Wiedmer: A Vols loss has rarely felt so good

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- For perhaps the first time in his life, Eric Berry smiled in defeat Saturday evening.

"Just seeing how close we were to beating these guys," Tennessee's junior All-America defensive back said after the 23-13 loss inside No. 1 Florida's infamous Swamp.

"Nobody gave us a chance. We were supposed to lose by 50. Just seeing how good we can be if we listen to Coach Kiffin and buy into his system."

There are two Coach Kiffins, of course. Lane the head coach and his father, Monte, the defensive coordinator.

Both had their unmistakable fingerprints on this unexpectedly narrow loss. Both surely shared a warm father-son embrace when this ended, patting each other on the shoulder and saying something like, "We're close. We're really close."

And for at least this one surprising Saturday, the Volunteers were. Monte's defense throttled a Florida offense that entered the weekend averaging 643 yards and 59 points, holding the Gators to less than half that total in each category.

Then there was Lane's low-impact offense, which did a pretty nice job of keeping the Florida offense on the sideline both by running the ball and keeping UT quarterback Jonathan Crompton from throwing the ball.

Yes, Mr. InCrompetent threw two more interceptions and finished with only 93 passing yards for the second straight week, but only one of those interceptions was costly, since the last one came on a fourth-and-6 heave late in the final period.

As Lane Kiffin said afterward, "I was hired to win here. I wasn't hired for stats."

So even if he officially is 1-2 today, this was a far different defeat than last week's home setback against UCLA.

This was the Big Orange dusting itself off time and time again after being repeatedly run over by Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. Kiffin credited his father for much of the peskiness, noting how Monte watched "every Florida snap for the last two years" over the summer.

He also said, "We've got a chance to be a really special first-unit defense," as if those words weren't already evident.

And so a week after one of the most frustrating and divisive losses in UT history, the Vols came as close to a good loss as a program with the Big Orange's rich history can ever come.

Or as defensive end Chris Walker noted, "This is big. We wanted to win, but we gained a lot of confidence out there. A lot of people said we could lose by 62. Our defense took a few bruises out there, but we didn't break."

This is clearly the Kiffins' grand plan. At least for this year. Rope-a-dope your way to respectability. Bend, don't break. Win ugly.

And, more importantly, convince every hotshot recruit in the country -- many of whom were in the Swamp on Saturday, attempting to decide between the Gators and Vols -- that Tennessee orange is the perfect fall color for future NFL stars.

In fact, Lane Kiffin was never happier Saturday than when asked about recruiting.

"I think we have a powerful message around the country about what's going on in Tennessee football," he said. "I think you'll see a lot of kids thinking they can come in here like Bryce (Brown) and play right away."

But first there is this year, which suddenly seems so much brighter than after last week's UCLA defeat, despite the presence of seven remaining SEC opponents.

"They played a lot better than they played on film," said Florida defensive back Joe Haden, who had one interception.

Added Gators linebacker Ryan Stamper: "This was our first SEC game (this year) and this was against NFL-caliber players, so it was a battle out there."

That the Vols apparently have found a way to join that battle for the rest of the season is heady and happy stuff. They may not yet have an NFL-caliber -- or even SEC-caliber -- quarterback. Florida might even have had a rare off game, possibly so concerned with crushing Kiffin for his past words and deeds against them that they forgot to relax and roll.

Florida coach Urban Meyer basically said as much when he fumed, "Obviously, I think we could have played better."

But if you're Tennessee this morning, you no longer care about the Gators. You care about improvement. You care that the game that was supposed to embarrass you instead emboldened you.

"I feel like we sent a message to a lot of people that we're for real," Berry said. "A lot of people thought Coach Kiffin was all talk, but I think we proved today that Tennessee is here for real."

Berry paused briefly, then softly added, "I just wish we would have played like this last week."