Former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis had a very famous line: “Just win, baby.”

That's a phrase Tennessee fans will surely take to heart after Saturday night and in any game between the Vols and Gators. The Vols narrowly managed to escape Florida 23-17 on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. Dylan Sampson punched the ball home from the 1-yard line in overtime to give Tennessee a walk-off win.

Sampson was the straw that broke the camel's back when a Tennessee offensive lineman struggled for most of the evening. He totaled 112 yards on 27 carries and two rushing scores. Squirrel White led UT's receivers with 5 catches for 71 yards. But QB Nico Iamaleava struggled under center for a second straight game, going 16/26 for 169 yards with an interception.

Tennessee's offense was abysmal for one half of the football and was shut out for the entire first half. That was due in part to the tone the Vols' offense set on the opening drive of the game. After working his way to the Florida 24 with relative ease and facing third-and-1, Iamaleava fumbled the turnover on a handoff, pulled it back, and lost the ball, which Florida recovered. The Vols would be in no doubt about scoring again for the rest of the half.

But the Vols' defense stayed strong in the first half, fending off Florida in the red zone twice, once on a turnover on downs and once when James Pearce Jr. forced and recovered a fumble at the half-yard line. The Gators led 3-0 at halftime.

They extended their lead to 10-0 after completing a 92-yard drive with Graham Mertz throwing an 18-yard touchdown. However, he suffered an undisclosed form of non-contact lower body injury while throwing and was out for the remainder of the game.

From that point on, Tennessee scored 17 straight points and traveled 75 yards to get on the board on a 4th down touchdown run by Sampson before intercepting Florida QB DJ Lagway deep in Florida territory on the next drive. That led to a field goal. Two drives later, Sampson made it 23 yards to the end zone, and with less than 10 minutes left, the Vols had taken the lead and the momentum.

Florida kept hitting back at Tennessee, but the Vols could do absolutely nothing to ruin the game. They struck back with less than 3 minutes left and finally burned it out when Lagway connected with Chimere Dike on 3rd-and-19 from the Tennessee 27 and scored a touchdown with 29 seconds left to tie the game.

Tennessee stalled at midfield and the game went into overtime. After a false start and a tackle for loss backed the Gators, Trey Smack pushed a 47-yard field goal attempt just wide right. Heupel put the ball in the hands of Dylan Sampson in overtime and he was eventually able to fight his way into the end zone behind a Tennessee offensive line that started terribly but finished strong.

The Vols improved to 5-1 with a top-10 matchup against the Alabama Crimson Tide next Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium.