Tennessee needed a win in the worst way against Florida last week. The building momentum around and within Butch Jones' program could have come to a screeching halt if the Vols had dropped another game in the series against the Gators, and now Josh Dobbs' second-half surge has this team one win away from taking a significant lead in the SEC East title race.
But the way they won, not just with the comeback but how Dobbs found success in the second half, is what stood out the most to SEC on CBS lead analyst Gary Danielson.
"If you look inside the Xs and Os of that game, it's also the perfect scenario within in the win," Danielson said this week in his visit to the SEC on CBS Podcast. "The way they won it in this particular game, by falling behind and then moving the ball. And not just moving the ball but moving the ball from the pocket. It's one thing to run the RPO's [run-pass option], to run the options, the trick plays, but this time they just did it with good old fashion football.
"Now they're in the midst of this four-game series [Florida, Georgia, Texas A&M, Alabama] that's going to determine their season. So if they can go through this four-game series 3-1, with one of the losses to the SEC West teams, they're going to be in Atlanta and they're going to be battle tested."
So now Tennessee has that all-important SEC East showdown at Georgia. The Bulldogs can still climb into the SEC East mix with a head-to-head win against the Vols on Saturday and a few more key victories down the stretch, but at the moment fans are still feeling the sting of a blowout loss at Ole Miss.
"This is going to be my theme from here on out watching Georgia -- and they've got a schedule that they can climb back into it if they beat Tennessee: There's a tendency as a player sometimes to think the new guy is going to solve all your problems," Danielson says.
"You've got Jacob Eason, a great quarterback, he's going to solve all our problems with these back-shoulder throws and hanging in the pocket, future NFL quarterback. Kirby Smart is going to bring some of his magic defensive dust from Alabama and put us in these magic formations that wins games, and it's all a bunch of bull.
"It's getting off blocks. It's making sure your downfield receivers are not lazy. It's making sure your right guard, when he's supposed to pull and trap, takes an inside-out route and creases somebody. It's making sure your quarterback doesn't make the pretty 35-yard throw but makes the nice 15-yard throw for the first down.
"Georgia's now going to find out that there is no magic, it's one-on-one combat out there and we'll see how tough they are now. Because if they wilt, they're going to get run over in SEC league play."
Gary Danielson breaks down the biggest games and headlines in the SEC each week on the SEC on CBS Podcast each week (Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher).
