Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) loses the ball as he is tackled by Florida defensive back Marcus Maye (20) during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in Gainesville, Fla. Florida won 28-27. KNOXVILLE -- Even after giving up the 63-yard touchdown pass on which Florida took a 28-27 lead with roughly 90 seconds left on Saturday, Tennessee still had a golden opportunity to win the game.
The Volunteers instead ran just four plays in the final one minute and 21 seconds, burned their final two timeouts because of penalties and settled for a 55-yard field goal attempt from Aaron Medley that sailed wide right as time expired.
"I thought we did a great job of managing the game, of getting it down there and giving us an opportunity," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said at his press conference Monday afternoon.
"There was some moments, I think, with communication problems from the officiating crew to the coaching staff in terms of clock stoppage. There was a number of times where we thought that the clock should have been stopped on first downs. I think there was some of that going on.
"But again, we put ourselves in position to where we had to to win the football game."
The Vols easily could have put themselves in a better position and given Medley an easier kick than the longest attempt of his career.
"I was confident," left tackle Kyler Kerbyson said. "We've been in that situation before with South Carolina. We've been in that situation with Missouri last year, where we had to get a touchdown.
"I was very confident in our whole offense and everybody that we could do it. And we did. We put ourselves in a situation to win the game."
"We were going as fast as we possibly could," he added. "Everybody was running downfield and making sure to get on the ball. I don't think we were hoping to get more plays in. I think it was just all about getting more yards in."
Evan Berry gave Tennessee good field position by returning the kickoff to the 32-yard line, and the drive opened with a 10-yard pass to tight end Ethan Wolf.
Wolf caught the ball with 1:16 on the clock, but the officials didn't stop the clock to move the chains on the first down for another 10 seconds.
Ten more seconds ran off after the clock was reset, and Kyler Kerbyson was flagged for a false start with 56 seconds left. Tennessee had to use its first timeout to avoid a 10-second run-off.
The second play was a wheel route to running back Alvin Kamara that picked up 19 yards to the Florida 44, but 11 seconds ran off before the Vols snapped the ball again.
Quarterback Josh Dobbs escaped what appeared to be a sure sack on the third play, but he fumbled as he was heading out of bounds. The ball landed out of bounds and the clock stopped with 29 seconds left. It was restarted, though, and the Vols didn't get the next snap off until the 16-second mark.
Dobbs threw a short pass in the flat to Wolf, who was tackled just in-bounds with 10 seconds left. Tennessee looked unaware that the clock started running again as they lined up to spike the ball.
Tennessee head coach Butch Jones watches his team during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Florida, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in Gainesville, Fla."There was a little confusion at times of whether the clock was stopped or not," Dobbs said. "That all goes into awareness. But at the end of the day, we were able to move the ball into opposing territory and put ourselves in position to win the game.
"Obviously it didn't turn out how we wanted to, but we gave ourselves a chance to win."
With three seconds left at Florida's 32, the Vols were flagged for an illegal substitution when tight end Joe Stocstill ran onto the field, presumably thinking Tennessee needed to rush the field goal team out there with the clock running down, before quickly returning to the sideline.
The mistake -- Jones said it has since been addressed -- cost Tennessee its final timeout and made the field goal 5 yards longer for Medley.
"It's a very difficult kick," Jones said. "We understand that. Aaron does a great job. He's made those in practice, and he'll make those in his career.
"But I think there was some things just from a communicative standpoint of stopping the clock, is he out of bounds, was he in bounds -- some things that way."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.