WHAT HAPPENED: Tail Dylan Samson hit from a yard out into the end zone on Tennessee’s first possession of overtime to give the eighth-ranked Volunteers a 23-17 victory over rival Florida in their Southeastern Conference game Saturday night at sold-out Neyland Stadium. Sampson’s score was his third of the game for the league’s rushing leader and came after his 23-yard touchdown run in the fourth period put the Vols ahead for the first time with just under 10 minutes to play. The Gators, 15 1/2-point underdogs, rallied to tie the score behind the freshman quarterback DJ Laway after starting the sixth year Graham Mertz left the game in the third quarter after suffering a knee injury. Lagoway fired a 23-yard touchdown pass to Chimeric Dike on a third-and-19 play with just 29 seconds left in regulation to make the score 17-16 and stun the crowd of more than 102,000. UF coach Billy NapierInitially, he kept his charge down the field and threatened with a two-point conversion attempt — and a game-clinching attempt — but after Tennessee called a desperation timeout and reset, Napier opted to Trey Smack out to kick the point-after and play for overtime. UT won the toss and chose to play defense first. The Gators ran three plays, lost four yards and turned to Smack, who earlier kicked a field goal from 42 yards. However, his OT attempt from 47 was pushed to the right, forcing Tennessee to play for the win. It took the Vols five plays to reach 25 yards, with Sampson crashing on second and goal from the 1 to give the Volunteers just their third win in the last 20 games of this series. Sampson, who came into the game with 589 rushing yards and 12 TDs, finished with 112 on 27 attempts and the three scores. Defensively, UF did a great job containing a UT offense that started the day ranked No. 5 in the country with 519.0 yards per game, while the Vols finished with a season-low 312 yards and nearly dropped a second game in as many competitions. weeks as a top 10-ranked team. UT sophomore quarterback Nico Jamaleava completed 16 of 26 passes for 169 yards, no scores, an interception and was sacked three times. Lagway finished nine of 17 for 98 yards, the only score, one interception and three sacks, as the Gators actually outgained the Vols with 361 yards of total offense. Mertz went 11-for-15 for 125 yards and a touchdown, with his 13-yard scoring toss ending tight Arlis Boardingham giving the Gators a 10–0 lead in the third quarter, but also ended with UF’s starting quarterback suffering a non-contact injury late in the game. Mertz joined the starting tailback Montrell Johnson Jr. (12 carries, 85 yards before going down with a lower-body injury early in the third quarter) on the sideline as the two had to watch the Vols rally from their 10-0 deficit. The UF lead could have been much bigger, but the Gators self-destructed on a trio of drives that pushed into the UT 20 in the first half and produced no points. First, widespread Eugene Wilson III was tackled for a loss of yards on a fourth-and-1 jet sweep. Then Mertz fumbled a first-down sneak attempt on the Vols’ 1. And finally, after a Florida interception, Smack had a converted 43-yard field goal taken off the board on the final play of the first half when the Gators were flagged for 12 men on the field. Because they had no timeouts and could not accept a 10-second run-off, the half ended with the penalty and no re-kick. UF finally found the end zone on its second possession of the second half, when Mertz advanced the Gators 92 yards in nine plays and then threw his score to Boardingham. UT needed less than five minutes to find the end zone for the first time, with Iamaleava driving the Vols 75 yards in 11 plays and Sampson crashing on a fourth-and-1 with a six-yard scoring run. On the next play from scrimmage, Lagway threw an interception in minus territory that led to a 35-yard Max Gilbert field goal that tied the game at 10 with 1:37 left in the third quarter. Sampson’s second TD about five minutes later made it 17-10 and set up a frantic finish.

WHAT IT MEANS: Only the third loss to Tennessee since 2005, but things could very well have turned out differently – and given Napier perhaps the biggest win of his three UF seasons, as well as some promising opportunities for the program – if the Gators didn’t play those three seasons had ruined. Excellent scoring opportunities in the first half.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Florida’s defense has made some impressive strides since its two debacle performances in home losses to Miami and Texas A&M early in the season. The guys on that side of the ball put the Gators in position to steal what would have been a win that almost no one expected.

GREAT STATISTICS: Florida went 3-for-6 in the red zone, with those three come-up-empty killers all coming in the second quarter. Tennessee went 3-for-3 in the red zone. There’s the game.

NEXT: Florida (3-3, 1-2) will be back in “The Swamp” for a homecoming date against Kentucky (3-3, 1-3), which has defeated the Gators three straight and four of the previous five after 31 to lose. directly in the series from 1987-2017. The Wildcats snapped a two-game winning streak late Saturday night with a home loss to college football’s 2024 giant-killer Vanderbilt, which followed last week’s stunning defeat of No. 1 Alabama by going to Lexingtone and giving the favored Wildcats a 20 to hand over. 13 defeat.