Wide Right.

Tennessee, which just like rival Kentucky is looking for that signature W which will say “We’re back,” shall have to wait a bit longer.

Aaron Medley’s 55 yard FG attempt at the final gun was but a silicon wafer thin right of the goal post, but wide right nonetheless. Which miss secured the Volunteers 11th straight loss to Florida, not quite as onerous a streak as rival UK’s annual futility, but dispiriting anyway.

Which wouldn’t have been quite so hard to take . . . except the Vols led by 13 with under 5:00 to play.

As of the moment that UT L was in the books, there had been 191 college games played this season, during which a team held a 13 point 4Q lead. In 188 of those, the lead held. Of those three times the school ahead choked, Tennessee had done it twice. Saturday and previously at home to Oklahoma.

Meanwhile Burnt Orange like Orangey Orange found a new mode to snatch defeat from the maw of victory.

Texas was up by a FG late, but Okie State had the ball. The young and impetuous Longhorns committed two consecutive penalties. Which drove coach Charlie Strong bat shit cwaaaazy. To the extent that he drew a flag, which gave the Cowboys a chance to tie it.

But Ben Grogan’s 36 yarder was, that’s right, wide right. Oh, wait a second, Okie State took too many seconds and was flagged for Delay of Game. Which gave them a second chance, an odd outcome indeed after being penalized. From 41, Grogan put it through to knot it up.

Then, with 4th and too far to go just outside its own red zone, Texas’s punter dropped the snap, and proceeded to kick the ball sideways, out of bounds.

Grogan nailed another trey. Meaning Texas didn’t even make it to OT.

Which was bad enough. Except that the week before, the Hook ‘Em Horns lost to Cal by a wafer thin digit, when their kicker missed an extra point with under two minutes to play.

Orange, as we are wont to say these days, is the new black.

 * * * * *

Meanwhile Duck hunting season came a month early in Oregon. Utah’s Utes tripled up on the Quack in a 62-20 beatdown at Austen. The PAC 12 is now the country’s most competitive league. And, arguably, the best. Southern Cal. Stanford. UCLA. And, of course, the Utes.

West Point has a receiver named Edgar Allen Poe. He scored a TD in the Cadets’ W at hapless Eastern Michigan.

IU hasn’t officially announced a delay in basketball practice. Though the school might. The Hoosier football team stands 4-0 for the first time in a quarter century.

Leonard Fournette is the real deal. We’re talking Herschel Walker stratosphere here.

So too, it appears, Brandon Doughty. The Hilltopper QB was 33/41 for 457 yards and six TDs, in WKU’s 56-14 smackaround of Miami (O).

So too, resilient (and tough and competitive) Patrick Towles. The Wildcat QB was 22/27 for 249 yards and 2 TDs in UK’s big W over Top 25 Mizzou. Which arguably program redefining victory sets them apart from Butch Jones’s snakebitten Volunteers.

— Seedy K