Tennessee delivered on Saturday night what Vol fans have been dreaming about for years – an absolute thrashing of the Florida Gators inside the Swamp. A 31-11 win in Gainesville checked both of those boxes. The game was over at halftime, with the Vols leading 31-0.
The Tennessee ground game did most of the damage, with UT rolling up 248 rushing yards on 51 carries on the night.
But there was a notable standout on offense outside of the passing game, and it’s someone who should be a bigger part of the offense moving
forward – tight end Ethan Davis.
Davis, a redshirt sophomore out of Atlanta, has been emerging more and more as a factor in the offense in recent weeks. He had 5 catches for 62 yards against Oklahoma. He had 2 for 23 and a touchdown in the win at Kentucky.
But he had his best career game on Saturday night in Gainesville. He had a nifty catch and run up the sideline to cap off the Vols’ opening drive with 7 points.
Former Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton also had some interesting comments after the game about the difference between Davis and Miles Kitselman and what it does as far as defensive looks. He noted that when Tennessee did not have to have a tight end in the box, the run game was still working because Davis is more of athletic player and a threat in the passing game that Kitselman has been, and that alone worked to Tennessee’s advantage schematically against the Gators as Florida had to respect that (13:30 mark of the following video).
It’ll be interesting to see if Davis can continue his progression into a regular and substantial part of the offense in 2026, which is something that really hasn’t been the case with Heupel’s offenses so far in Knoxville. The tight ends have been a part of the offense, to be clear, but they just haven’t been the stars of the show.
But Davis is showing that perhaps he could become that exception in 2026. Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley will be back (or I should say should in today’s NIL/portal world). Chris Brazzell II will probably be off to the NFL after a career season. So, Davis could have the opportunity to emerge as an even bigger part of the offense moving forward. And from the look of things in the latter half of this season, it seems he’s ready to take on that challenge.
