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Rapid Reaction to Florida's 23-17 overtime loss at Tennessee

On3 imageby:Zach Abolverdi•10/12/24•

ZachAbolverdi

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The Florida Gators blew a second-half lead and lost in overtime, 23-17, at No. 8 Tennesse on Saturday. UF squandered a chance to upset the Vols with poor coaching decisions, costly turnovers and untimely penalties.

The Gators wasted a strong performance from their defense, which pitched a first-half shutout, and also lost starting quarterback Graham Mertz and running back Montrell Johnson Jr. to injuries in the second half.

In the video above, Gators Online shares our rapid reaction to Florida’s loss to the Volunteers.

Billy Napier on the Florida Gators loss at Tennessee

“OK, the — I think the first thing to be — yeah, I mean look, I have a ton of respect for the young men in that locker room and the way they competed in the game. They were prepared and in the right frame of mind and attacked it. I do think that we played extremely hard, played with passion, all three parts of our team. Certainly, the tale of the tape is the missed opportunities in the first half on offense. We had many opportunities to score points and left a ton of points out there. A couple short-yardage situations and obviously the sneak-fumble on the 1-yard line. But defensively, man, I have to say, our guys kept us in the game. I thought we had a great plan. We played a really good — we kept the routes in front of us and played really good on the perimeter. I thought we did a nice job of creating some negative plays and then obviously, did a good job on conversion downs and being able to affect the quarterback.

“Yeah, what a game. You know, obviously had a few injuries there and certainly Graham getting banged up was a big part of the game and then DJ obviously rose to the occasion and got us back in it there with a big throw at the end to tie it up. We left a lot of opportunities on the field in the first half in terms of points and, ultimately this was one of those games where the margin was really small. Our staff have the team ready to play, they had good plans, I think that our kids fought their tail off. I have a ton of respect for that. We made some plays in the kicking game, obviously had the miscue right before half and there’s no question that we had a substitution issue, but we would not be in the game without the special teams performance. Those punt returns were critical. Certainly, I thought we had control of the field position throughout. What questions do we have?”

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