The Vols game against Florida on Saturday afternoon could be described with the very first play of the game, a sign of hope and good fortune, quickly erased by disappointment.

On the opening kickoff, Brandon James fumbled the catch, but picked it up and returned the ball 52 yards before being knocked out of bounds at the Tennessee 44-yard line.

Tim Tebow quickly managed the Gators (3-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) offense down the field before connecting with Aaron Hernandez on a two-yard pass play. Florida went up 7-0 and never relinquished the lead after that.

The Vols fell to the Gators 30-6. The loss puts the Vols (1-2, 0-1 SEC) in a familiar spot as last year, with a loss in California and a loss to Florida.

"Last year we were one and two and we made it all the way to the SEC Championship game," said Robert Ayres. "We can do it again."

The game for the Vols was not lost on offense or defense, but on special teams and turnovers. Tennessee's offense matched and beat the Florida offense in production for much of the game.

Tennessee had 258 yards of offensive production to Florida's 243 yards. Tennessee led the rushing game 93-82 after the third quarter.

Tennessee finished with 96 yards rushing. Arian Foster led the team with 37 yards rushing and Gerald Jones had 18 yards on four carries.

"Our defensive team played really hard today," said head coach Phillip Fulmer. "We never gave our defense a chance. Three of their scores were on short field."

Two turnovers inside the Florida three-yard line were the mistakes that the Volunteers could not get over as they were unable to put guaranteed points on the board. Jonathan Crompton fumbled a handoff and threw an interception on the three and one yard lines, respectively.

"We should have won the ball game," said Crompton. "We gave up 14 points in the red zone. We shot ourselves in the foot. I don't think many teams can stop us but ourselves."

Crompton scored on a quarterback sneak from inside the one-yard line to keep Tennessee from being shutout at home. He also completed 18 of 28 passes for 162 yards with the one interception. Crompton also had 22 yards rushing.

A big problem for Tennessee was penalties. The Vols committed nine penalties for 95 total yards. The Vols had two personal foul facemask penalties, one of which moved Florida into field goal range.

The special teams game hurt Tennessee as well as James returned a punt 78 yards for Florida's second touchdown of the game.

Next week, the Vols travel to Alabama to face Auburn and the new spread offense under Tommy Tuberville, kick-off is set for 3:30 EST on CBS.