Florida Gators

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Nothing lasts forever. 

That statement applies now to the Florida-Tennessee rivalry, but also to the way both the Gators' offense and defense dominated the first half Saturday and then collectively fell apart in the second half of the No. 14 Volunteers' 38-28 comeback win Saturday night before 102,455 downright giddy fans at sold-out Neyland Stadium.

The Vols celebrated a victory in the series for the first time since 2004. 

"It's been 11 years," UF junior linebacker Alex Anzalone said. "To be the team that lost the [streak] really hurts." 

It especially had to smart given the way things played out and the manner Florida's defense -- so proud and boastful in the months-long run-up to the game -- surrendered massive chunks of yards in the second half. UT quarterback Josh Dobbs passed for 319 yards and four touchdowns, plus rushed for another in shredding the nation's top-ranked defense for 38 unanswered points. Of those numbers, 235 yards and all five TDs came after intermission — and after the No. 19 Gators (3-1, 1-1) jumped ahead 21-0 so matter-of-factly early on. 

On this night, the duck pulled the truck. 

"I hope they learned a lesson," McElwain said. "In life, being humble, there's a lot of lessons in that. ... But, like I told them -- [better] back it up." 

Maybe next time. 

"The main lesson here is when we get up a lot, keep pushing, keep doing the things we were doing to get up like that,'' said cornerback Quincy Wilson, who all but guaranteed a UF win this week. "I think it was a new issue for the defense. I've never seen us come into the locker room like that at the half and then come back out like that."

This particularly lesson in humility led to the biggest blown lead by a Florida team since losing a 23-point edge at home in a 38-33 defeat against Miami in 2003. 
 
Florida led 21-3 at halftime, with backup quarterback Austin Appleby playing a superb first two periods. That score and the UF momentum stood after Tennessee drove deep into UF territory on the third quarter's opening possession only to have Dobbs throw an interception to Gators cornerback Teez Tabor after being hit as he threw the ball by defensive tackle Caleb Brantley. 

The Gators had all the momentum. 

And then? 

UF's next six offensive possessions: 16 plays, minus-9 yards, one first down, one turnover. 

UT's next six: 26 plays, 287 yards, five touchdowns. 

Just like that, an 18-point Florida lead flipped to a 17-point deficit — at 38-21 — and Appleby's 10-yard touchdown pass to Freddie Swain with 4:17 to go only made the scoreboard more cosmetically pleasing for the visitors. 

"They came out ready to play," UF tailback Mark Thompson said of the second half. "I felt we came out a little lax and didn't have the same intensity as the first half." 

It was costly. In ending the frustration of their 11-game losing streak, the Vols (4-0, 1-0) seized a commanding lead in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division standings. The Gators fell back into a tie for second. If UF is to overtake UT in the East, the Vols will have to lose two league games, while the Gators go unbeaten against SEC foes because UT now holds the tiebreaker by virtue of the head-to-head win. 

Dobbs, after going seven of 20 for just 84 yards in the first half, was 9-for-12 in the second for 235 yards and touchdowns on five of six drives overlapping the two periods. Four of those scores ended with Vols receivers running free in the UF secondary. Dobbs hit tailback Jalen Hurd for 23 yards, tight end Ethan Wolfe for 20 yards, and then the go-ahead score to Jauan Jennings for a juggling, sideline-toeing bomb for 63 to blow the game open early in the fourth. 

"We just didn't do our jobs," said senior defensive end Bryan Cox Jr. "Defensively, that's not what we're about. It hurts. I really don't have the words."

Dobbs' fourth score came after Appleby -- the fifth-year senior transfer from Purdue so solid through the first half in hitting 10 of 16 attempts for 213 yards, two scores and no turnovers -- threw a panicked interception under duress into the arms of linebacker Todd Kelly Jr. The Vols needed just three plays for Dobbs to fire a crossing route to Josh Malone, who caught the ball in stride and raced untouched for a 42-yard score at the 11:46 mark. That put UT up by 10. 

After another UF three-and-out, the lead quickly swelled to 17 when Tennessee went 50 yards, capped by a Dobbs 5-yard scoring run. Neyland was bedlam. The Florida sideline was stunned. It was as if the game's first 30 minutes never happened. 

Appleby, in for injured starter Luke Del Rio, had two first-half touchdown passes, while sophomore tailback Jordan Scarlett scored on a 1-yard run. In just the 12th start in his five college seasons, Appleby engineered UF touchdown drives of 75, 93 and 80 yards in the first half. 
 
Along the way, he passed for 213 yards in the first half alone, which was nearly twice as many yards gained by the entire UT offense collected. Through two periods, he completed 10 of 16 passes, two scores and no interceptions, while leading the Gators to 300 yards of total offense. 

They finished with only 402. Do the math. 

"I had one 'oh-no' moment," Appleby said. "Other than that, I thought I did a decent job."

The Florida defense, meanwhile, held Tennessee to just 162 yards through two periods and twice turned the Vols away with nothing inside the 5-yard line. The Gators seemingly were in total control. 

Then they weren't. 

"That first half of football wasn't us," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. "That was not us and every man knew it."

In Florida's post-game locker room, every man was saying the same thing about their second half. UF's exemplary overall performance the first 35 minutes made the meltdown over the final 25 all the more surprising, starting with Hurd, the Vols' tailback, running uncovered out of the UT backfield on a wheel route and catching the ball in the end zone that quickly began a trend.

For for the Gators, it got worse from there. 

For the Vols, a party 11 years in the making kicked in.