By Riley Haltom
In a checkered-out Neyland Stadium, the Tennessee Volunteers defeated the SEC rival Florida Gators, 23-17 in overtime. After a scoreless first half for the Vol offense, and the defense holding the Gators to just a field goal, it looked like scoring was coming at a premium during halftime. But the third quarter saw a shift with Florida’s starter Graham Mertz going down with an injury and the Tennessee playcalling shifting to be more aggressive. Here are my takeaways from the Vols overtime thriller win:
Let Nico work the middle of the field
Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava was inconsistent at best when throwing deep on Saturday, but hit the intermediate routes and short routes at a relatively high rate. I was particularly impressed when the Vols had route concepts working over the middle of the field, especially in that 5 to 15-yard range downfield. He did throw a pick into triple coverage around 20 yards downfield, something that he has done a few times. But getting Iamaleava in motion on rollouts and designed runs worked well for the young QB, and more of those will keep him comfortable and open up more of those deep shots. Iamaleava finished with 16 completions on 26 attempts for 169 yards and a pick. He also had several runs get wiped out by useless holding penalties. I’ll touch on the offensive line later, but Nico took a small step forward this week.
Dylan Sampson is one of the best in the country
Dylan Sampson continues to dominate. Besides scoring all the Vols touchdowns in the last two games, scoring at least one touchdown in every game this season, being top 10 in rushing yards in the country and number one in the SEC, second in the country and first in the SEC in rushing touchdowns, he iced the game with the touchdown in overtime and the big time runs to set it up. Without Sampson, the Vols would be in trouble. Sampson’s final stat line against the Gators was 27 attempts for 112 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner. Sampson is the heart of Tennessee’s offense and right now, they live or die by Dylan Sampson. Sampson told us his mindset going into overtime.
“When we get in that redzone, it’s really hard to stop us… I knew we weren’t going to have to kick a field goal, we were going to punch it in.”
Defense had big time individual plays
The defense, once again, is the reason the Vols won this game. Without the Tennessee defense repeatedly bending, but rarely breaking, the Vols would be losing games by a ton. Florida got into the redzone four times. The Vols gave up points on just two of those redzone trips, forced a turnover on downs once, and forced a fumble. Individual big-time plays made the difference. Arion Carter went up and grabbed a pick on Florida QB DJ Lagway’s first pass of the game. Rickey Gibson III had several big-time tackles, including one on fourth down. James Pearce Jr. had a forced fumble on the one-yard line, saving potentially seven points. Jermod McCoy broke up a pass on fourth down. Bryson Eason blew up a screen in overtime. The defense stepped up to give the Vols a win. Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter gave us some insight into the defense’s mindset.
“We don’t rise to the occasion, we fall back on our training. We work that every day. There’s a certain expectation at Tennessee to play elite defense.”
What’s Next?
The turnaround has to be quick for the Vols. Next week, Tennessee has a 3:30 E.T. kickoff against the Alabama Crimson Tide in Neyland Stadium. Alabama is coming off a close thriller of a win (like the Vols) over South Carolina, one week after being upset by an unranked opponent on the road (like the Vols). Two teams on similar paths will meet next week in one of the best college football slates of the year.