It was a game that the Florida Gators could have won, but once again — like seen many times over the past three seasons — coaching decisions seized defeat from the jaws of victory.
Alas, the Orange and Blue fell to the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville on Saturday, dropping the game in overtime, 23-17.
The special teams unit, which had been among the best in the nation coming into the weekend, was not in tip-top form but the playcalling deserves plenty of the blame. Of course, inopportune penalties once again sunk Florida’s ship at key moments in the matchup.
As a result, [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] and Co. find themselves on USA TODAY Sports’ Misery Index put together by Dan Wolken for the second time this fall. He had the following to offer on the Gators’ efforts in Week 7.
“There are a handful of coaching decisions Gators fans will nitpick from their 23-17 overtime loss to Tennessee, but let’s zero in on the last one,” Wolken begins.
“It came after Florida scored a touchdown with 29 seconds left, putting them in position to either tie the game or go for two and the potential victory in regulation,” he continues.
“Billy Napier, who needs some pretty dramatic improvement in the second half of the season to keep his job, at first sent the offense onto the field. But after a shift at the line of scrimmage that confused Tennessee, the Vols called timeout as you would expect them to do in that situation,” Wolken notes.
“But instead of sticking with his conviction, Napier came out of the timeout and sent the kicking unit out to tie the game — a bad idea that got worse after the Gators completely stalled out in overtime.
“Why in the world did Napier change his mind? He told reporters, ‘We just felt like let’s play overtime’ after Tennessee called time. Not exactly a profile in courage on Florida’s sideline.”
Coming up for the Gators
The Gators host the Kentucky Wildcats inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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