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Posted From: Section Y7 – Neyland Stadium and Somewhere on I-40
Well, that was fun (note scarcasm)…

The Tennessee Volunteers lose to the Florida Gators for the fourth year in a row. More accurately, the Tennessee offense lost to Florida for the fourth year in a row. The defense, though hardly perfect (especially on the first Florida offensive series) did, in my opinion play well enough to win (allowing only 248 yds). It should have been a 20-14 Florida lead at halftime, but the Tennessee offense, looked abysmal in the orange zone throughout the day. In the end, I stick to my prior belief that our defense is really quite impressive (especially Eric Berry who refused to quit) — the offense looks like Vanderbilt under Gerry DiNardo.

Tennessee managed 84 yards rushing, and actually showed the ability to pass — the source of most of Tennessee’s yardage. That passing ability was, however, horribly erratic and unreliable. Despite gaining more total yards (256 yds to Florida’s 248 yds), the Vols gave up 3 turnovers (2 of which were inside the 3-yard line) that squelched all hopes of coming from behind. Florida’s press coverage wreaked havoc on the Orange & White and, again, showed Jonathan Crompton‘s lack of experience, field awareness, and a bunch of other important attributes which currently elude me.

Tennessee is not a very good team — a good defense, perhaps — but not a good team.
Oh yeah, it doesn’t appear that the UCLA game was a fluke…
Bullet points to come shortly, after the Great Punkin gives his post-game interview (which he doesn’t appear to want to do)…

- I particularly enjoyed the attempted 2-point conversion where Crompton managed to complete a pass to Center Josh McNeil who was sitting on the ground 3 feet in front of him.

- Brandon Warren, again had limited playing time at tight end, despite making a decent pick up in the 1st half. For the life of me, I don’t know why. Credit Luke Stocker, however, who played well today and thus sheds the “Skillet Hands Award.”

- Penalties were a killer for the Vols, but apparently the officials didn’t want it to be too big. The officials called offsetting personal fouls on more than one occasion — the last coming with 1 minute to go in the 3rd Quarter. Tennessee still gave Florida multiple 1st downs on penalties.

This Tennessee team needs a leader — someone needs to step up. Seeing Al Wilson, who was honored prior to kickoff made that all the more apparent. The defense appears to have a leader in the form of Eric Berry, but there needs to be someone on offense as well. There needs to be an upperclassman to get this team focused and to get the troops rallied. This team also needs to be better coached — there is no way around it. The defense did not quit this year, that was a positive. The offense, however, never really even showed up.

On a personal note, I am now 3-8 in games against Florida which I personally attended. More importantly, with this win Florida has now evened the series between the schools at 19 wins each. It’s going to be a long week getting ready for Auburn.

More to come in the next 24 hours…
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About the Author:  "Lawvol" -- I'm just a guy living in North Carolina who has an unnatural fascination with the color orange. Just because I'm a Tennessee alum and die-hard Volunteer fan doesn't mean that I can't poke a little fun at the Big Orange and anybody else for that matter. Feel free to complain all you want. >> Read more from this author

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