4. 2015: Will Grier converts five fourth downs and wins on 4th and 14
The first sign of Butch Jones having issues with in-game coaching came here. Tennessee football was a dark-horse contender to win the SEC East this season, as they entered ranked in the top 25. Rocky Top blew a 17-0 lead to the eventual Big 12 champion Oklahoma Sooners to lose in overtime, but they were still in prime position to accomplish a lot in Jones’ third year.
As they headed to Gainesville to face the Florida Gators, it seemed like the perfect chance for them to finally end their losing streak in the series, which was at 10. The year before, they blew a 9-0 lead to lose 10-9, but with Joshua Dobbs at quarterback things were different. Well, they weren’t different at all.
In a back and forth game, the Vols took control in the second half. However, a few mistakes by Jones proved costly. First off, Florida trailed 20-7 and was trying a field goal midway through the third. Jones panicked and called a timeout because he didn’t have his field goal block team in. Off the timeout, Jim McElwain decided to go for it. He converted and then scored a touchdown.
If Jones just lets McElwain kick it there, at worst his team gets the ball back up 20-10. Now, it was 20-14. Still, in the fourth quarter, the Vols had built a 27-14 lead after Jalen Hurd scored a touchdown. However, Jones made the mistake of not going for two to make it 28-14.
So Florida got the ball, and Will Grier came alive, converting on three fourth downs the next drive en route to a touchdown to make it 27-21. The Vols then got the ball back and didn’t play for a first down, putting the game in their tired defense’s hands to win it.
After punting, the defense brought up a 4th and 14. They needed one more stop to win. Grier hit Antonio Callaway for the conversion, and two Vols defenders took a wrong angle, allowing Callaway to run in for a touchdown. The conversion was due to a horrible call by Jon Jancek to rush three and leave two players in spy despite it being 4th and long.
Still, the Vols had a chance. With 90 seconds left, Dobbs got them to the 42-yard line. However, mistakes began to hit. First, there was a false start by Kyler Kerbyson. Dobbs survived that and found Alvin Kamara to get him to the Florida 44 with 50 seconds left and a timeout, so they could still win.
On the ensuing first down, though, Dobbs ran for eight yards before he fumbled the ball. Although it went out of bounds, the clock kept running due to the rules. UT was not aware of that, and the clock ran down from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. After finding Ethan Wolf at the three-yard line, the Vols could try a 49-yard field goal.
However, then a substitution infraction came, resulting in a five-yard penalty. Still, Tennessee football was able to use a timeout to avoid a runoff. Aaron Medley then kicked a 54-yarder that was barely missed.
Now, this loss had lots of unlikely executions along with poor coaching more than anything. However, those issues were so widespread that some of it had to be bad luck, and that’s why we put this game on the list. It was Florida’s 11th straight win, confirming the Vols were cursed against them, and it cost Jones his best shot at winning the East during his time in Knoxville.