I'm not good at trash talk, and I'd rather discuss football than get banned on a rival board. So, I'll chalk up my thoughts of this game, keys for a victory on either side and hopefully this will stir up some civil discussion.
Some Friendly thoughts:
This game is going to play out like the games of old, but with the roles reversed. (weird, huh?) Tennessee comes in with a high powered offense, one of, if not the best QB/WR skill players in the SEC and reminds me of a fun'n'gun style offense. I'm still not sure how your defense will look, and from the look of the past 2 games your LBers *may* be a little suspect.
Florida comes in as a hard nosed, grind'em out type of team that reminds me of Fulmer's Vols of the 90's. Gilly has been nothing short of superb and leads the SEC in rushing so far this season. The passing attack, while not great, has been very good. Driskel has 0 turnovers and completes a high percentage of passes. We also have a new OC from Boise State (who also coached Kentucky a while back if you remember). He has not opened up the playbook 100% just yet primarily because of the young QBs. I still don't think we'll open it up 100% for you guys, but we'll see more plays, trick plays, etc.
If the stats plays out this year, the team with the most rushing yards should win the game. I'm not sure how your run game is just yet considering the competition you played. If Gilly is able to play through his groin injury, we should be able to limit the number of possessions you have. In the same token, UT should take advantage of some big plays in the passing game. I think defense will dictate who wins this game.
Keys for Tennessee:
1) Limit turnovers. Bray has 0 turnovers. Which is good because he can't afford any if you expect to beat Florida, especially if we are able to establish the run game. You can't expect to score on every possession.
2) Remain healthy. I want this to be a clean, injury free game. You can't afford to have one of your key playmakers go down with an injury this game.
3) Play lights out defense. Contain Gilly, or whoever is our RB for the game. This ideally should be the #1 key.
4) Establish the run. Marlon whatshisname (sorry, name escapes me at the moment) needs to have the game of his life.
Keys to a Florida win:
1) We continue to be a disciplined team. No turnovers or silly penalties.
2) We come out to play for a full 4 quarters. Our defense can't afford to spot UT an entire half. We are more than capable of containing their WRs. TAMU has the potential to have an outstanding offense and we will soon see this in SEC play. Shutting them down in the second half was unbelievable. We need the same output from the D the entire game.
3) Gilly. It looked like he had a groin injury from his last TD run. I hope he'll be fine, but he will be a key to winning. Without him, Brown and Jones will really need to step it up.
4) Continue to open the playbook up for Driskel. I think we can all agree that the offense looked lightyears better than the last 2 years. We need to continue to open it up. I'd like to see some 5 yard slants and maybe some screens thrown in this week.
5) Limit the sacks. Whether it's on the OL or Driskel, we can't afford to have Driskel on his back.
6) Keep their offense off the field by winning the time of possession stat. This will be huge for us if we can limit them to 7 or 8 possessions for the game, or less.
This game will go either way and will be close. It will come down to defense, conditioning and depth. This is why I think Florida will ultimately win. Tennessee will hold a lead going into the half and through the 4th quarter, but our last drive we kick a game winning field goal.
Final Score:
Florida- 23
Tennessee - 21
lol:
