Defense, freshman QB lead Gators

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Florida relied on some unlikely stars to continue its decade-long mastery of Tennessee in an improbable manner.

Austin Hardin made his first field goal of the season — a 49-yarder with 6:20 remaining — as Florida erased a ninepoint, fourth-quarter deficit Saturday to beat Tennessee 10-9 for its 10th consecutive victory in this annual series.

Florida (3-1, 2-1 SEC) staged the comeback behind freshman quarterback Treon Harris, who led both the Gators’ scoring drives after replacing an ineffective Jeff Driskel late in the third quarter.

“It wasn’t always pretty,” Florida Coach Will Muschamp said. “We did the things we had to, especially down nine on the road in the fourth quarter. You make a quarterback change, and our guys didn’t blink.”

Muschamp praised Harris’ composure in leading the comeback but wouldn’t indicate who would start at quarterback next week against No. 15 LSU. Harris entered the game after Driskel was 11 of 23 for 59 yards with 3 interceptions.

“We won’t make any decision on who’s going to start our next ballgame today,” Muschamp said. “It was a very emotional win. We’re going to go home, we’re going to watch the film, we’re going to see why we’re not offensively doing some things we feel like are there. It wasn’t all on Jeff.”

Matt Jones rushed for 114 yards and had a 32-yard run to set up Hardin’s winning kick. Tennessee drove into Florida territory in the final minute before Keanu Neal sealed the victory by intercepting a Justin Worley pass at the Florida 23 with 51 seconds left.

Aaron Medley kicked three field goals for Tennessee (2-3, 0-2), which lost for the third consecutive time.

“I’m not going to make any excuses,” Tennessee Coach Butch Jones said. “We didn’t get it done. Case closed.”

Tennessee led 9-0 when Jalen Tabor started Florida’s comeback by sacking Worley, knocking the ball loose and recovering the fumble at Tennessee’s 30. That turnover led to Jones’ 2-yard touchdown run with 13:40 left.

Worley was 26 of 39 for 205 yards for Tennessee, but he also threw 2 interceptions and lost a fumble. Bryan Cox Jr. had three of the Gators’ six sacks as a Florida defense that had yielded 645 yards in its last game — a 42-21 loss to No. 3 Alabama — kept Tennessee’s offense out of the end zone.