Vols savor ‘indescribable’ victory over rival Florida

AP photo by Wade Payne / Tennessee running back Jaylen Wright (20) and other Vols celebrate Saturday's 38-33 win against SEC rival Florida at Neyland Stadium.
AP photo by Wade Payne / Tennessee running back Jaylen Wright (20) and other Vols celebrate Saturday's 38-33 win against SEC rival Florida at Neyland Stadium.

KNOXVILLE — Tennessee football players had to be forgiven Saturday night for their inability at times to grasp their scintillating 38-33 victory over Florida before 101,915 frenzied fans inside of Neyland Stadium.

After all, the experience was a first for them.

"It's really indescribable," said defensive lineman LaTrell Bumphus, who signed with the Volunteers in 2017 and had endured five consecutive losses to the Gators. "There have been so many ups and downs. At the Vol Walk, there used to be just a few people there, and it wasn't anything compared to how today was.

"It was unreal, but we'll have a lot more experiences like this in the future."

This was just the third game against Florida for Vols junior running back Jabari Small and the second for coach Josh Heupel, but the emotion and intensity packed the same punch. Tennessee entered this season having gone 1-16 against Florida since 2005 and 0-15 the past five years against Florida, Georgia and Alabama, losing the last 14 by double digits.

Saturday's outcome didn't erase all that by any stretch, but it was a needed taste of success from Heupel's foundational standpoint.

"The energy inside our stadium was electric, and I'm really excited for our players," Heupel said. "The growth that they've shown and their ability to compete no matter what the score was and where we've grown in the time that I've been here — I'm just really proud of our players. There is a whole lot that we can do a whole lot better, but the goal for us is to find a way to win each Saturday that we're out on the field."

Said Small: "This is a very big win for the program. I'm still trying to soak it in. It just shows how far we've come under Coach Heupel, and everything he's doing is going in the right direction. The future is bright."

No. 11 Tennessee improved to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in Southeastern Conference play, while No. 20 Florida (2-2) has its first 0-2 SEC start since 1986.

"Although we lost the game, I do think we grew up a little bit today just relative to actually flipping the switch and competing," Florida first-year coach and former Murray County quarterback Billy Napier said.

The Vols, who didn't punt against Florida for the first time since World War II, used a 12-play, 99-yard touchdown drive at the end of the first half and a 10-play, 73-yard scoring march to open the second half to turn a 14-10 deficit into a 24-14 lead. Jaylen Wright's 5-yard touchdown run with 7:55 remaining gave Tennessee its largest lead at 38-21, but Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson would not go away.

Richardson threw for 453 yards and his first two touchdown passes of the season, but his final attempt of the night was intercepted by Vols cornerback Kamal Hadden at Tennessee's 7-yard line as time expired. Richardson had to rush his last throw from Tennessee's 39 due to pressure from Byron Young.

"We didn't want him to be able to sit back there and have all day long," Heupel said.

Tennessee built its 17-point lead behind the brilliant play of sixth-year senior quarterback Hendon Hooker, who tallied a career-high 461 total yards. The 6-foot-4, 218-pound transfer from Virginia Tech completed 22 of 28 passes for 349 yards and two touchdowns while rushing 13 times for 112 yards and a score.

Hooker led the Vols to an eye-popping 576 total yards and 8.2 yards per play.

"Hendon played his butt off tonight," Heupel said. "He played at an elite level. He was decisive with the football. He was accurate with the football — intermediate, short, long — and he used his legs at the right time and created big plays there.

"He's just a tough competitor, man, and offensively we fed off of him all night long."

The Vols led 3-0 after the first quarter, the first time they've been held without a touchdown in the Heupel era.

Florida took a 7-3 lead at the 12:41 mark of the second quarter on a Richardson 44-yard touchdown pass to tight end Keon Zipperer, who shook off a tackle by Hadden and then ran over safety Trevon Flowers and into the end zone.

The lead for the Gators lasted less than a minute, as Hooker found a wide-open Bru McCoy up the left sideline for a 70-yard gain to the Florida 5. Two plays later, Hooker kept for a 4-yard score and a 10-7 advantage.

Richardson responded by leading the Gators on another nice drive, connecting with Ricky Pearsall for 38 yards to the Tennessee 20 and culminating the eight-play, 75-yard march with a 7-yard touchdown run for a 14-10 lead. The Vols then had their touchdowns right before and right after halftime, which ignited their 28-7 surge that ultimately proved to be the difference.

"It's surreal, just being able to come here and experience all we did and to see how it's changed from when we first got here to what it is now," junior defensive lineman Omari Thomas said. "It's just crazy, and this is something we need to just keep building on and get better and better every week."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.

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