KNOXVILLE — Curses — both the supernatural kind and the ones you never want your mom or pastor to hear coming from your mouth — filled Neyland Stadium in the closing minutes of Saturday’s game.
After Florida scored twice in the final 4:49 to pull within five points, then recovered an onside kick near midfield with 16 seconds remaining, nightmare visions resurfaced for the University of Tennessee from dramatic losses in 2015 and 2017, as well as 2000, when the Gators secured improbably wins on desperation passes in the final seconds.
Suddenly many of the sellout crowd of 101,915 — who moments earlier were so confident the streak of five straight losses in the series was coming to an end that they mockingly mimicked Florida’s Gator chomp cheer — were hit with a pucker factor as another dubious, heart-wrenching loss seemed highly probable.
But similar to the ending two weeks earlier at Pittsburgh, when Tennessee blew a second-half lead only to find a way to hold on for an overtime win, it was the Volunteers’ beleaguered defense — which had given up a ghastly 594 yards to Florida’s offense — that helped take another giant step in restoring the program’s past glory.
With Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson feeling the pressure from Byron Young, his final desperation heave fell short of his receivers in the end zone and into UT defensive back Kamal Hadden’s arms at the 6.