In a “What was that?” kind of day for both programs, No. 8 Tennessee came back down double digits in the second half against Florida to claim a 23-17 victory in overtime Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
After demolishing opponents in the first three weeks of the season — including a 71-0 takedown of Kent State in Week 3 — Tennessee has had to scrap for points since.
Volunteers running back Dylan Sampson has been the most consistent piece on offense the last three weeks, leading Saturday night’s rally with all three touchdowns. He has posted more than 100 rushing yards in five of Tennessee’s six games, accounting for 15 rushing touchdowns.
As long as Sampson is healthy, Tennessee may be able to survive its schedule until quarterback Nico Iamaleava — who has struggled, throwing no touchdowns in the last two games — figures things out.
DYLAN SAMPSON CALLED GAME 😤
No. 8 @Vol_Football beats Florida in OT 🍊 pic.twitter.com/LWPTsnO2gU
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) October 13, 2024
Florida held Tennessee to a 3-0 threshold through the half and then some. The Gators took a 10-0 grip midway through the third quarter before the Volunteers countered with their first touchdown score of the game.
It was another defeating day for the Gators in the Billy Napier era. The Florida coach is now 14-17 with the program and 7-12 against SEC opponents.
Is it time to worry about Iamaleava?
There’s clearly something very wrong with Tennessee’s offense that needs to be figured out if the Volunteers are going to make the 12-team playoff and then do anything in it.
After scoring 24 touchdowns and leading all scoring offenses with 63.7 points per game in blowout wins over Chattanooga, NC State and Kent State through the first three weeks of the season, the Volunteers have had to fight for every point against Oklahoma, Arkansas and Florida.
The question: Is Iamaleava, the redshirt freshman quarterback, regressing?
After failing to even attempt a pass on the final play in the loss to Arkansas last week, the former five-star recruit missed a couple of open receivers on deep throws Saturday.
The numbers show proof of a step back in accuracy and explosiveness: Iamaleava has gone from completing 71.6 percent of his passes for 10.4 yards an attempt over his first three games to completing only 60.5 percent of his attempts for 6.9 yards an attempt in his last three.
He’s thrown only one touchdown pass over his last three starts and was picked off by the Gators late in the first half Saturday. The good news in Knoxville is that Alabama is up next and the Crimson Tide have their own set of issues. — Manny Navarro, college football writer
Billy Napier’s decisions cost Florida the win
Napier’s team was poised to pull off the upset, but did a fine job getting in its own way again with a rash of head-scratching decisions by the head coach and some dumb special teams penalties.
Florida failed to score on its first four trips inside the red zone including a fumble by Graham Mertz at the Vols’ 1-yard line. Later in the first half, deep inside Tennessee territory, Napier called for a handoff to a receiver on another fourth-and-short and failed to get the job done. Then, on the final play of the first half, the Gators had a 43-yard field goal wiped off the board for having 12 men on the field during the kick.
The special teams mistakes continued when Florida opened the second half with a personal foul penalty on a kick return that was fair caught.
The sequence of self-inflicted wounds are par for the course for Napier, who’s now very much on the hot seat. This was a game the Gators could have easily won with some better decision-making and discipline.
Instead, it feels like it’ll go down as one of the examples we’ll use for why he was fired (if and when that happens). For the record, predecessors Dan Mullen (24-6), Jim McElwain (21-9), Will Muschamp (21-9) and Urban Meyer (26-4) all had much better records than Napier heading into their 31st game as Florida’s coach. Mullen was fired 11 games into Year 4 and McElwain was fired after his seventh game in Year 3. — Navarro
(Photo: Brianna Paciorka / News Sentinel / USA Today)
