Florida vs Tennessee Recap: 3 Things We Learned

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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It was a tale of two halves as the Tennessee Volunteers snapped an 11 game losing streak to the Florida Gators. Volunteers’ quarterback Josh Dobbs and their defense certainly are onto something this season, and they’re off to a 4-0 start…

The Florida Gators jumped out to an early 21-3 lead by halftime but the Tennessee Volunteers would come storming back into the second half.

There was a lot of smack talk leading up to this week’s game between the Gators and Volunteers and it lived up to the hype. The Volunteers did not score a point until their fifth drive of the game but scored 14 points to open the third quarter.

The Tennessee defense would set the tone in the second half for the Volunteers as well. They made life relatively difficult for Florida’s offense after it looked like things would get ugly for the Volunteers.

VolunteersTennessee38

GatorsFlorida28

Josh Dobbs is a Resilient Quarterback

It was deja vu all over again for the Volunteers, rallying from behind in the to win another game. It looked similar to their game against the Virginia Tech Hokies.

The Volunteers scored 28 straight points to take the lead 31-21 over the Gators with 11:46 remaining in the game. They would score 35 straight points before it was all over.

Volunteers quarterback Josh Dobbs bounced back in the second half to match the defensive intensity. Dobbs went 9 for 11 with 235 passing yards and four touchdowns in the second half.

Dobbs showed great poise and trusted his receivers all game despite some drops in the first half. His adjustments showed in the second half.

The resilient quarterback shook off a slow start and showed his maturation as a quarterback and a leader. His 319 passing yards and four touchdowns are new career highs against arguably the best secondary in the nation.

The Tennessee Defense is Pretty Good

The Tennessee Volunteers’ defense had quite the second half, holding the Gators to just seven points.

The Volunteers sacked Florida backup quarterback Austin Appleby twice in the second half and made life incredibly difficult for the Florida offense after halftime.

They held the Florida Gators to just five first downs after allowing 12 in the first half. They held the Florida Gators to just 107 rushing yards in the game.

The Volunteers made their case for one of the best defenses in the SEC. The Gators went scoreless in the second half, amassing just 11 plays for 3 yards in the third quarter alone.

The Tennessee defense forced five straight 3-and-outs and an interception after halftime before Florida earned a first down.

The Florida Gators Miss QB Luke Del Rio

It’s never good when you lose a player to injury but the presence of Florida’s starting quarterback was certainly missed this game.

Gators quarterback Luke Del Rio earned the starting job this past fall and has been a leader so far. He was hurt last week in their 32-0 rout of North Texas.

Del Rio has a sprained MCL and will miss 2-4 weeks. He was fourth in the SEC in passing yards (762) and fourth in passing touchdowns (6) entering Week 4.

Backup quarterback Austin Appleby, a graduate transfer out of Vanderbilt, seemed overwhelmed as the Gators attempted to play it safe all second half to no avail.

Appleby went 22 for 35 with 290 yards and three touchdowns but he was 10 for 16 with 213 passing yards and two touchdowns in the first half. The second half: Appleby went 12 for 19 for 77 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception.

The Gators have time to get Appleby more valuable reps. Next week they’ve got Vanderbilt on the road before hosting 18th ranked LSU.

Tennessee’s schedule gets no easier. Their next three games: @Georgia, @Texas A&M, Alabama. So now is the right time to start peaking, first by breaking the losing streak.

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