Florida v. Tennessee

by Arnaldo

"Rocky top, you'll always be home, sweet home, to me!"  ... Ugh.  The worst part of the "Third Saturday in September" is always sitting through The Pride of the Southland Band playing Rocky Top nearly 43 times.  And then there's the awkward moment when you find yourself humming the insufferably catchy tune as the Volunteers are walking out of the Swamp with Smokey's tail between his legs (this is not an impartial blog).


The Rivalry


... That never really was.  When I think of Florida's rivals, I think Georgia, Florida State, LSU, and sometimes Alabama.  What makes a great rivalry is competition and as you all know, in the last few years we've each beaten and lost to those teams.  Our streak against Tennessee is looking at a potential 8th year.  Only one of those games was even close.  The dwindling rivalry found its peak in the '90s, when Steve Spurrier and Phil Fulmer were each building the South's new reputation in football.  Danny Wuerffel was preparing a National Championship/Heisman run, while Peyton Manning was evolving into one of the best quarterbacks ever.  You know what he could never do, however?  Beat the Gators.

"You must hate me..."

 Spurrier loved to put down the Vols with quips like, "you can't spell Citrus without UT," and, "I heard they just hung a new sign outside the Citrus Bowl in Orlando: WINTER HOME OF THE TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS."  The Citrus Bowl, now known as the Capital One Bowl, is usually reserved for the second best team in the SEC and was a common game for the Vols while the Gators were invited to more prestigious bowl games. 

"Umm... yeah... sorry?"

The departure of Fulmer and arrival of Lane Kiffen at Tennessee almost relit the rivalry.  Kiffen was doing all the right things: coaching up his team, bringing in his father the legendary defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffen, and trying his best to talk to a big game.  At his inaugural speech he said he was looking forward to Tennessee traditions such as "singing Rocky Top all night after beating (top-ranked) Florida."  He later publicly accused Urban Meyer of committing a recruiting violation that doesn't exist, and by doing so, ironically broke an actual SEC rule.  Urban Meyer responded by beating the Volunteers 23-13, purposefully not running up the score as expected, which was considered as even more of an insult than lighting up the scoreboard.

Albert changes his iconic
orange sweater for a blue
one against Tennesee.

As dull as the match-ups have been on the field, fans of both schools still love this rivalry.  In Gainesville, students spend all week making redneck/incest jokes while in Knoxville, fans are making the same jorts comments (presumably, I really don't care).  When the Volunteers come to Florida Field fans and students "blue out" the stadium to stand out from their opponents who share the color orange, albeit a dull and lifeless shade.  To fuel the game and add pressure, ESPN's College Gameday is following the Gators to Knoxville for a second consecutive week.

2007 "Blue Out" as requested by Urban Meyer.

The Match-up

As easy as it's been to beat the Vols in recent history, this year will be much different.  The Volunteers are ranked for the first time since week 1 of 2008 and for good reason: they produce.  They've had two back-to-back games of 500 yards for the first time in 12 years.  Third year head coach Derek Dooley is raising his program back into prominence and needs this statement win to prove he can make waves in the SEC, but then again, so does Will Muschamp and the Gators.  Here are my keys to the game:

Protecting Driskel - Last week against the Aggies, Jeff Driskel was sacked 8 times.  That's 7 too many in my book.  Now the problem doesn't necessarily lie within the o-line's protection; Driskel admits that he held onto the ball for too long on several plays, to which I say, "we noticed."  But bettering this is a two pronged solution: on one hand Driskel does need to make his pocket decisions much quicker, and on the other, the offensive line needs to understand that the young quarterback is still facing a learning curve and work harder on their blocks.



Tyler Bray - He's excellent.  I'd rank him fourth in the SEC after Aaron Murray (Georgia), Tyler Wilson (Arkansas), and A.J. McCarron (Alabama).  The junior quarterback missed five games last season but still racked up 1,983 yards over his seven starts.  Running a no-huddle offense, so far this season he's thrown for 643 yards and six touchdowns, and he hits the big plays.  Bray completes 76.2% of his passes over 15 yards and out of those six touchdowns, five have been on passes of 15 yards or over.

He also has great
taste in body art.

Even worse, Tennessee sports one of the SEC's best receiving corps.  Justin Hunter (11), who is coming off a three-touchdown game against Georgia State, and junior college transfer Cordarrelle Patterson (84), who has proved himself over the last two games with 360 all-purpose yards.  Luckily, returning star, Da'Rick Rogers transferred to Tennessee Tech last month.  Look for Muschamp to keep a nickel/dime package on the field most for most of the game and utilize our depth at secondary.





Turnovers - The Gators aren't making any.  I'll preach it every week until we start, but the critical piece missing in the Gators defense is turnovers.  It's hard to teach forcing fumbles or being at the right place at the right time, but what the defense can focus on is not letting the right opportunities slip through their fingers (sometimes literally).  Several potential interceptions were dropped against Bowling Green, and I do recall a fumble that was knocked to the sidelines for no turnover at College Station.  The offense can't capitalize off turnovers if the defense doesn't seize these opportunities.


Injuries - Texas A&M didn't go down without a fight, and they took Jelani Jenkins and Cody Riggs with them.  Neither are expected to return today, and when you combine them with the still missing Ronald Powell, the defense is getting thinner.  True freshman Antonio Morrison (12) will be stepping in for Jenkins, while the pretty deep cornerbacks group moves around to fill in for Riggs.  Mike Gillislee strained a groin running in a touchdown but is expected to play.  He, along with Dominique Easley and Josh Evans have suffered minor injuries in the first two games so they'll at some risk of aggravation.

Stopping the Run -  There's a defensive strategy in football that basically says, "slow down their best components but stop their weaker ones."  The idea here is, Tennessee is a pass-centered team with a good quarterback and great receivers, but there's no such thing as a one-dimensional winning team.  The Gators need to focus and slowing down Bray, yes, but by stopping the run, which they're more than capable of doing, much more pressure gets put on Bray.  Our decent secondary and fast pass rush should take care of the rest. 



Tale of Two Defenses - This is what we saw at Texas A&M.  The first half defense allowed the first three Aggie drives to end in scores and the fourth was thankfully ended by the clock.  The yards allowed for those drives are as follows: 66, 81, 79, and 44.  Yards allowed in the second half per drive: 8, 1, 6, 5, 9, and 22.  Impressed?  So am I.  Will Muschamp finally found something to motivate his defense and provide them with something they didn't have during the Bowling Green game or the first half at Texas A&M.  Like I said last week, these guys were top recruits.  They're out of excuses and it's nice to see they can actually stand up to their potential but in the end, it's a discipline issue.  There's nothing I can reference to prove they'll show up again today.


Arnaldo's Prediction:

Florida win 34 - 20