KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - One hundred thousand orange T-shirts, and they were all in the wrong hue.
No. 4 UF's game against Tennessee was a laugher 11 minutes in, and the crowd in a filled-to-the-rafters Neyland Stadium had nothing to cheer about after the player introductions.
It was 17-0 so fast, the fans didn't know what to do with themselves.
The Gators (3-0) carried that momentum with them for the rest of the game, claiming a 30-6 victory against the Volunteers (1-2).
After Brandon James' 78-yard punt return for a touchdown late in the first quarter, no amount of singing "Rocky Top" was going to bring the Volunteers back into the game.
"It just kind of takes the crowd out of it," UF coach Urban Meyer said of the return.
Gators quarterback Tim Tebow spent time last week talking about how important momentum is in college football when explaining how Ohio State lost its game against Southern Cal. On Saturday, the impact of momentum was crystal clear, and the Gators should have no trouble carrying the effects of this giant victory into next week's home contest against Mississippi.
"I'm starting to like this team a little bit," Meyer said. "I'm not going to say a lot, but I like this team a little bit because they know how to practice and are acting very mature right now."
The deflation of Neyland was complete when Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton botched a handoff attempt when it looked like the Volunteers were ready to score. UF defensive end Carlos Dunlap jumped on the fumble, and the entire Gators' defense was off the field with
the ball before all of Tennessee's players stood up.
"We shot ourselves in the foot," Crompton said. "We should have won the ball game in my opinion. We gave up 14 points in the red zone and they scored 7 points off turnovers. We fumbled on the first drive, and that gave them 3 more. Those things change the whole momentum of the game."
Momentum stayed with the Gators on a 3rd-and-13 play midway through the second quarter. When the Volunteers seemed to be figuring out the Gators' offense, Tebow called an audible at the line of scrimmage and hit Percy Harvin over the middle for a 34-yard pass. A Tennessee facemask penalty tacked 15 yards onto the play, and the Gators found themselves with a 1st and 10 at the Volunteers' 25-yard line.
A field goal on the drive put UF up 20 before the end of the first half.
The boos rained down on Crompton and the Tennessee offense after UF cornerback Janoris Jenkins intercepted the ball in the end zone with two seconds left in the first half on a fourth-down play. This was not how Tennessee fans expected their team to perform.
By the time Percy Harvin caught his first touchdown pass of the season with 4:29 remaining in the third quarter, many Volunteers supporters were done watching the slaughter. They began pouring out of the stadium at every exit, disheartened with the performance of their team.
"We try to get them out of those stands early," James said. "Our motto is, we always say it doesn't have to be close."
The crazy, wild, 100,000-fan environment had already been quieted, but with 20 minutes still left in the game, it was conquered. The home-field advantage was nowhere to be found.
"In the NFL, they say crowd noise is worth 7 points," UF coach Urban Meyer said. "I think it's worth more, probably, in college."
The referees even made it hard on the depleted crowd. In the waning moments of the third quarter, a pass to Tennessee tight end Luke Stocker was ruled a touchdown, but then reversed. The fans' loudest applause of the game was taken away from them. When the Volunteers finally broke the plane of the end zone, the clapping was significantly quieter.
Tennessee had not lost a home game by this many points since the 34-10 defeat at the hands of No. 9 Auburn in 2004.
By the time it was all over, the swarm of orange had been replaced by an ugly gray shell, with a few dense pockets of blue celebrating the 24-point victory.
UF players celebrated by dancing and singing the fight song in one corner of the stadium while the Volunteers played a somber version of their alma mater in another. The contrast could not have been starker.
