Florida Proves It's a Legit SEC East Contender in Comeback Win over Tennessee
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — "You just don't lose to Tennessee, and they didn't," Florida head coach Jim McElwain said as he wrapped up his opening statement in the press room following Florida's 28-27 win over the Volunteers.
McElwain had one play call to thank for it.
Train right, Jill, Big Ben in.
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With that call, Will Grier solidified the quarterback spot, Antonio Callaway cemented his place in Florida history, and the Gators announced themselves as contenders in the SEC East.
On 4th-and-14 from Florida's own 37-yard line, Grier—a redshirt freshman who didn't solidify the starting job until he took every snap last week at Kentucky—found his 5'11", 206-pound fellow freshman for the game-winning catch-and-run to cap off a miraculous comeback and post Florida's 11th straight win over Tennessee.
"We blow out the middle and run a little double dig deal, and hopefully [the quarterback] has enough time to read from the inside out," McElwain said of the play. "We try to get it to the sticks. It's something that we actually do every single Friday in our walkthrough, and it's actually in a declared down situation when we just want to get a field goal."
A field goal wouldn't have been good enough, but Callaway turned what would have been a first down that kept a drive alive into one of the most incredible plays of the 2015 college football season.
"I like him a whole bunch and I'm so glad that he's a Gator," McElwain said. "We knew there was something special in that kid when we were recruiting him and I think he has proven that. I don't think he's even scratched the surface."
The Gators weren't supposed to be there.
Tennessee went on a 16-play, 70-yard drive that started in the third and ended with a 10-yard Jalen Hurd touchdown run with 10:19 to play. Instead of going for two to make it a 14-point game, Vols head coach Butch Jones opted to kick the extra point to extend the lead to 27-14.
No big deal, right?
After all, Grier was a mess, couldn't complete passes and was getting harassed consistently by the Vols' front four.
All Grier did over the final two drives—a 17-play, 86-yarder to get within one score and the four-play, 59-yarder that ended on Callaway's sprint into immortality—was complete 11 of 18 passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns.
"Football is a game of adversity, and you need to respond," Grier said. "This is my team, and my teammates did a really good job staying in it and fighting to the end.
"Everybody has taken hits, and everybody is kind of beat up. If it ain't broken you gotta just keep going."
Going, Florida is—all the way into SEC East contention.
The one missing piece of the puzzle for the Gators was an offense that is more of a weapon than a liability. For the first 55 minutes of Saturday afternoon's game in The Swamp, it looked like more of the same from a team that has a young quarterback, a patchwork offensive line and no real playmakers outside of veteran receiver Demarcus Robinson.
Led by Grier's 283 passing yards and two touchdowns, Callaway's five catches and 112 yards and sophomore Brandon Powell's 64 yards and score late in the fourth to get the Gators within one, the picture in Gainesville is starting to come into focus.
"I feel so good for these guys, because they really have invested in the team," McElwain said. "We've played four games, I don't think we've lost yet. Now we get the chance to go test ourselves against an opponent (Ole Miss) that probably should come in here and beat the heck out of us. It'll be fun."
Next week will take care of itself, but for now, football is fun again for a Gators program that's looking like Georgia's primary competition in the SEC East. They went 5-of-5 on fourth downs, converted all three in the final frame and found their offense.
Why not Florida?
The Gators have an offensive spark for the first time since Tim Tebow was their quarterback in 2009 and have a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Vols in hand. Plus, the rest of the division doesn't exactly look like it's full of land mines.
Welcome back to relevance, Florida. Now McElwain's newest challenge is to find a new go-to play.
"Next week, we have to come up with something else."
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com. Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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