Tennessee Volunteers

Florida extends win streak against Tennessee, enters SEC East conversation

Published Sep. 26, 2015 8:10 p.m. ET

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Zach Dillard

The ongoing, oft-inexplicable losing streak is going to steal headlines, and it should. The Tennessee Volunteers have been coming up with new ways to lose to the Florida Gators over the past decade-plus, and the 45th meeting offered more of the same: A game controlled by Tennessee unraveled with poor decisions, a 63-yard Gators touchdown pass with 86 seconds on the clock and a 55-yard field goal that missed by inches.

It was a rivalry game that stuck to recent tradition.

Florida walked away with the 28-27 victory, its fourth such win by single digits during what is now an 11-season winning streak, and the prevailing question remains unanswered: When will this talented Vols team ever learn to finish a game? Barring fourth-quarter letdowns against Oklahoma and Florida, the Vols are a 4-0 contender in the SEC East. Maybe next year.

Instead, Florida stole the spotlight.

Partially lost in the "Not Again, Tennessee" landslide is the fact that the Gators, under first-year coach Jim McElwain, are undefeated and keeping their heads above water against quality competition. Not that multi-year slumps have influenced the Florida-Tennessee rivalry of late, but, from a bigger picture, Florida owns three good wins against East Carolina (beat Virginia Tech on Saturday), Kentucky (beat South Carolina two weeks ago) and now Tennessee. For the time being, though No. 7 Georgia is the obvious favorite, Florida (4-0, 2-0 SEC) is in the SEC East driver seat.

That distinction comes record alone, though. Nothing about McElwain's team has been aesthetically pleasing this season, and its won those three aforementioned games by a combined 16 points. Much like the 2012 Gators, it's a team that has relied on its talented defense and found ways to make timely plays on offense.

The quarterback situation is in constant flux — freshman Will Grier started in place of the suspended Treon Harris, and might have stolen the job with a 283-yard effort — and even before the hit-or-miss situation against the Vols the offense ranked 61st in efficiency. Young receivers Antonio Callaway and Brandon Powell are starting to make waves and running game is in decent hands with Kelvin Taylor, but this looks like a work in progress.

Next week will bring many of these SEC East-related questions into focus, as both 2-0 teams go under the microscope.

Florida takes on No. 3 Ole Miss in The Swamp; Georgia plays host to No. 12 Alabama. Tough sledding.

Two things emerged from this year's rendition of the Florida-Tennessee rivalry: 1) The surreal run of misery Tennessee, which is still figuring out how to close out opponents, finds itself on continues to amaze and 2) Florida might just be ahead of schedule under McElwain.

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