The Tennessee Volunteers suffered their first loss of the young 2023 season on Saturday night against SEC East rival, the Florida Gators. To some, it was surprising. The Volunteers football team was coming off its most successful season in years after last season, winning 11 games that included an Orange Bowl victory against the Clemson Tigers. However, for those familiar with the history of the Volunteers-Gators matchup, it wasn't very surprising.

The Volunteers had beaten the Gators for the first time since 2016 last year. Of course, those last two victories also came at home in Neyland Stadium. The Volunteers haven't won a game at the Swamp since 2003, and that trend continued on Saturday, where the Volunteers entered the game as 5.5-point favorites.

For whatever reason, the Swamp has been one of the most unfriendly places for Tennessee football teams. Overall, the Gators are 17-5 against the Volunteers at home. But who's to blame for Saturday's loss?

Tennessee Football can't win at The Swamp

Well, let's start with the obvious first. Outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium, home of the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Swamp is the worst place for the Volunteers to capture a victory. Tennessee hasn't won a game there in 20 years now. They've been outscored 327-184 since that time, with seven of those games resulting in losses by at least 10 points. Dreams come to die for the Volunteers at the Swamp. There's no other way to say it. This was supposed to be a promising year for Tennessee, who came into the year ranked 11th in the country. Saturday's loss to the Gators nearly put them out of the top 25 entirely; they are now ranked 23rd, two spots better than Florida.

This is one of those losses that could prove to be detrimental for the rest of the season for the Volunteers. How they respond will be interesting with South Carolina coming to Neyland next weekend.

Offensive line

The easy blame, and one that many had in mind if things went awry, was on this year's starting quarterback Joe Milton. Milton, the original starter for the Volunteers last season, was eventually overtaken by Hendon Hooker, who then led the Volunteers to become the best offense in the country and made Hooker a Heisman favorite until a late season-ending injury derailed that notion.

Milton is definitely not Hooker, as that is wildly apparent in just three weeks of the season. But he's not the main problem offensively for the Volunteers. Until the Florida game, Tennessee had barely attempted any throws over 20 yards. That was the Volunteers' offense last season, throwing downfield to guys like Jalin Hyatt. But that was all possible because of the offensive line, which gave Hooker time. Milton can throw the length of the field, even if he has had his troubles with accuracy throughout his career. But against Florida, he had little time to get it to his receivers.

The Volunteers' offensive line has luckily only surrendered three sacks all season so far. But on Saturday night, they kept Milton uncomfortable most of the night, constantly making him move out of the pocket. The Volunteers' offensive line also didn't help in the run game, where the Gators held the Volunteers to just under 100 yards rushing.

Josh Heupal's play-calling

In his three seasons as the Volunteers' head coach, Josh Heupal is 5-5 on the road. Four of those games were against the Volunteers' biggest SEC East rivals, the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators. The fifth was last year's upset by South Carolina at Williams-Brice Stadium. It's not as if these aren't tall tasks to ask of a program that has virtually been irrelevant for the past twenty years. But these road games are also ones that Tennessee is going to have to win in the future to make themselves a legit threat in the SEC.

It's not as if Heupal hasn't had any notable wins on the road, however. He took the Volunteers into Pitt and LSU last season, winning both. But Georgia and Florida are much different tasks.

Throughout most of the night, Heupal's play-calling seemed very pedestrian and conservative. And really, it's seemed that way all season. Most thought heading into the Florida game that perhaps Tennessee's staff hadn't opened the playbook yet, holding out for the game against the Gators. But that didn't seem to be the case. Again, it's clear that Milton isn't Hooker, so perhaps Heupal feels a bit handcuffed and that Milton hasn't quite grasped the offense as quickly as Heupal had hoped. Either way, this wasn't Heupal's best-called game at Tennessee.