Tennessee football blame pie: Who caused Vols’ loss at Florida?

Tennessee football lost to the Florida Gators 26-20 on a Hail Mary at the end of the game. Here is the blame pie for the Volunteers’ loss.

In another heartbreaking loss to the Florida Gators on the road, Tennessee football blew a game that Jim McElwain tried as hard as he could to give to them. Key mistakes at inopportune times, terrible coaching, and a Hail Mary at the end of the game cost the Vols against a bad Florida team in The Swamp.

Despite nine players suspended for the Gators, Butch Jones could not figure out a way to beat them. His staff blew a game again, and his players made too many mistakes.

This was clearly a game the Vols should have won. So who’s responsible for the loss? Well, there are a quite a few people to blame. So let’s get to it.

This is our blame pie for Tennessee football’s loss to Florida.

Aaron Medley: 1 percent 

We could blame Brent Cimaglia, a freshman, for missing a 47-yarder and 51-yarder in his first game. He made a 51-yarder to make up for it. But Aaron Medley is a senior. He had no business missing another field goal beyond 40 yards. If he makes it, the Vols are playing completely different down the stretch. So we have to knock him a bit.

Quinten Dormady: 1 percent

Quinten Dormady could be higher on this list. But he made a few nice plays. And despite the three interceptions, a lot of that is due to the positions he was put in. We’ll get to those guys who put him in those positions in our blame pie in a second.

Micah Abernathy: 3 percent

Micah Abernathy missed a couple of wide open tackles, and he blew the play at the end of the game to allow the Hail Mary. You could put more on him as well, but there was no reason for that play to be all on him anyway. That goes to our next guy.

Bob Shoop: 5 percent 

Bob Shoop was hired to beat Florida. Yet for the second time in two years, he gave up a Hail Mary at the end of a game. Tennessee football bailed him out last year after responding with its own Hail Mary against the Georgia Bulldogs. That did not happen today. Shoop’s coaching allowed 19 points. And Florida’s offense is horrible. So yeah, he deserves blame.

Larry Scott: 45 percent

After calling a solid game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Larry Scott was not good in The Swamp. He may have overseen an offense that put up over 400 yards, but he made too many hideous errors. Scott is the one who put Dormady in position to throw those interceptions. One came after the Vols were inside the one foot line, and he refused to run it. Then at the end of the game, he threw it three times when they could have run it in for a score. And in between then, he called a play-action on third and one inside the red zone that resulted in a sack.

Butch Jones: 45 percent

Larry Scott did move the ball. Bob Shoop was hailed as the best defensive coordinator in college football before he came to Knoxville. At this point, you have to put it on Butch Jones. He deserves credit for not panicking and sticking with Quinten Dormady, which we say was the right decision. However, he is the head man and signed off on all of Larry Scott’s and Bob Shoop’s decisions. The combination of that is why he deserves as much blame as Scott, if not more. We’re being generous to him here. However, we’ll let him and Scott share the blame for 90 percent of the reason Tennessee football blew a sure win against Florida that the Gators were trying to give away.