FINAL: No. 8 Tennessee 23, Florida 17 (OT)

WHAT HAPPENED: Tailback Dylan Sampson slammed into the end zone from a yard out on Tennessee’s first possession of overtime to give the eighth-ranked Volunteers a 23-17 victory over rival Florida in their Southeastern Conference game Saturday night at sold-out Neyland Stadium. Sampson’s score was his third of the game for the league’s rushing leader and came after his 23-yard touchdown run in the fourth period put the Vols ahead for the first time with just under 10 minutes to play. The Gators, 15 1/2-point underdogs, rallied to tie the score behind freshman quarterback DJ Lagway after starting sixth-year Graham Mertz left the game in the third quarter after suffering what appeared to be a knee injury. Lagway fired a 23-yard touchdown pass to Chimere Dike on a third-and-19 play with just 29 seconds remaining in regulation to make the score 17-16 and stun the crowd of more than 102,000. UF coach Billy Napier, at first, kept his offense on the field and threatened a two-point conversion attempt — and a go at the win — but after Tennessee called a desperation timeout and reset, Napier opted to send Trey Smack out to kick the point-after and play for overtime. UT won the coin toss and chose to play defense first. The Gators ran three plays, lost four yards and turned to Smack, who earlier kicked a 42-yard field goal. His OT attempt from 47, however, was pushed right, leaving Tennessee to play for the win. The Vols needed five plays to go the 25 yards, with Sampson crashing across on second-and-goal from the 1 and giving the Volunteers just their third win in the last 20 games of this series. Sampson, who came into the game with 589 rushing yards and 12 TDs, finished with 112 on 27 attempts and the three scores. Defensively, UF did a mostly outstanding job of containing a UT offense that began the day ranked No. 5 in the nation at 519.0 yards per game, as the Vols finishing with a season-low 312 yards and nearly dropped a second game in as many weeks as a top 10-ranked team. UT sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava completed 16 of 26 passes for 169 yards, no scores, an interception and was sacked three times. Lagway finished nine of 17 for 98 yards, the one score, one interception and three sacks, as the Gators actually out-gained the Vols with 361 yards of total offense. Mertz was 11-for-15 for 125 yards and a touchdown, with his 13-yard scoring toss to tight end Arlis Boardingham giving the Gators a 10-0 lead in the third quarter, but also ending with UF’s starting quarterback suffering a non-contact injury at the end of the play. Mertz joined starting tailback Montrell Johnson Jr. (12 carries, 85 yards before going down with a lower body injury early in the third quarter) on the sidelines, as the two had to watch the Vols rally from their 10-0 deficit. The UF lead could have been much more, but the Gators self-destructed on a trio of drives that penetrated the UT 20 in the first half and netted no points. First, wideout Eugene Wilson III was tackled for a yard loss on a fourth-and-1 jet sweep. Next, Mertz fumbled on a first-down sneak attempt at the Vols’ 1. And, lastly, after a Florida interception, Smack had a converted 43-yard field goal taken off the board on the final play of the first half when the Gators were flagged for 12 men on the field. Because they had no timeouts and could not accept a 10-second clock run-off, the half ended with the penalty and without a re-kick. UF finally found the end zone on its second possession of the second half, when Mertz moved the Gators 92 yards in nine plays, then lobbed his score to Boardingham. UT needed less than five minutes to find the end zone for the first time, with Iamaleava driving the Vols 75 yards in 11 plays and Sampson crashing in on a fourth-and-1 with a six-yard scoring run. On the very next play from scrimmage, Lagway threw an interception in minus-territory that led to a 35-yard Max Gilbert field goal that tied the game at 10 with 1:37 left in the third quarter. Sampson’s second TD about five minutes later made it 17-10 and set up the frantic finish. 

WHAT IT MEANS: Just the third loss to Tennessee since 2005, but it very well could have gone differently — and maybe given Napier the biggest win of his three UF seasons, as well as some promising possibilities for the program — had the Gators not blown those three outstanding first-half scoring chances. 

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The Florida defense has made some impressive strides since those two debacle performances in home losses to Miami and Texas A&M early in the season. The guys on that side of the ball put the Gators in position to steal what would have been a victory virtually no one was counting on.

STAGGERING STATISTIC: Florida was 3-for-6 in the red zone, with those three come-up-empty killers all in the second quarter. Tennessee was 3-for-3 in the red zone. There’s the game.

UP NEXT: Florida (3-3, 1-2) will be back at “The Swamp” for a homecoming date against Kentucky (3-3, 1-3), which has beaten the Gators three straight and four of the previous five after losing 31 straight in the series from 1987-2017. The Wildcats had a two-game winning streak snapped late Saturday night by losing at home against college football’s 2024 giant-killer, Vanderbilt, which followed last week’s stunning upset of No. 1 Alabama by going to Lexingtone and handing the favored Wildcats a 20-13 defeat.