Tennessee football vs. Florida: 5 fluke losses Vols gave away to Gators

1. 2015 – Florida Gators defeat Tennessee Volunteers 28-27

Two years before coaching away the Florida game to put him on the hot seat, Butch Jones may have coached Tennessee football to its worst regular season loss of the decade. In this one, once again, his coaching gave the Gators a victory, and it was the most ridiculous thing you ever could have seen.

This was just a year after the Vols blew a 9-0 lead in the fourth to the Gators. In this one, all of Jones’s mistakes came in the second half. The first, with his team up 20-7, was calling a timeout when Florida was about to kick a field goal. It was a ridiculous move that allowed Jim McElwain change his mind and go for it, giving them a first down, and the Gators scored on that drive to make it 20-14.

If Jones just lets Florida kick it right there and plays base defense, which he should have done all along, the Vols get the ball back up 20-10 late in the third. They even may get it up 20-7. But instead, Jones burned a timeout that resulted in a drive to cut the lead to 20-14.

Then came a fourth-quarter touchdown to give the Vols the 26-14 lead, and as we’ve lamented for three years, Jones made the inexplicable decision to go for one instead of two. At 27-14, the Vols defense then collapsed.

Jon Jancek stopped pressuring Will Grier, who was then with the Gators. As a result, he converted three more fourth downs on the next drive to score a touchdown and make it 27-21. On the next drive, Jones predictably ran it three times and didn’t even try to get a first down.

The Vols punted, and then they brought up another 4th and long. But Jancek made the worst defensive call ever, rushing three and dropping two in spy. You either do one or the other. But if you do both, the quarterback has plenty of time, and somebody will be open in coverage. Antonio Callaway was open and took a pass to the house for the go-ahead touchdown.

Tennessee football had one final chance. But the Vols committed to false start penalties on their final offensive drive, and Joshua Dobbs fumbled the ball out of bounds on a play, which Jones did not know keeps the clock running. The miscues, and the lack of the timeout that Jones burned in the third quarter, forced the Vols to try a 55-yard field goal with Aaron Medley to win the game as time expired, and he barely missed.

Again, Tennessee football gave this game away. And it hurt even worse than the 2017 loss because Florida’s streak was still alive at the time. It’s hard to know which one was a more pathetic choke job, but what’s clear is that Jones always somehow managed to choke this game away with the exception of 2016, when he had one great half.