5 Tennessee football takeaways from first win at Florida since 2003

GAINESVILLE, FL — Tennessee football drained The Swamp with a 31-11 rout of Florida, tying its largest winning margin over the Gators on the road in series history.

The 20th-ranked Vols (8-3, 4-3 SEC) won at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for the first time since 2003, and they did it in emphatic fashion on Nov. 22.

UT scored 31 unanswered points to start the game, and it held that total to the end. It tied the Vols' largest winning margin in Gainesville, which was 20-0 in 1955.

UT outgained Florida (3-8, 2-6) 452 yards to 261 yards.

Tennessee plays No. 13 Vanderbilt (9-2, 5-2) on Nov. 29 (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC or ESPN) at Neyland Stadium to finish the regular season.

Here are five takeaways from Tennessee's win over Florida.

Vols were unstoppable to start the game

UT scored on its opening drive for the ninth time in 11 games this season, including seven touchdowns and two field goals. But it didn’t stop there, jumping out to a 31-0 halftime lead.

The Vols marched 75 yards on their first drive. Tight end Ethan Davis caught a swing pass from Joey Aguilar off play-action for a 23-yard TD. Davis skipped over a diving defender, turned up field and broke away with an assist from receiver Mike Matthews’ block along the sideline.

The Vols marched 60 yards on their second drive. DeSean Bishop dove over the pile for a 1-yard TD run. They marched 67 yards on their third drive. Bishop finished it with another 1-yard TD.

On its fourth drive, UT converted a third-and-17 with Star Thomas’ 52-yard run. He scored on the next play for a 28-0 lead. UT outgained Florida 248 yards to 22 yards to that point early in the second quarter, and it extended its lead to 31-0 at halftime.

Tennessee almost set season high for rushing yards

UT bludgeoned the Florida defense to the tune of 248 rushing yards. It was just shy of Vols’ season high of 264 rushing yards in a win over Arkansas.

Bishop, a former Karns High standout, rushed for 116 yards and a career-high two TDs on 24 carries.

Thomas had 71 yards and one TD on nine carries.

Joey Aguilar became fifth Vols QB with 3,000 yards

Aguilar was 17-of-22 passing for 204 yards and one TD.

He completed his first 10 passes and made it look easy as the Vols scored TDs on their first four drives.

Along the way, Aguilar became the fifth UT quarterback to pass for 3,000 yards in a season. He joined Peyton Manning (1996-97), Tyler Bray (2012), Erik Ainge (2007) and Hendon Hooker (2022).

Aguilar extended two personal streaks. He threw a TD pass for a 22nd consecutive game. And he has passed for at least 200 yards in all 35 starts of his Division I career, including 11 at UT and 24 at Appalachian State. Both are the longest active streaks in FBS.

UT defense overpowered Florida to build big lead

UT's defense had an equally dominant start as its offense.

The Vols shut out the Gators in the first half and kept them out of the end zone until the fourth quarter. They also held Florida to only one yard of total offense in the first quarter.

Linebacker Jeremiah Telander led UT with a career-high 10 tackles. The Vols didn't record a takeaway, but they had six tackles-for-loss and two sacks.

Josh Heupel now has a winning road record

Coach Josh Heupel now has an 11-10 record in true road games at Tennessee, and he did it with a dominant performance. The Vols suffered double-digit losses at Florida in 2021 and 2023, but they left no doubt in this one.

Heupel's road record is better than most SEC coaches. But it took a 3-1 road mark this season to reach a winning record in his tenure.

Heupel has four road wins over Top 25 teams, including No. 18 Kentucky (2021), No. 17 Pittsburgh (2022) No. 25 LSU (2022) and No. 15 Oklahoma (2024). Florida was unranked, but this streak-ending win should feel as sweet as any of those.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee vs Florida analysis: Key takeaways from win at The Swamp