Game Results - Week 3

9/21/02 Gators 31 Toothlessee 10

In a splish-splashing five-minute span to close the first half, the Gators (3-1, 1-0 SEC) made their point before a disbelieving crowd full of buck teeth and "Billy-Bobs" of 108,722 in wet Neyland Stadium. While the Volunteers (2-1, 0-1) fumbled seven times in the rainy first half, Florida thrived under the Swamp-like conditions.

Not so fast, Gator Haters. Lee Corso included!!

Rex Grossman threw two of his three touchdown passes during a 24-point scoring spree late in the second quarter as No. 10 Florida surprised No. 4 Tennessee 30-13 on Saturday. The victory was exactly what the Gators needed in our quest to prove they can win big games under new coach Ron Zook, just as we did under "the old ball coach".

I was at the game and it was a wet one. The Vols have a nice stadium with nice fans. I gloated the entire 4th quarter and it was great fun. I was surrounded by UT fans who starting leaving the game somewhere in the 3rd quarter. What a great time!!

Led by a strong defensive effort, the Gators battled through a scoreless first quarter, then grabbed momentum with 4:55 left in the half on a 1-yard TD run by Earnest Graham on a fourth-and-goal play. Graham was stopped short of the end zone, but then reached the ball goalward - and got a favorable, and questionable, call from the officials. From there the game fell literally into the arms of the Gators, with the Vols losing three fumbles in the final minutes of the half.

On UT's first play from scrimmage, defensive end Marcus Oquendo-Johnson recovered a UT fumble on the Vols' 24. Three plays later, on third-and-14, quarterback Rex Grossman fired a strike to wide receiver Carlos Perez in the end zone for a 28-yard scoring play and a 14-0 lead with 3:40 to play.

In the final minute, with no help from the Vols, Grossman burned the Vols again, throwing a 7-yard TD pass to Jacobs with just 35 seconds left.

Then Tennessee, trying to run out the half, gave the Gators one more scoring chance when fullback Troy Fleming was stripped of the ball by defensive end Clint Mitchell at the 25 with only two seconds to play.

On the last play of the half, Matt Leach was true on a 42-yard field goal attempt, giving the Gators a shocking 24-0 halftime advantage.

The Vols made a serious run at the Gators in the third quarter. Casey Clausen threw a 15-yard TD pass to Derrick Tinsley five minutes into the quarter, then tailback Jabari Davis scored on a 1-yard run with 28 seconds left in the half to draw UT to within 24-13.

But the Gators kept attacking offensively and put the game away with 10:49 remaining on a 21-yard TD strike from Grossman to Jacobs on third-and-10 from the 21.

In the end, the Gators prevailed in what turned out to be a laugher, stomping the billies from Rockytop 31-10...

Game Photos

Game Videos

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	F
Florida (10)	0	24	0	6	31
Tennessee(4)	0	0	13	0	13

1ST QUARTER
NONE
2ND QUARTER
04:55	TD FLORIDA EARNEST GRAHAM 1 YD RUN (MATT LEACH KICK)
03:40	TD FLORIDA CARLOS PEREZ 28 YD PASS FROM REX GROSSMAN (MATT LEACH KICK)
00:35	TD FLORIDA TAYLOR JACOBS 7 YD PASS FROM REX GROSSMAN (MATT LEACH KICK)
00:00	FG FLORIDA MATT LEACH 41 YD
3RD QUARTER
09:51	TD TENNESSEE DERRICK TINSLEY 15 YD PASS FROM CASEY CLAUSEN (ALEX WALLS KICK)
00:28	TD TENNESSEE JABARI DAVIS 1 YD RUN (PAT FAILED)
4TH QUARTER
10:49	TD FLORIDA TAYLOR JACOBS 21 YD PASS FROM REX GROSSMAN (PAT FAILED)

TEAM STATISTICS
	Florida	Tennessee
TOTAL FIRST DOWNS	21	20
NET YARDS RUSHING	94	99
Rushes	34	33
NET YARDS PASSING	324	285
Completion-attempted	20-35	30-44
Sacked-yards lost	4-34	0-0
PUNTS-AVERAGE	4-38	4-46.5
RETURN YARDAGE	12	32
PENALTIES-YARDS	6-35	11-78
FUMBLES-LOST	1-1	8-3
TIME OF POSSESSION	26:53	33:07

RUSHING

FLORIDA: Ran Carthon 9-51, Earnest Graham 15-42, Vernell Brown 1-12, Ingle Martin 1-6, - Team 1-MINUS 2, Rex Grossman 7-MINUS 15.

TENNESSEE: Troy Fleming 9-42, Jabari Davis 8-32, Casey Clausen 11-24, Derrick Tinsley 3-8, Cedric Houston 1-5, - Team 1-MINUS 12.

PASSING

FLORIDA: Rex Grossman 20-34, 324 YARDS, 2 INT, Earnest Graham 0-1, 0 YARDS, 0 INT.

TENNESSEE: Casey Clausen 30-44, 285 YARDS, 0 INT.

RECEIVING

FLORIDA: Taylor Jacobs 9-141, Carlos Perez 3-55, Kelvin Kight 2-47, O.J. Small 1-37, Earnest Graham 3-34, Aaron Walker 1-7, Ran Carthon 1-3.

TENNESSEE: Kelley Washington 7-102, Jason Witten 6-61, Troy Fleming 8-33, Derrick Tinsley 3-28, Jabari Davis 2-24, Tony Brown 2-22, Jomo Fagan 1-9, C.J. Fayton 1-6.

Att: 108,722 (about 90,000 billy bobs)

Last Updated November 19, 2006