Wiedmer: Will Vols ever again beat Gators?

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Maybe next year.

Maybe never.

For if Tennessee can't beat this year's Florida football team after owning a 27-14 lead with 10:19 left to play, if it can't stop the Gators on a fourth-and-14 from their own 37 with 1:26 to go - a play that wound up producing Florida's winning touchdown from 63 yards out - if UT can't win with all that going for it against what may be the last somewhat mediocre Florida bunch the SEC will see in years, when will the Volunteers' run of misery against the Gators ever stop?

It's now 11 years.

"Well, what can I say?" coach Butch Jones, obviously shaken, said after the 28-27 loss. "I feel awful for our fans; I feel awful for our players. Again, we were one play short. I know it doesn't help matters, but it is what it is."

What it's about to be for Jones is the end of the honeymoon. Two weeks after a 17-3 lead disappeared in the final period against Oklahoma before losing in overtime, the Vols blew a 13-point lead in regulation against an unranked opponent they outgained in total yards (419 to 392) and time of possession (31:57 to 28:03).

In fact, in almost every meaningful stat except the one that matters most - the final score - the Vols were better. At times, much better.

But when you enter the Swamp having lost 10 straight, the final score is all that matters to the Big Orange Nation. And no matter how much good work Jones has done or continues to do - the average margin of defeat in UT's previous five trips to UF was 16.4 points - at some point you have to post a real victory rather than a moral one.

Beyond that, when you lead any team by 13 or more points in the fourth quarter in your third year on the job, there are no moral victories. There are only endless nightmares, sure to anger your friends and embolden your foes.

Making it worse, Jones appeared overmatched as an SEC coach throughout the final minutes of the fourth quarter. First came his odd decision to go for an extra point rather than a two-point attempt with a 26-14 lead.

Yes, there's the somewhat defensible argument that a touchdown and two field goals could beat you if you fail to collect the two-pointer. But there was also all of 10:19 to go against a Florida offense that had all of 247 yards at that point while you owned 368.

You couldn't have been more in control of the game at that point unless you went for two, made it and led by 14 points instead of 13, which would have almost guaranteed you no worse than an overtime.

Instead, Jones explained to the media about how "we have this chart that is pretty standard in football, first of all, and maps it all. We just felt like at that stage in the game that we had great confidence in our defense."

Really? A chart? Where did he get that chart - from a Florida fan? If so, burn that chart and get a new one that tells you to go for two in that situation. Better yet, use your brain. Don't rely on a chart. For nearly $3 million a year, the Big Orange Nation has a right to expect its head football coach not to rely on a stupid chart when he's trying to snap his employer's 10-game losing streak to a bitter rival.

Of course, to be fair, not that most Tennessee fans are feeling a need to be fair today, Jones should have had great confidence in his defense with 10:19 to go.

But that same defense played as if it had anything but confidence in those final 10 minutes and 19 seconds. It missed tackles. It missed reads. It missed the best chance the Vols might ever have to beat the Gators in the Swamp. Especially on fourth down, where Florida was a perfect 5-for-5.

Or as linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin lamented afterward, "We played great on third (down), terrible on fourth."

Still, with 1:26 to go, the ball on the Florida 37, the Vols ahead 27-21, everything finally seemed in place for a decade of despair to come to an end in Volsville.

But then Florida redshirt freshman quarterback Will Grier tossed a ball out in the right flat to true freshman Antonio Callaway, who turned a 22-yard catch into a 63-yard score against three UT defenders with a nice blocking assist from sophomore teammate Brandon Powell.

If you're old enough to remember Georgia's Buck Belue to Lindsey Scott in the 1980 Georgia-Florida game, the one that covered 93 yards and erased a late Gators lead on the Dawgs' run to a national title, you have some idea of the shock and heartbreak and happiness created by Grier to Callaway.

Said Florida linebacker Keanu Neal of that play: "It was a memorable moment. It was something to look back on and be thankful for."

From the other side, UT's LaDarrell McNeil said softly, "The outcome is very hard to deal with."

What's hardest to deal with is that for so long the Vols did everything right. Both trick plays produced points, and wideout Jauan Jennings' flea-flicker to quarterback Josh Dobbs for a 58-yard score was the kind of inspired play-calling that's often needed to snap a 10-game losing skid.

In the end, however, the Vols lost. In the worst way possible. In a way that only solidifies a grumpy UT fan base's notion that Jones may not be able to win the big one, whether that's completely fair or not.

But what's clear in Gatorland is that there's a chart at least 11 years old now on what you do against the Big Orange.

Said first-year Florida coach Jim McElwain: "You just don't lose to Tennessee."

At least not for one more year.

If ever.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com