Tennessee football: Highlights from 38-33 win vs. Florida

With a shootout comes tons of highlights, and Tennessee football had no shortage of those in their 38-33 win over the Florida Gators Saturday. Of course, this year’s Vols team is a lot more about moving the ball than big plays, but that doesn’t mean the big plays still don’t come, and a lot of them occurred here.

In fact, there were too many big plays on both sides. Florida consistently converted third and fourth down attempts, and they nearly pulled off an epic 17-point fourth quarter deficit with two late touchdowns and then an onside kick recovery.

The Vols were able to hold on for the win, though, to move to 4-0 on the year and 1-0 in SEC play with now two wins over top 25 teams. It took all of 60 minutes, even though it shouldn’t have, but they got it done here. This is a highlight reel of all the big moments from Tennessee football’s first victory over UF in six years.

After that fight, the bye week comes at the appropriate time for Tennessee football given the fact that Cedric Tillman was out Saturday and Hendon Hooker got banged up in the game. Warren Burrell is another key player who missed the game, and the Vols need him to have time to heal given their pass defense.

Despite being banged up, though, Hooker was clearly about to put together a highlight reel that everybody was able to enjoy. All Vol fans in attendance were treated to a show with him, and it’s just the first third of the season. His Heisman campaign is off and running.

Of course, Jabari Small, Bru McCoy and Ramel Keyton had their own highlights, and when there were highlights on defense, they came on the defensive line. Lots of people stepped up for Tennessee football in this one, and while they still need to fix quite a few things, they got the win here, and it was a crucial one.