Florida wide receiver Antonio Callaway , left, crosses the goal line past Tennessee defensive back Malik Foreman, right, to score the game winning touchdown on a 63-yard pass play during the final minutes of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in Gainesville, Fla. Florida won 28-27. (AP Photo/John Raoux)KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee's defense was one stop away from sealing a big SEC win.
Instead the Volunteers gave up the back-breaking play, even when their defense was put in the position designed not to give up the big play.
Florida scored the game-winning touchdown when Will Grier hit Antonio Callaway for a 63-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-14 with less than two minutes left of a 28-27 win in Gainesville.
As it did the play before the winner, Tennessee opted to rush three and drop seven into coverage with a spy designed to keep Grier from scrambling.
"We had been doing that most of the game, and what we saw on film is if you matched up the coverages to the routes, his first instinct was to run," defensive coordinator John Jancek said after Tuesday's practice.
"If you watch the Kentucky game, I think he was the leading rusher in the game. He didn't have the patience to sit in there and get rid of it, so he took off a lot and had some big runs against Kentucky. We opted to show a four-down look like we were rushing, and then we would drop Chris (Weatherd) out.
"Once (Grier) saw the routes matched up he took off, we ran him down several times. It worked great. Probably went to that call one too many times, and certainly I've got to deal with that. There's no excuse. We're going to get it done."
The Gators converted three times on fourth down on two touchdown drives during their fourth-quarter rally, and the Vols rushed only three on all of those plays.
The first was a fourth-and-7 where Grier threw on target to tight end Jake McGee, who had a step on Tennessee linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin.
Florida running back Kelvin Taylor, left, runs for a 47-yard gain past Tennessee defensive back Brian Randolph (37) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, in Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)The Vols got enough pressure with three on the second, a fourth-and-8, that they forced Grier to step up into the pocket, but he tossed a short pass to a dragging Brandon Powell, who had plenty of space to gain the yardage needed to convert.
Tennessee had three defenders around Callaway when he caught the pass on the winning play, but instead of tackling him for a 25-yard gain and living another down, Malik Foreman lost outside leverage, Powell threw a key block and Callaway raced down the sideline to paydirt.
On Florida's 21 fourth-quarter plays, Tennessee rushed four 10 times, and Florida gained only 21 yards and threw four incompletions on those plays.
The Vols rushed three on two other third-and-long plays in the fourth quarter and got pressure both times. Grier scrambled right into Weatherd for a 3-yard gain on one. On the third down before the long touchdown, Derek Barnett raced around the tackle and nearly sacked Grier, who threw the ball away as he went down.
Jancek took responsibility for the fourth-down decision to play coverage.
"The reality is there's really no bad call," he said. "If everybody does their job there really is no bad call. Certainly hindsight's 20-20.
"You wish you would pressure in certain circumstances, you wish you would have dropped eight in certain circumstances. That exact same call we got a sack on the play before. That was the exact same call
"Like I said, I probably went to it one too many times. I'll take that. Put it on me. But still, we've got to cover guys downfield, we've got to get our eyes in the right place and we've still got to find a way to get pressure.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.