KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — As fans poured out of a sold-out Neyland Stadium on Saturday night, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” blared throughout.
For Tennessee fans, it had never been so appropriate.
The song came after the Volunteers overcame a 21-0 halftime deficit, a turnover to open the second half and an 11-year losing streak to beat the Gators 38-28 on Saturday night.
“It's been 11 years since we've lost to them,” Florida linebacker Alex Anzalone said, “and to be the team that lost this game really hurts.”
Coach Jim McElwain agreed.
“It’s disappointing,” he said. “I think we’ve got a bunch of guys hurting in the locker room.”
Perhaps none were hurting more than junior cornerback Quincy Wilson, who rotated between looking at reporters and looking straight down after the game.
Wilson had done a lot of trash talking during the week, gaining temporary national fame when he used a metaphor comparing UT to ducks and UF to trucks, asking reporters if they’d ever seen a duck pull a truck.
After the loss, he wasn’t interested in talking about ducks and trucks anymore, and said he wouldn’t retract his comments given the chance.
"It hurts,” he said. “It always hurts to lose."
At halftime, it looked like Tennessee’s players would be the ones making concession speeches. Through two quarters, Florida led the Vols in yards gained by 133. They had also capitalized on opportunities while the Vols wasted theirs, dropping five passes and failing to stop UF’s then-potent offense.
“I thought it was pretty good,” McElwain said of his team’s first half offense. “... Austin played pretty darn good for what we asked him to do.”
But in the second half, Tennessee outgained the Gators 336-107 and outscored them 38-7. And it started on one play.
Scanning the right sideline early in the third quarter, UT quarterback Josh Dobbs saw running back Jalen Hurd alone along the right sideline.
Dobbs floated it, Hurd caught it and Tennessee had its first touchdown of the game.
From there, Florida’s offense never regained momentum.
“That third quarter,” McElwain said, “that was kind of miserable.”
But it wasn’t just the offense that struggled from that point.
Up until Saturday’s second half, UF’s defense had been the most dominant in the country. Over 14 quarters of football, it had held four opponents to a combined 14 points.
That changed when Tennessee scored nearly triple that amount in Saturday’s second half alone, exposing holes in Florida’s secondary and miscommunications among its players.
“We've got to do a better job doing what we were doing in the first half,” Anzalone said, “and obviously we didn't."
Looking ahead, McElwain said he won’t allow his team to dwell on the loss. There’s no changing it, he said, and seeing how his team responds to that idea will be the key when it takes on Vanderbilt in Nashville on Oct. 1.
Quarterback Austin Appleby, who started for the injured Luke Del Rio and went 23-of-39 for 296 yards, three touchdowns and an interception in the loss, added that the team will have to look back at what it did wrong. That’s something the players always do, but it’ll be especially tough given the loss.
“It’s a lot easier to talk about the corrections when you’re winning,” he said. “Some things kind of slide underneath and don’t get talked about. When you get beat now everything is in the light. We’re going to really be critical of ourselves and make the corrections.”
Contact Ethan Bauer at ebauer@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ebaueri.
Antonio Callaway kneels after a play during Florida's 38-28 loss to Tennessee on Sept 24, 2016, at Neylan Stadium.
