Tennessee-Florida Report Card: Getting Called into the Principal's Office

Legendary Tennessee head coach General Robert Neyland had seven game maxims.  If you followed them, it would be a certain victory.

Unfortunately the Tennessee Volunteers forgot maxim number one on Saturday against the Florida Gators: The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.  Volunteer miscues led to an easy win for the Florida Gators, 30-6 in Neyland Stadium.

So how did the Vols do in this week's report card?  Let's take a look.

OFFENSE

Rushing

Tennessee ran the ball 31 times for 96 yards behind that all-powerful offensive line against what was supposed to be a Florida defense that was suspect to the run.  Yikes.  Arian Foster led the way with only 37 yards. 

Being able to run the football has been the key to winning this game for the past 19 years.  Tennessee has just been anemic in the rushing department against the Gators since Urban Meyer arrived in Gainesville. 

The worst part was how the running game fell apart inside the five-yard line twice in the first half.  In years past, there was never a doubt that Tennessee would be able to punch it in.  Now it is definitely not a given.

GRADE: D-

Passing

With the rushing bogged down, Jonathan Crompton was forced to throw the ball more than he or the Tennessee coaches would have liked.  Crompton was 18 of 28 for 162 yards and one interception (inside the five on fourth and goal).  His decision-making has not improved much, and many of his passes are still sailing over receivers' heads. 

Speaking of the receivers, one of the things new offensive coordinator Dave Clawson had planned to do with this offense was get the ball to the play makers in space and let them create.  Well, it is kind of tough to do that when they are blanketed all game long by the Florida secondary.

Eight different players caught passes, and none of them had more than 40 yards receiving.  There was absolutely no rhythm at all on offense.

GRADE: D

DEFENSE

Rushing

After getting hammered on the ground the last two years by Tim Tebow, Tennessee was finally able to slow him down a little.  Tebow was only able to run for 26 yards and was kept in check on the ground.

The rest of the Florida backs, including Percy Harvin contributed 147 yards on the ground—not bad, but not great.  Credit the Vols' defense for that, even though they had to deal with a short field most of the game.

GRADE: C+

Passing

Tim Tebow was only eight of 15 for 96 yards.  However, he did toss two touchdowns, one being the little jump pass that you think teams would be looking for now.  Credit Tennessee's pass defense in keeping the big play from happening.  While Tebow did not have too many yards, he did make the throws when they counted.

GRADE: B-

SPECIAL TEAMS

One of the reasons Tebow did not have many yards was because he had a short field for most of the game.  Florida's two offensive touchdowns were drives of 44 and 47 yards.

Brandon James gave the Gators a short field on the opening kickoff and then stomped on the Vols with a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown.  On that return, five Vols missed tackles.

The special teams were just absolutely dreadful in direct violation of Neyland's sixth game maxim: Press the kicking game—here is where the breaks are made.

GRADE: F

COACHING

Something is just not clicking on Rocky Top.  You can see Phil Fulmer is completely frustrated with his team just by watching him on the sidelines.  The team made way too many mistakes and stupid penalties during the game. 

While some blame has to rest on the players for just bad effort, much if it rests on the coaching staff for not getting Tennessee ready to play this week.  This is very surprising considering all the bad things that came out of the loss to UCLA could have been erased with a solid effort and a win against Florida.

GRADE: F

FINAL GPA: 1.25

Florida had been talking all week about how Tennessee quit at the end of the game last year.  Some Vols were out there making sure that did not happen again, especially Eric Berry, our do-everything defensive back.  So plus 10 points for the effort, minus several million points for the overall execution on offense. 

Tennessee has many problems to fix before they head to the plains to take on Auburn next week.  I think most of those problems are going on inside the helmet.  It looked like after Florida got the opening touchdown and Tennessee fumbled on their first possession, the crowd and the team were both out of it.

If Tennessee does not show a more consistent and better effort, it could be a very long year.