outcome that would’ve been much, much worse. So the Gators beat the Vols and can move on to the next opponent and get the game behind them. Another in the win column. Good job.
The defense did its job for the most part. Florida picked off Jonathan Crompton twice and held Tennessee to only 210 yards of total offense. Anytime you can hold an SEC opponent to 13 points, you’re doing a good job. And when you’re doing it with Brandon Spikes in and out of the game, well, you can’t really complain. Ryan Stamper stepped up and led the team with 12 tackles and three for loss. Ahmad Black and Joe Haden both had interceptions. Overall, the defense kept this game from being much closer than it already was.
Okay, two paragraphs is enough. Before I rant too much I will say I’m not the type that expects Florida to be perfect. Many fans and experts expect nothing less from the Gators this year. They should score 50 in every game and beat every opponent by 30 or more. I’m not like that. Of course it would be nice. I said in my preview of this game that I’d love to see the Gators absolutely blowout the Vols, but in the end I don’t lose sleep when a victory is still the end result. That being said, here we go…
I was bored watching this game. Truly bored. If I wasn’t a Florida fan and was at home, I might’ve actually changed the channel. Florida played not to lose. Nothing more and nothing less. The Gators wanted to get out with a win and that was it. All the hype about sticking it to Lane Kiffin was nothing more than hype. All excitement was…well, there wasn’t any. And it started and ended with the play calling in my opinion.
On offense, the Gators didn’t take chances. So Deonte Thompson was out. So Jeffery Demps had a fever. So Aaron Hernandez was battling flu-like symptoms. But what about all the other weapons we’ve all seen perform with our own two eyes? Florida didn’t try to stretch the field. They didn’t take a chance deep. They used very few formations. And they didn’t adapt to the defensive schemes Tennessee showed them. I understand Eric Berry is a very good player. He may be the best defensive player in the nation. But it seemed as if Florida knew that and offensive coaches weren’t willing to take any chance to let Berry make a play. In the end, Berry had an interception on a badly thrown ball, but his presence alone seemed to make the Gators feel they had to hold back on offense.
On the other side of the ball, the defensive play calling wasn’t much better and again felt like Florida was simply playing not to lose. It’s no secret I’m not a Crompton fan. I can’t imagine many people are. But where was the pressure? When you blitz an erratic quarterback like Crompton, you force him to make mistakes. Crompton made a couple of his own – drastically underthrowing his receiver on Haden’s interception and throwing to a double-covered receiver on Black’s – but could have been forced into making a few more had he been blitzed. We’ve seen what heavy blitzing defenses do to a quarterback of Tim Tebow’s ability. Imagine what they would do to one of Crompton’s.
I’m sure there are a million excuses as to why Florida didn’t necessarily perform up to its ability. The injuries and sicknesses could have contributed. Not willing to take chances and allow an upset could’ve been another. But it’s a win. However, this is the least excited I’ve felt about a double-digit win over one of Florida’s top rivals in quite some time. Who knows though, maybe this was this season’s Ole Miss game. We’ll see against Kentucky in six days.