GAINESVILLE, FLA.—Once again, Butch Jones fought back tears trying to give an explanation for yet another inexplicable Tennessee loss.
Two weeks ago, it was a stagnant second-half Tennessee offense that allowed Oklahoma to comeback and defeat the Vols 31-24 in double overtime. Against Florida, it was the defense failing to get a stop when it needed it the most: on fourth down.
“Yeah, I think the whole thing is fourth down,” Jones said moments after Florida rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Tennessee 28-27 Saturday in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. “We are one play away and we come up short.”
Actually, the Vols were five plays away from notching their first win over the Gators since 2004.
And they all came on fourth down.
The Gators converted all five of their fourth down attempts, with the last three fourth down attempts coming with 6:25 remaining in the game. A Vols’ defensive stop on any the Gators’ last three fourth-down attempts would have likely secured a victory.
“Three critical fourth down conversions that we get off the field and we win the football game,” Jones said. “You have got to close the game out, you have got to get off the field and run victory formation milking the clock and the game is over.”
The Vols’ ineptitude on fourth down was a stark contrast to their performance on third down. Tennessee (2-2, 0-1 SEC) held Florida (4-0, 2-0) to three of 15 on third-down conversion attempts.
“Our defense is great on third down and really bad on fourth down,” Jalen Reeves-Maybin said. “I don’t know why. I wish I knew.”
Tennessee was at its worst on the Gators last fourth-down attempt, which proved to be the most devastating play for Tennessee.
It was fourth-and-15 at the Florida 37, with Tennessee clinging to a 27-21 lead. Facing no pressure, Florida quarterback Will Grier connected with Antonio Callaway on a slant route. Callaway—who led the Gators in receiving yards with 112— quickly ran backwards after catching ball, giving himself enough separation to outrun three Vols defenders down the right sideline for a 63-yard touchdown for the go-ahead score.
Before that, the Gators converted two fourths downs on their previous drive to slice into Tennessee’s 27-14 lead.
“The outcome is very, very hard to deal with,” safety LaDarrell McNeil said. “You just have to look past it. You got to keep moving forward. Every conference game is going to be difficult.”
And the Vols will continue to lose those difficult conference games if the defense can’t force stops on fourth downs.
“Some of those fourth downs we wish to get back,” McNeil said. “We just got to keep playing ball. That’s what we are going to do. We got to keep playing ball and keep moving forward.”
Costly Timeouts: Twice Jones called a timeout after Florida failed to convert a third down and brought out the special teams unit.
Twice Florida decided to go for it after the timeout.
Twice Florida converted.
After Jones called the second timeout in the second half, Florida decided to attempt a fourth-and-seven at Tennesse’s 25-yardline. Grier completed a 21-yard pass to Brandon Powell, setting up a Kelvin Taylor 4-yard touchdown run the next play.
“We thought they were going to do a fake field so that is the one time that we did it,” Jones said.
