This story first appeared in Chomp, our Gators football newsletter. Subscribe here.
Recommended Videos
It was only a three-point game at halftime, but Florida pulled ahead Saturday night to top SEC East rival Tennessee 38-14 in the Swamp.
While the Gators’ performance was a bit clunky at times, it was still solid nonetheless. The win marked Florida’s fifth straight and 16th in 17 years against the Volunteers.
Emory Jones continued to show improvement.
The running attack again piled up yards.
And the defense made some big plays against an up-tempo offense, which Todd Grantham has had some trouble with at times.
Jones completed 21 of 27 passes for 209 yards and two touchdown passes. He added 144 yards rushing and set single-game career highs in passing yards, completions and rushing yards. He also became the first Florida player to pass for 200-plus yards and rush for 100-plus yards since Tim Tebow in 2009. Jones was named SEC Offensive Co-Player of the Week.
“I think you see him really settling down. I thought he did a great job making his reads, managing the offense, and getting us in the right checks and into the right plays. His decision-making was pretty good in the past game. He had about 15 carries… That is probably a little bit much but I think a bunch of them were kind of scrambles with him improvising. I don’t know if we called many direct quarterback runs in the game tonight, but I think it shows how he is managing things,” Dan Mullen said. “It was a good night for our backs. I think those guys are doing a pretty good job in running the ball as well.”
GAME RECAP: Jones comes up big, Gators rout Tennessee again
In the second half, the Florida defense was able to get a shutout, even though Kaiir Elam was out with a sprained right knee.
“I thought they played excellent and I thought Todd did a great job with getting the guys ready to play. They are an explosive offense and a tough offense to play. You look in the first half and we had a couple missed tackles which allowed them to keep the drive alive. And then that one touchdown was a missed tackle. We had blown coverage and had a missed assignment there,” Mullen said. “But, you saw what Todd and his guys were able to do and the adjustments they made at halftime. For us to come in and get the shutout in the second half… I think Todd and his staff did an amazing job. Our guys played well, too. At halftime, I challenged the guys to play every single play at a high level, and we did that all the way to the final play of the game.”
Florida is now 3-1, 1-1 in the Southeastern Conference, this season, while Tennessee is 2-2, 0-1.
In this Gators Breakdown episode, host David Waters takes a look back at how Florida was able to bounce back from the loss to Alabama to defeat Tennessee. In another episode, you can hear what other Gators Breakdown listeners had to say after Saturday’s victory.
📈 Florida moves into top 10 in AP Poll
Thanks to a wild college football weekend and their victory over the Volunteers, the Gators rose one spot from No. 11 to No. 10 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll to crack the poll’s top 10 for the first time this season.
Texas A&M dropped from No. 7 to No. 15 after losing 20-10 to Arkansas, which moved up from No. 16 to No. 18. The Gators swapped spots with Ohio State, which went from No. 10 to No. 11 even with a 59-7 rout of Akron. Notre Dame leaped Florida, going from No. 12 to No. 9 after pulling away to defeat Wisconsin, which went from No. 18 to unranked, 41-13. And Clemson plummeted from No. 9 to No. 25 after being upset by North Carolina State, 27-21, in double overtime.
Here’s the entire AP Poll released Sunday.
MORE TAKEAWAYS FROM NEW AP TOP 25: Clemson falls during frenetic afternoon
Meanwhile, the Gators moved up two spots to return to No. 9 in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll released Sunday.
Here’s the full Coaches Poll released Sunday.
In both polls, the Gators are currently the highest-ranked one-loss team.
🕕 Kentucky game set for 6 p.m.
We knew it’d be a night game, but the SEC announced that Florida’s road game against Kentucky will kick off at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.
The Wildcats are coming off a 16-10 win over South Carolina.
The Gators defeated the Wildcats on the road, 29-21 in 2019, to win their 16th consecutive game in Lexington. Their last loss there came in 1986. Overall, Florida has won the last 33 of 34 meetings for an all-time record of 53-18.
Of course, we’ll preview this game more in Thursday’s edition of Chomp.
🕛 Vanderbilt game scheduled for noon
Florida will host Vanderbilt for homecoming at noon on Saturday, Oct. 9, with the game airing on SEC Network.
The Gators shut out the Commodores in their last trip to the Swamp in 2019, 56-0.
Florida owns the all-time series 42-10-2 and has won the last 29 of 30 matchups.
✉️ Send us your Gators thoughts & questions
David and I want to hear from you. Do you have any thoughts or questions about the win over Tennessee, the upcoming Kentucky game or the Gators football program in general? Agree or disagree with something we’ve said? Let us know here, and we’ll share our responses to your questions.
🎙️ Listen to more Gators Breakdown
You can catch up on previous episodes of Gators Breakdown at news4jax.com/gatorsbreakdown or click one of the following to tune in: Megaphone | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Google Podcasts | Stitcher