Tennessee football exorcised 22 years worth of demons in a dominant first half in The Swamp on Saturday night before coasting in the second half to a 31-11 victory. The Vols led by 31 points at halftime before never sweating in a lackluster second half effort.
Here’s four quick takeaways as Tennessee earned its first win at Florida since 2003.
Tennessee Starts Pedal To The Medal
Tennessee football needed to avoid a slow start in this game. Florida has been a better first half team than second half team and the Vols have often lost games in The Swamp in the first half. But Tennessee started fantastic against Florida.
The Vols opened the game with a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. Joey Aguilar hit a pair of passes to move the sticks early in the drive but Tennessee did most of its damage on the ground. That allowed them to find Ethan Davis for a short pass and he made a man miss before taking it 23 yards for a touchdown.
An offensive holding pushed Florida back on its next drive leading to a three-and-out. Tennessee went right back down the field again with a pair of completions to Chris Brazzell and a Mike Matthews end around setting up a one-yard DeSean Bishop touchdown run.
Another Florida three-and-out followed by a 12-play, 67-yard Tennessee touchdown drive marked a phenomenal first 17 minutes of the game as Tennessee took a 21-0 lead.
The Sequence That Proved This Time Was Different
Even after the stellar first quarter to take control of the game, the history of this series had anyone in orange still nervous about what was going to follow in the next three quarters. But a sequence early in the second quarter showed that this season was different.
After getting its first first down of the game, Florida faced fourth-and-one at its own 46-yard line. The Gators kept it simple, running a quarterback sneak. Tennessee blew it up, pushing the pile back before a handful of Vols came in to wrestle Lagway down.
Two plays later, Josh Heupel drew up the home run ball. Only Jayden Woods rushed right past Lance Heard and strip sacked Joey Aguilar. It looked like Florida would easily recover the fumble but one Gator whiffed on picking it up and Aguilar dove on it.
Heupel then drew up the surrender run on third-and-17, ready to punt. Only Star Thomas ran around the right end and rumbled 52 yards to the one yard line. He nearly fumbled it into the end zone for a touchback but was just down in time. One play later, Bishop punched it in.
The three plays that easily could have been bad if not terrible results for Tennessee all went the Vols way. It was their night in Gainesville.
More From RTI: Tennessee Football In-State Running Back Target Puts Up Mind-Boggling Stat Line in Playoff Game
Tennessee Gashes Florida On The Ground
Tennessee’s running game had struggled in recent weeks and had not been great throughout the season, forcing them to put a lot on Joey Aguilar’s shoulders. But the Vols found success on the ground early and often against Florida.
On its first four touchdown drives, Tennessee ran the ball 21 times including on a number of short yardage situations.
The Vols leaned on their run game throughout the game and were perhaps overly conservative in the second half with their massive lead. But the overall, Tennessee controlled the game on the ground and moved the football with its run game like it rarely has in SEC play this season.
Tennessee finished the game with 248 rushing yards on 51 carries. DeSean Bishop led the way for Tennessee’s running game, totaling 116 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries.
Tennessee Takes Its Foot Off The Gas In The Second Half
Tennessee had the game well in hand with a 31-point lead at halftime. The Vols by no means played horribly in the second half but they did take their foot off the gas a bit and played very conservatively.
Offensively, the Vols ran the ball 20 times and attempted just nine passes. Most of those passes were short passes including a handful of quick receiver screens. Tennessee had just three drives in the second half. One ended with a punt around midfield, one ended with a missed field goal and the last ended with the balls running the clock out inside the Florida red zone.
Then defensively, Tennessee mostly played soft and forced Florida to slowly move the ball down the field. The Gators had a 13-play drive that lasted eight minutes only end in a field goal. The Vols largely did a good job of limiting big plays from Florida’s offense though they did hit a 33-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.
All of the conservative play did make sense, especially on defense, but it led to the final score not being quite as dramatic.
