Former Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer had some strong words about the Tennessee Volunteers after the Vols and former starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava parted ways during the offseason.

Life has a funny way of working out sometimes.

On the night where the University of Florida honored Meyer, the Volunteers put the screws to the Florida Gators in a way they hadn’t in decades, throttling the Gators at halftime 31-0 and cruising to an easy 31-11 win on Saturday night in the Swamp. And they gave Meyer a front row seat to the ultimate show of humility.

Tennessee throttled Florida with Urban Meyer in person months after he said Tennessee was ‘screwed’ after losing Nico Iamaleava

Meyer said on The Triple Option podcast back in April that Tennessee was “screwed” and that they’ve “got a problem” after losing Iamaleava to the transfer portal. He also indicated that Tennessee would be feeling it when the Vols played the Gators later on.

“Here’s the reality: Tennessee is screwed,” Meyer said. “They got a problem. You lose a potential high draft pick. You have the backup quarterback left from last year, and now you have a redshirt freshman who threw nine passes as a freshman. You have zero experience, and the portal opens as we speak. They are going to have to go get one.

“And here’s the thing, there’s a couple key elements here,” Meyer said. “Everybody’s saying, ‘Hey, nice job Tennessee, making a stand.’ I’ve got a little comment on that. Tennessee plays Florida usually every year in October. Can you imagine that game’s going the other way and coach Heupel grabs the microphone and stands on the 50-yard line in Neyland Stadium and says, ‘Hey, it’s OK, I made a stand way back when.’”

As the kids on social media would say: That take aged like milk in the sun.

Tennessee has been exponentially better on offense with Joey Aguilar this season. The team basically pulled off the college equivalent of a trade with UCLA to replace Iamaleava. Going into Saturday, Aguilar was first or tied for first in the SEC in passing yards, passing touchdowns, and yards per attempt. Tennessee’s offense was second in the nation going into Saturday at 43.4 points per game.

To be somewhat fair, Meyer walked those comments back after Aguilar’s monster performance against Georgia, admitting that he was “dead wrong” about Aguilar and the Vols after the Vols’ signal caller threw for 371 yards and four touchdowns against the Bulldogs in a 44-41 overtime loss. So some credit there.

But it’s hard not to note the irony of Meyer witnessing Iamaleava’s replacement lead a Tennessee offense that absolutely bludgeoned the Gators and put up one of the most dominating halves of football by either team in the series. And although Aguilar didn’t have to do much in the game compared to his normal output – 17/22 passing for 204 yards and a touchdown – the threat of the Vols’ productive passing attack created some light boxes for the offense to run against, and Tennessee took full advantage.

Heupel was standing near the 50-yard line with a microphone on Saturday night – in the Swamp, not in Neyland Stadium – and he was doing an interview as the winning coach. I’d say the stand he took turned out to be just fine.

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