Tennessee football’s 10 most unlucky losses of all time

9. 2000: Jabar Gaffney drop ruled a touchdown

It was not a catch. Tennessee football has never lost a game in which it so badly outplayed an opponent like this one. This was the height of the Vols’ rivalry with the Florida Gators. Entering the new century, both teams were in the top 10 after UT survived the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in their opener for a 19-16 win.

Florida was favored, College Gameday was in town, and the Vols were going with a redshirt freshman quarterback named A.J. Suggs. All throughout the first half, UT dominated. They got inside the red zone five times and inside the five-yard line three times. However, here’s the real kicker: They only came away with 12 points, a turnover and four field goals.

The Gators went into halftime down only 12-7 despite being outgained 226-79, as Earnest Graham was given a touchdown where his knee was clearly down. In the second half, they cut it to 12-10, and then they got a touchdown off a pick-six from Suggs to go up 17-12. UT finally got in the end zone and went up 20-17, and then the two teams traded field goals.

So up late 23-20, the Vols had the ball near midfield. At that point, on a 3rd and 1, they only needed a yard from their power back, Travis Henry, who had 175 yards on the day. Inexplicably, Randy Sanders called a toss, and Henry was stopped. So the Vols punted. David Leaverton gave them another chance to seal the deal, as he pinned Florida on the nine-yard line.

Needing to go 91 yards in just over two minutes, Florida seemed doomed. However, Jesse Palmer got hot, and the Vols’ defense finally got tired. Aided by a horrible pass interference call on a ball that was deflected at the line of scrimmage, Florida drove inside the 10-yard line.

Then, after using their final timeout, they got their biggest break. Palmer hit Jabar Gaffney in the end zone with 15 seconds left. Gaffney dropped it, but referee Al Matthews immediately threw up his hands for a touchdown. Let’s stop here and note that Matthews played football for the Vanderbilt Commodores and was there when they beat UT in 1982. So that’s controversial alone.

Anyway, Florida got the touchdown and the win despite being outgained on the ground 203-39 in a rivalry where the team that wins the rushing battle always wins and despite Tennessee football having the ball 13 more minutes. Red zone failures, a terrible pass interference penalty and two touchdowns that Florida got credit for when they didn’t score made the difference.