Florida rallies late to beat Tennessee 10-9 

STEVE MEGARGEE, AP Sports Writer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Florida relied on some unlikely stars to continue its decade-long mastery of Tennessee in an improbable manner.

Austin Hardin made his first field goal of the season — a 49-yarder with 6:20 remaining — as Florida erased a nine-point, fourth-quarter deficit Saturday to beat Tennessee, 10-9, for its 10th straight victory in this annual series. Florida (3-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) staged the comeback behind freshman quarterback Treon Harris, who led both the Gators’ scoring drives after replacing an ineffective Jeff Driskel late in the third quarter.

“It wasn’t always pretty,” Florida coach Will Muschamp said. “We did the things we had to, especially down nine on the road in the fourth quarter. You make a quarterback change, and our guys didn’t blink. They responded to it.”

Muschamp praised Harris’ composure in leading the comeback but wouldn’t indicate who would start at quarterback next week against No. 15 LSU. Harris entered the game after Driskel went 11 of 23 for 59 yards with three interceptions.

“We won’t make any decision on who’s going to start our next ball game today,” Muschamp said. “It was a very emotional win. We’re going to go home, we’re going to watch the film, we’re going to see why we’re not offensively doing some things we feel like are there. It wasn’t all on Jeff.”

Matt Jones rushed for 114 yards and had a 32-yard run to set up Hardin’s winning kick. Tennessee drove intoFlorida territory in the final minute before Keanu Neal sealed the victory by intercepting a Justin Worley pass at the Florida 23 with 51 seconds left.

Aaron Medley kicked three field goals for Tennessee (2-3, 0-2), which lost for the third straight time.

“I’m not going to make any excuses,” Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. “We didn’t get it done. Case closed.”

Tennessee led 9-0 when Jalen Tabor started Florida’s comeback by sacking Worley, knocking the ball loose and recovering the fumble at Tennessee’s 30. That turnover led to Jones’ 2-yard touchdown run with 13:40 left.

Worley was 26 of 39 for 205 yards for Tennessee, but he also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. Bryan Cox Jr. had three of the Gators’ six sacks as a Florida defense that had yielded 645 yards in its last game — a 42-21 loss to No. 3 Alabama two weeks ago — kept Tennessee’s offense out of the end zone all day.

“We had two weeks to prepare, so we’re not the ’85 Bears, let’s don’t jump to any conclusions here,” Muschamp said. “We have a long way to go, but like I said before the season, athletically I think we’re going to be fine (on defense).”

Florida’s comeback stunned a young Tennessee team that had reason to believe it finally would end its history of frustration in this series.

The Vols were favored over the Gators for only the second time since this drought began, and the sense of Tennessee optimism was evident in the pregame fanfare. About 400 former players joined Tennessee’s current roster in running through the “T” before the game. The scoreboard flashed a videotaped pregame pep talk from rapper Lil Jon, who would exhort the crowd again in third-down situations as a remixed version of his song “Turn Down For What” played over the loudspeaker. Entire sections of the early-arriving Neyland Stadium sellout crowd wore either white or orange, giving the stands the same checkerboard effect as the end zones.

“Neyland was definitely rocking,” Tennessee linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin said. “The checkerboard, it looked great. It was a great environment, but we didn’t get the job done.”

That crowd stayed in a festive mood for most of the first three quarters as Florida’s offense couldn’t get out of its own way. Medley’s first two field goals came after interceptions by Cameron Sutton and Todd Kelly Jr. The Vols led 9-0 before Tabor’s takeaway and Harris’ entrance brought Florida back to life.

“We weren’t getting much going there, and it was a little momentum shift, see if we can change the momentum and it did,” Driskel said of the quarterback change. “Obviously, it was the right choice today.”

Florida still trailed 9-7 and faced fourth-and-3 from the Tennessee 32 when Muschamp turned to Hardin, who had attempted only one field goal all year. Hardin, the Gators’ designated kicker for longer field-goal attempts, had missed from 52 yards out against Kentucky on his only previous try.

His 49-yarder in this instance split the uprights to put Florida ahead for good, capping a comeback that taught the Gators a lesson they can carry for the rest of the season.

“No matter how backed up we are,” Cox said, “we’ve just got to keep fighting.”

 

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