What they said: Tennessee snaps five-game losing streak to Gators

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Gators are back at .500 following their 38-33 loss at Tennessee, snapping their five-game winning streak in the series. Florida is now 0-2 in SEC play for the first time since 1986.

Saturday’s top-20 matchup, which drew College Gameday to Neyland Stadium, saw five lead changes in the first half and came down to the wire in the fourth quarter, with the Vols intercepting UF’s last-second Hail Mary.

Here’s what both teams had to say after Tennessee’s win over the Gators.

Billy Napier on his areas of concern:

“We need to execute a little bit better, and we need to coach a little bit better, in particular myself today. I think I can do better for our team, for our players. … When we go back and evaluate all the situations in the game, I think we can help the players more. This is a team game, right? It’s offense, defense and special teams. There’s strategy involved relative to the clock, relative to down and distance, relative to the field zones. I think we’re going to see some areas where we could have done a better job for the players, right? I think that the collective effort of our team today wasn’t good enough to get it done.” 

Napier on the 99-yard drive before half:

“I think that’s one of the areas I feel like I could help the players a little bit. It’s third-and-10, we’re trying to get it back on a short field. I mean, we’ve got the guy dead to rights, a great call, and he escapes a little bit, makes a great play and then we gave up a big play there on the perimeter. I think that ultimately when we look back at it, that’s an area where we can help the players, I can help the players. There’s no question when you think about the end of the second and the first part of the third, there was a momentum swing there. We had control of the game and we let it slip away right there.”

Josh Heupel on the momentum swing:

“We score on that one (before the half), we score in the beginning of the third quarter. Obviously huge in the way that the game played out, right? We’re in some long-yard situations during the course of that drive. Got it going, made a huge play with Ramel [Keyton] down the sideline. There were some big plays in the football game. Man, Hendon [Hooker] played his butt off tonight. He played at an elite level. Decisive with the football, accurate with the football. Intermediate, short, long. Used his legs at the right time to create plays there. Man, tough competitor. And offensively fed off of him all night long.”

Heupel on stopping the Gators’ run game:

“I thought for the most part we handled the run game extremely well. There were a couple times we let them go back door on some of their zone reads concepts. The quarterback, we didn’t get to him much in max protection as much as we needed to. They were able to find some stuff down the field. I thought we did a good job against the rush against them.”

Anthony Richardson on his performance:

“We prepared all week to take some shots. The receivers and I were working on that all week, just building chemistry and confidence. And we tried to showcase that tonight. … I focused a lot more and put a lot more time and effort into the game plan and the defensive study. One of my coaches told me that preparation is key, and pressure is for the unprepared. And I feel like I was prepared for this game.” 

Richardson on the Gators’ onside recovery:

“It definitely brightened my mood. Just seeing Diwun Black get the ball. I’m kind of sad that we can’t advance the ball. That kind of got my blood boiling a little bit. Just being out there and having one more chance, it felt good. We just wish it would have went the other way, but it’s football. We just gotta live and learn from it.”

Richardson on Florida being 0-2 in SEC play:

“We’re not hanging our heads. We’re just trying to come at it one game at a time. Focus up. Whenever we do play a SEC team, a rival, we’re just trying to go at it. To Coach Nape, those games are worth two points. We’re trying to get those points back.”