Tennessee defensive coordinator Bob Shoop met with the Knoxville media on Tuesday.

Shoop described to reporters the final play in the Florida game from Saturday — a 63-yard touchdown pass — which ultimately beat the Volunteers 26-20. He said he made the defensive call.

“As you guys may know, Florida has an outstanding kicker. The guy can kick a 55-60 yard field goal. When they got that first first down we thought they were going to play for getting the ball in that 35-40 yard area and kick a long field goal,” Shoop said. “If you watch the final play, to describe it as a Hail Mary is an inaccurate description of the play. I would describe it as a basketball player hitting a three-quarter court shot to win a game.

“It was a fluky type play.”

Shoop noted he wasn’t apologizing or making excuses for the play, but he implied it was a one-in-a-million type pass completion.

“Our strategy was to watch them come out of the huddle and if it was a Hail Mary-type formation, call a timeout and reset the defense,” he said. “They did not do that … If you actually watch the play, Feleipe Franks went to his first key and it wasn’t there. We took away the play they ran, which is the irony in the whole thing.

“He [Franks] looked at option one, looked at two, looked at three … I feel if it had been the second or third quarter, he would have just run,” Shoop said. “But then he said, ‘what the … I can’t run, I’ve got to do something.’ Somehow, someway, he made eye contact with [Tyrie] Cleveland.

“He threw a dime, the player got behind our player, and it was a disastrous ending.”

Shoop also noted he thought some of the criticism on head coach Butch Jones has been “unfair.”

This video of Shoop addressing the media was posted by Orange & White Report.