Points East
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- You look at Phillip Fulmer, and you don't expect a golf analogy. Steve Spurrier, who should have been cast in Caddyshack, is the slick country club guy. The Swamp prevails
in Florida winFulmer? He's just a good old boy. He looks like he'd be more at home with a six-pack and NASCAR, or better yet, hanging out at the bowling alley. His Tennessee orange sherbet shirt is perfect for the Tuesday Night Coaches Handicap League.
But Fulmer referenced the links when talking about the key play of the Volunteers' 23-21 loss to Florida on Saturday at The Swamp. Jamal Lewis was smothered for no gain on a fourth-and-three at the Gators' 42 with 2:02 left.
"We ran our best back behind our best lineman (Chad Clifton)," Fulmer said. "If we had to do it over again, we'd do something different. But you don't get mulligans in football."
Maybe, but the Florida defense took a lot of extra Tee shots - on Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin.
Martin, who directed the Vols to a 20-17 overtime victory over Florida at Knoxville last year, was hammered this time. Martin carried the ball seven times for minus-17 yards, and the Tennessee offense generated a measly 193 yards. That's just not enough against Florida, even when it turns the ball over five times.
Alex Brown wears No. 13 in honor of a friend who died four years ago and his high school coach also passed away recently. He seemed to take out the rage over his personal losses on Martin.
The sophomore defensive end made long-time Florida observers think of Wilber Marshall, the way he sacked Martin five times, forced a fumble, intercepted a pass and broke up two others.
"I'm not very fast in the (40-yard dash)," Brown said. "But I'm very quick off the ball."
Fulmer agreed.
"He was so quick, it seemed like he must have been lining up offsides," Fulmer said.
ACTUALLY, it was Tennessee that had problems with offsides ... and interference, and holding, and penalties in general. The Vols were flagged 12 times for 97 yards.
Some of those penalties seemed due to miscommunication at the line of scrimmage. But Martin, who earlier said playing at The Swamp wouldn't be too tough a chore, wouldn't admit it.
"It was noisy, but we had our minds focused on the job we had to do," Martin said. "We didn't have to audible."
Describing The Swamp as "noisy" is sort of like saying the front row at an Aerosmith concert is "noisy." Except Steven Tyler isn't trying to disrupt your game plan.
In the end, Florida's offense was just good enough, the no-name defense tremendous, and the longest home winning streak remained intact at 30.
And the defending national champions can do nothing but Tee it up again next week against Memphis, and hope Spurrier double-bogies somewhere on the back nine.
It will probably have to be on the road.
"We do not lose here," said Brown.
Said Spurrier: "The Swamp prevailed."
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii
from 1977 to 1998, is a sportswriter at the
Gainesville Sun. E-mail reardod@gvillesun.com