Saturday was a good day to be Emory Jones. Fresh off the heels of a near miss against Bama and amid a quarterback controversy between him and phenom Anthony Richardson, Jones turned in a solid performance against Tennessee, leading the Gators to a 38-14 victory. In doing so, Jones was 21/27 passing for 209 yards, 2 TDs, and NO INTs. He also had a team-leading 144 yds rushing on 15 carries. 353 yds of total offense isn’t shabby and it was clear that Jones was feeling more comfortable as “the man,” exploiting the Vols attention to the rest of our backfield and patiently making the throws that UT allowed in the seams and flats. There’s still no vertical stretch and Emory remains too flat-footed in the pocket, but for a Saturday at least, he avoided the “Bama Hangover” (a term stolen from the TV guys) and led the Gators to an always appreciated, if not expected, win against the Volunteers.

Meanwhile, after three fairly solid quarters against Bama last week, the Gators’ secondary reverted to their old ways, allowing open receivers behind them, missing tackles, and giving up two first half passing TDs. Had the Vols a better QB, the penciled in victory might not have been. I can breathe a little easier now, but on the Vols second TD, I couldn’t help but laugh (between cuss words) at how bad our DB looked pursuing the receiver who had run past him…



I’m quite certain that a lot of it had to do with having played some better last week, but the fact remains that we are not “DBU” and the route recognition skills nor the ability to process calls and carry out assignments remains underdeveloped. Thank goodness for the front 6/7.

*We amassed over 500 yds of offense, 283 rushing and 222 passing and there’s some cause to celebrate our potency and consistency. However, we allowed 423 total yds, 275 passing and 148 rushing…against the inferior Vols. Maybe there was a touch of the “Bama Hangover?” Todd, is that you?