UT Vols falter in red zone as Gators claim 10-9 win

photo Just after the handoff from Justin Worley, left, Tennessee's Martin Lane (15) turns upfield while Florida's Jonathan Bullard (90) slows his pace.

KNOXVILLE - The number next to the Florida logo on the Neyland Stadium scoreboard was only so fitting.

It hardly could have been more devastating for the University of Tennessee.

The Gators scored all of their points in the fourth quarter with freshman backup quarterback Treon Harris in the game and won their 10th straight in the series against the Volunteers with a 10-9 SEC victory on Saturday in front of a sold-out, orange-and-white checkerboarded Neyland Stadium.

"It really hurts really bad," UT cornerback Cam Sutton said. "It's hard not to get emotional about it, especially our leaving seniors not beating Florida. We can't continue to leave our season in these games that we're losing.

"We have a long season left in us, and hopefully we can just win a lot more games and do big things as a team."

Given the atmosphere and buildup to Saturday, the manner of Tennessee's loss to its long-time nemesis had to be much more deflating than a three-point defeat at Georgia eight days ago.

"Neyland was definitely rocking," said linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who had nine tackles and an interception. "That checkerboard was going. It looked great, and it was a great environment, but we didn't get the job done."

It wasn't because the Vols didn't have chances.

Even after sputtering in the red zone and failing to put Florida and its struggling offense out of sight, the Vols (2-3, 0-2 SEC) led 9-0 late in the third quarter when one play flipped the game in favor of the Gators (3-1, 2-1).

On second-and-5 at Tennessee's 43-yard line, Vols quarterback Justin Worley didn't see Jalen Tabor blitzing from his cornerback spot, and the freshman knocked the ball loose with his blindside hit and recovered the fumble.

"Usually I do a good job of feeling pressure, I feel like, and feeling guys around me," said Worley, who was 26-of-39 passing for 205 yards. "Him coming from so far out there, I just didn't know he was coming. I should've known it."

At that moment, the buzz was sucked out of Neyland Stadium, and the fans that turned a photoshopped picture on the internet into reality with an impressive checkering of the stadium began sensing the weight of a nine-year losing streak to their orange-and-blue rivals.

Five plays later, Florida tailback Matt Jones was in the end zone, and Tennessee never recovered.

Butch Jones, Tennessee's second-year coach, lamented an open receiver on the game-changing play.

"We have to answer the call," he said. "You can't turn the football over. Football's a game of momentum swings, but you have to answer the call, and that's the way we train. But you can't turn the football over. Those were big-time turnovers."

The Vols' struggling offensive line let Florida match its season total Saturday with six sacks, and Tennessee, the least-penalized team in the SEC, was flagged eight times for 49 yards.

The failure inside Florida's 20-yard line, though, was most damaging for the Vols, who got to the red zone four times -- twice on interceptions by Reeves-Maybin and freshman safety Todd Kelly -- but settled for three Aaron Medley field goals.

"We've got to do a better job in the red zone," Worley said. "We've got to do a better job of executing and finishing drives. We had the momentum a couple of times after turnovers where we got in the red zone and couldn't get six out of it. We've got to go back and watch some things and correct some things."

On eight plays at or inside Florida's 20, the Vols had minus-11 yards, three incompletions, one sack and one costly interception -- Vernon Hargreaves's diving pick of Worley at the goal line.

"You're always trying to play to the strengths of their players," Butch Jones said. "We felt we had some really good calls. They were in man coverage. We had all of our man-beaters, and we knew what they were going to be in. We just didn't execute."

Behind 114 yards from Matt Jones, Florida held a commanding 156-28 edge in rushing yards. The last time a team won a game in this series despite running for fewer yards was in 2002.

Offensively, Tennessee managed just 91 yards in the second half, and 30 of that came on the Vols' final desperation drive that ended in Keanu Neal's game-sealing interception.

"We kept beating ourselves," Worley said. "Penalties, negative-yardage plays. We were kind of living behind the sticks, and it's hard to recover from that.

"We've got to do a better job on offense as a whole, top down."

Butch Jones was about to leave his postgame meeting with the media when he sat back down and asked his fan base for continued patience, shared his anger and declared there are "great days" ahead for Tennessee's program.

"Everyone's hurting," Reeves-Maybin said. "Our young guys hurt. Our old guys hurt. It's a rivalry game. We don't like Florida, so everyone's hurting. Everyone's hurting in that locker room right now.

"All those guys in that locker room," he added, "they're tough guys. I count on every one of them, I depend on them. We all got each other's back. We're not going to give up on each other. We're a family."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

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