Florida ran the ball on 3rd & 19 with 11 seconds left for what everyone thought was going to be the last play of the game.
However, despite the fact that several of his players had already gone to the tunnel, Josh Heupel called his final timeout with six seconds remaining.
Everybody who went into the tunnel had to come back out, and Tennessee’s defense trotted on the field for Florida’s 4th & 16 play.
In an attempt to run all the time off of the clock, Florida quarterback Graham Mertz took the snap and ran around in the backfield for a few seconds. As he went to take a knee, Tennessee defensive tackle Omari Thomas made contact with Mertz’ heck and upper-torso area, and many Florida defenders took exception.
More From RTI: WATCH: Tennessee’s Joe Milton, Aaron Beasley, Bru McCoy Talk Florida Loss
The contact Thomas made with Mertz started a fairly sizable fight to end the game, as the game was officially over after Florida’s 4th down play.
In addition to Thomas, Kamal Hadden and Omarr Norman-Lott got in the thick of the commotion, and some hands were thrown.
The fight can be seen below.
Fight breaks out at end of Tennessee-Florida game. Vols DT Omarr Norman-Lott comes out of nowhere and throws a punch.
Stupid way to end this game, all of the last 30 seconds pic.twitter.com/C8SZSB9SJ1
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) September 17, 2023
It’s common knowledge that there’s no love lost between Tennessee and Florida, but Saturday night’s game had been civil for the most part until the fight to end things.
Following the game, Heupel commented on why he chose to take the late timeout even though the game was over for all intents and purposes.
“Timing of when it was,” Heupel said regarding the timeout. “Chance to try and push one into the end zone. Obviously at the end of it, by the time of when it happened, you know you weren’t going to be able to have a full sequence of plays to try and get back into the end zone.”
After a disastrous loss to begin SEC play, the Vols will look to get back on track next weekend when they host a struggling UTSA team in Neyland Stadium.
2 Responses
Another game of costly mistakes , lost composure in 2nd quarter, 2
down field passes the entire game, tempo ; what tempo? Hypal and staff no successful adjustments, defense gave effort but dumbfounded on how to stop Florida QB. Penalties, lots of them.
A truly gut wrenching loss to a less talented team. This one really
hurts.
As I was watching the TN vs. Florida game at the Swamp bad things started to creep into my memory from games in the past 20 years. To me, this game was no different. I have to give credit where credit is due. Florida played an excellent game. They were very well prepared. Tennessee was not. Tennessee seemed to be confused and did not know what their assignment was, or even how to perform it. That includes Milton III. He is a fifth-year senior and he should realize he’s the team leader on offense. But his decision-making on certain plays was terrible. You should expect more from him. He was benched by Michigan for a reason. If his performance does not improve the coaches may have to make a quarterback change. You have to win big games on the road if you are going to be successful in the SEC. And I’m not convinced we will with him as the offense’s leader. I truly believe TN should hire an offensive coordinator. The one they currently have was promoted from within. I guess my expectations for TN are too high. But, I continue my hope and say we will win it all someday.