Things are looking bad and it appears most people are thinking it is going to be impossible to win. I'm not one of those. I'm trying to find positives going into this matchup...
Everybody keeps talking about how terrible the UCLA loss was. The way they make it sound, the Vols were killed last week. But in reality, UT was 1 yard, ONE YARD, away from winning that game. Had we gained that 1 yard, things on these boards would be alot different...
Last year coming into this game, UT was coming off a far more painful loss to UCLA, and the Gators coming in after rolling through the Vols the year before. But what happened? Yea, the Vols lost 30-6, but look a little closer. In the 1st half, UT was inside the Gator 5 yard line TWICE and came a with ZERO points. The Gators took a 13-0 lead into the half. That doesn't look like utter domination to me. Sure UF pulled away in the 2nd half, but the Vols were demoralized after coming away with nothing after being so close in the 1st half imo...
The Gators only scored 3 TDs last year. One of them was a pass to Harvin and one of them was on a punt return by James. Kiffin has made it fairly obvious that he is not going to kick to James. Harvin's gone and James isn't going to see the ball, so that is going to be 2 TDs that won't be scored on us this year. I know other people are going to touch the ball, but the Gators will not have a playmaker on the field as good as Harvin this year...
People keep predicting that UF is gonna win by 50. That is NOT going to happen unless we turn the ball over alot. UT has the #1 defense in the country right now, the best defender in the country, one of the top 10 LBs in the country, a future 1st rounder with Walker, and one of the greatest defensive minds in football history. There is absolutely no way that UF can put up 50 on this defense...
And at some point all this talk and predictions from Gainesville and in the media starts to feed the underdog and leads to overconfidence and carelessness by the favorite...
UF- 34
UT- 18