Gators Fall to Tennessee: How Florida and Billy Napier Missed a Chance to Beat the Volls

The Gators could have beaten the Vols in spite of themselves

Arlis Boardingham crosses into the end zone to put the Gators up 10-0 (Photo by Noah Lantor)

It seems we have heard a version of this story before. The Florida Gators played hard, could have won a big game, yet came up short. This time it was 8th-ranked Tennessee at Neyland Stadium. This time it was overtime.

Tennessee 23, Florida 17. It should have never gone to overtime. That it went into the extra period goes against the “Scared money don’t make money” mantra that Billy Napier brought with him when he was hired from Louisiana back in December of 2021. Instead of going for the win with 29 seconds left in regulation after DJ Lagway had connected with Chimere Dike for a 27-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 17-16, Napier had a decision to make – go for the win or tie it up and hope to pull it out in overtime.

For a few fleeting seconds, Napier elected to try to win the game outright. He left his offense on the field and lined them up for a trick play. There was a massive shift of personnel pre-snap with five offensive linemen and running back Ja’Kobi Jackson running to the boundary on the left side with tight end Hayden Hansen taking over as the snapper. Hansen would have been eligible. To the right Arlis Boardingham, Elijhah Badger and Dike were lined up, stringing Tennessee’s defense out like a picket fence across the field so the Vols called time out.  

In the huddle on the sideline, Napier reversed course. Rather than try for two and a monumental win that could have cooled his hot coaching seat considerably, he changed his mind, sending the extra point unit onto the field where Trey Smack punched it through to tie the game at 17-17.

What changed? Why did Napier go for the sure thing instead of the play that could have stuck a 13-inch stiletto into the hearts of the majority of the 101,915 who packed Neyland Stadium to the rafters? Perhaps a trick play was out of the question after tipping his hand, but did Napier not trust any one of a few dozen calls in his playbook that could have gained three yards?

Three yards. Nine feet, but in this case it might have been a thousand miles. The home team almost always has the upper hand in overtime games. It certainly worked out that way in this one.

Napier explained post game, “We had a play that we felt good about and then obviously they burned their time out and I think we felt from the three there we were playing pretty good on both sides of our team at that point in time so we thought, ‘Let's go play overtime. Let's go give our guys a chance to play some more plays.’ Defensively, we kept ourself in it. Wasn't quite ready to do that at that point in time.”

In reality, the outcome of this game should not have rested upon a change of mind with 29 seconds remaining. There were points left on the field, particularly in the first half, and even with injuries that put Montrell Johnson Jr. and Graham Mertz on the sidelines for the final quarter-and-a-half and who knows however many games in the future, this is a game Florida should have won.

Handily.

Unlike the Miami and Texas A&M games in which the Gators were chewed up and spit out, the defense showed up and played a winning football game. Considering the way the Gators played in losses to the Canes and the Aggies, it was almost as if aliens from another football galaxy had inhabited the bodies of the Florida defenders. The Gators held the Vols to 312 total yards and only 4-15 on third downs. They forced a pair of turnovers – a first half fumble and a second quarter interception – and on one sequence sacked Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava three consecutive plays.

Of Tennessee’s 17 points in regulation, only seven can be held against the defense. They gave up an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive after the Gators took a 10-0 lead in the third quarter. It was the only time the entire game the Vols were able to sustain a long drive against the Gators. The Vols tied the game at 10-10 in the third quarter after a DJ Lagway interception gave them a 17-yard field to work with. The Vols took the lead at 17-10 with 9:42 left in regulation after Jeremy Crawshaw had to punt from the end line of the end zone. When Jermod McCoy caught the punt at the UF 46 there wasn’t a Gator within 15 yards of him. His return to the 29 set up a two-play touchdown drive. Two short fields, one from a pick, the other from poor punt coverage. You can’t blame the defense for those 10 points.

Defensively, the Gators played like a team that knows what it’s doing, unlike those games in September when they were no shows. Good teams play defense like this.   

“We played with good gap integrity,” Napier said. “I thought the line of scrimmage, on the edges, we tackled well, we mixed in the pressures. We were able to create some negative plays, made some long-yardage situations, and then ultimately we got off the field. We were pretty good on conversion downs throughout the day. So defensively, we kept ourselves in the game.”

As true as it is that the UF defense kept the Gators in the game it is also true that some rather questionable play calls and blunders kept the game within Tennessee’s reach. Some might call these avoidable or unforced errors, but that is being kind because they have been happening over-and-over again for a long, long time. As Einstein once said insanity is “doing the same thing over-and-over again and expecting different results.”

Had Einstein watched the previous 30 games of the Napier era he would have concluded what the Gators are doing goes beyond borderline insanity.

Since Napier’s first season on the job in 2022, one constant is the Gators’ penchant for shooting themselves in the feet. Florida is 14-17 with Napier in charge. If not for the games in which they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, the Gators could be 21-10 per perhaps even 23-8.

Instead they are 3-3 this season, 1-2 in the SEC. After next Saturday’s game with Kentucky (3-3, 1-3 SEC), a 20-13 loser to Vanderbilt, the Gators will play in order Georgia, Texas, LSU and Ole Miss before closing out the season with Florida State in Tallahassee. Only the eternal optimist would project anything better than a 5-7 record.

Even an optimist can’t overlook the crucial plays in the first half that cost the Gators this game.

On Florida’s second possession in the first quarter, the Gators moved from their own 49 to the Tennessee 29. On third-and-1, Jadan Baugh took a shotgun handoff and was stuffed for a four-yard loss back at the 24. Why didn’t the call put Mertz under center and why wasn’t Montrell Johnson in the game instead of Baugh, who is a true freshman? Florida settled for three on a drive that could have resulted in a TD had there been a better play call on third-and-1.

In the second quarter with the Gators leading 3-0, DJ Lagway led the Gators on a drive from their own 10 to the Tennessee 18 where they faced a fourth-and-inches. Lagway lined up in the shotgun and gave the ball to Tre Wilson on a jet sweep where he was dragged down for no gain. Why the shotgun when inches were needed? Why a jet sweep? Lagway weighs 240 pounds. He could have run a sneak from under center. He could have handed the ball to Johnson, who has run for nearly 3,000 yards in his career.

Napier thought it was a really good play call.

Napier said, “We got them all blocked. I think the guy that had Tre man-to-man ran over the top of the play and made a heck of a play. We blocked the perimeter really well. DJ made a good decision. I think it's an outstanding play by the corner that had Tre man to show up on the other side. It was a good physical tackle and a really good play by the defender.”

A better play call would have negated that really good defensive play.

On Florida’s next possession, the Gators marched from their own 20 to the Tennessee one on the strength of two Mertz completions (17 to Hayden Hansen, 18 to Elijhah Badger) and three carries that covered 42 yards by Johnson. At the one, Mertz had the ball stripped away from him as he tried to sneak in on the right side. Another head scratcher of a call because Johnson had earned the carry to get into the end zone.

Then there was the end of the first half after Shareef Denson picked off Iamaleava and ran the ball back to the Tennessee 22. A personal foul on UT during the runback gave the Gators a first down at the 11 with 1:11 to go, plenty of time to score a touchdown. A false start on Kam Waites moved it back to the 16, then came two rather lame play calls football – incompletions on passes that Tennessee anticipated, passes that didn’t clear the line of scrimmage. On third-and-14, an obvious passing down, Florida’s protection broke down and Mertz was sacked for a 10-yard loss. Smack kicked what should have been a 43-yard field goal but the Gators had 12 men on the field – remember Arkansas last year? – which took the points off the scoreboard. Because it was a penalty in the last seconds and UF didn’t have any time outs remaining, there was a 10-second runoff. Half over.

“It was relative to an injury, just to be cut and dry,” Napier explained. “It was a substitution error based on an injured player who stayed on the field. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. The injured player that had been substituted on that unit did not come off. He stayed.”

Here we were thinking the days of really dumb special teams errors were a thing of the past (See Utah last year as well as Arkansas). Obviously, we thought wrong.

Florida led 3-0 at the half. It should have been at least 13-0, maybe even 17-0.

“We had a chance to really take control of the game in the first half, and we missed on those opportunities,” Napier said.

Call that the understatement of the year.

On Florida’s second possession of the third quarter, Montrell Johnson suffered an injury when his leg was twisted on the tackle that ended a 20-yard run to the Tennessee 34. Two plays later Mertz scrambled 15 yards to the Tennessee 13 and a play later threw a perfect pass into the left front corner of the end zone for a touchdown. That was with 7:52 remaining in the third quarter, the last play Mertz was on the field. After the TDP he took a step backward and suffered a non-contact injury to his knee.  

A 10-0 lead in the Southeastern Conference is always precarious, particularly on the road at Neyland Stadium, but let’s face it, the Mertz-to-Boardingham touchdown should have made it at least 20-0. The way Florida’s defense was playing, had it been 20-0 you would have liked the odds of the Gators leaving Knoxville with a win, even with Mertz and Johnson sidelined.

Of the 17 losses the Gators have suffered in the Billy Napier era, this was probably the toughest to take. It’s easy to point to another rash of self-inflicted wounds as the reason another perfectly winnable game was lost, but in this case the Gators had a chance to win in spite of themselves had the decision been made to go for two.   

There are no guarantees the Gators would have made the two-point conversion but at least Napier would have put it all on the line to win the game. It’s puzzling that he didn’t.

“Scared money don’t make money.” Billy Napier said it before. Saturday night at Neyland Stadium he had a decision to make at the end and he played it safe. He certainly didn’t make any money.