Like several others in the gameday thread, I questioned JM's declining the motion penalty. Obviously anything can look like the right move if it works. In this case it didn't, and I'm not sure there's a valid argument for the move. Just dumb.
Where I'm very much in the minority is with regards to the clock management at the end. No question it signaled that we were content going into OT, which I didn't want to see either. But at that point, you have a 3rd down and 1 with a young QB trying to rush things. If we'd had a bigger play on 1st, or secured moving the chains on 2nd, I think we have to go hurry up. But the vols still had a timeout, and if we're stuffed on 3rd down, and something happens on the punt, that could be them throwing up a deep pass as time expired. Now JM's explanation, as Sas pointed out, makes no sense because of the 25/35 yard line, and that shouldn't slip by a well paid HC. I would like to have seen a little more hustle between plays, but I was actually ok waiting until we got a 1st down to call the timeout. The OT wasn't going to be caused by failures on one final series. It would've been a result of many failures over the course of 60 minutes.
I also think a huge positive of this game, which hasn't been discussed very much, was the amount of fans that turned out and stayed through a pretty frustrating game. Would've been all too easy to leave early and get back to the post-Irma cleanup, or not show at all. But most didn't. And those 10 yards on back to back false starts on their last possession took them from the 12 to the 22, and had a huge impact on their play selection. That's homefield advantage at its finest. A watered down Swamp, for sure. But still was the Swamp on some of those plays. McElwain is sitting on a gold mine of a situation, if he would only find a way to cash in.
Also, Cleveland has become my new favorite current Gator. The emotion he showed at the end was awesome. Really glad for him.