KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tyler Bray’s throw might have been intended for Zach Rogers, but Lerentee McCray caught the pass.
The redshirt seniors’s first career interception helped No. 14 Florida (3-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) to a 37-20 victory against Tennessee (2-1, 0-1 SEC).
“We definitely knew coming in that Tyler Bray was an accurate quarterback that can fit the ball into tight places,” McCray said. “We just had to frustrate him a little bit and make him hurry up more than he wanted to.”
After intercepting Bray’s pass, McCray returned it for 25 yards to set Florida up on Tennessee’s 35-yard line. From there, Florida needed only three plays to find the end zone and put the first points of the game on the board.
McCray’s interception wasn’t the only one of the night.
Late in the third quarter with the score tied at 20, junior Matt Elam came up with Florida’s second interception on a pass intended for Justin Hunter.
“When the ball floats up there and Matt is playing good center field, he goes up and gets the football,” coach Will Muschamp said. “That’s huge points for us.”
Forcing turnovers was a major point of emphasis during the offseason for Muschamp and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
Florida finished 2011 with a minus-12 turnover margin and ranked No. 113 nationally with only 14 takeaways.
The Gators have forced four turnovers in three games in 2012, good for a plus-three margin.
“Turnovers are always very important to give the offense another chance to put points on the board,” Elam said. “On defense, that’s our job and our objective, to put the ball back in the offense’s hands.”
Elam’s pick added to the Gators’ momentum as they tacked on 10 more unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
Prior to Elam’s interception, he notched the lone sack of the game for 10 yards in the middle of the second half.
Elam wrapped up Bray, who committed an intentional grounding penalty trying to avoid a sack.
While Elam’s pick was Bray’s last, the 6-foot-6 signal caller never recovered.
In the fourth quarter, Bray completed only 1 of 10 passing attempts, including seven straight incompletions to end the game.
Florida’s defense held Bray to a 50 percent completion rate after the junior made 74 percent of his passes without a single interception during Tennessee’s first two games of the season.
The pressure Florida put on Bray was too much for him to handle. After recording only four quarterback hurries in their first two games, the Gators notched seven against the Volunteers.
McCray and Dominique Easley led UF with two hurries each.
The seven hurries were the most the Gators have totaled in a single game since recording nine against Auburn on Oct. 15, 2011.
“They put a couple of new things together, it was almost too much to block,” Tennessee tailback Rajion Neal said. “It was almost like Tyler Bray had his own set blitz. They brought a lot and more than we could block at a time.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Florida linebacker Lerentee McCray (34) sprints with the ball after intercepting a pass from Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray (8) during a 37-20 victory over Tennessee on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
