NighthawkVol
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First of all, I don't care what their record is, I will always consider a victory over Florida to be big. A victory in the swamp is even bigger. And the first victory in the swamp in 22 years is monumental. This one wasn't so much important to the season, it was important to the program. We had to get that monkey off our backs. I couldn't ever enjoy Florida week because all we ever heard about was how they own us. How we've lost so many we should have won and lost them in creative fashion. The streak, the curse, whatever. It made the rivalry so unenjoyable. I want to just play rivalry games with the thought that we will win or lose based on which team is simply better that Saturday. And if we'd lost to THIS Florida team, the feeling would be that we'll never beat them in the swamp.
Well now that's gone. We've won 3 of the last 4 against Florida. The swamp streak is over and we ended it in dominant fashion. This program has taken another giant step under Heupel. More thoughts:
-While folks will focus on Florida's record and number of injuries, they were 3-1 at home this year, defeated a good Texas team by 8 points in the swamp, and nearly beat Georgia and Ole Miss away from the swamp. And all those injured players were out for Ole Miss too and Ole Miss wasn't nearly as dominant against them as we were. They may not have a good record this year, but no one has dominated them the way Tennessee dominated them and certainly not in the swamp.
-That was the most crisp Tennessee has looked all season. If we'd played like that against Oklahoma, we'd be playing for a playoff spot on Saturday. Only 4 penalties (1 of which was taken intentionally) and 0 turnovers. The defense is playing much more sound. The offense didn't shoot itself in the foot. I don't recall any drops.
-I noticed Sham Umarov made some nice blocks. Sanders had some nice blocks on pulling plays. The Oline played well, even without Moe. And Pendleton has really improved this year. Remember the early season snap problems? Those have gone away.
-Ty Redmond has really grown this season. He's going to be a really good CB next year, on the other side of Gibson. But he will have a big challenge on Saturday. He will have to respect the deep ball with Vandy, which he hasn't really had to do the last 3 weeks.
-I loved seeing Morris get some run because he's going to be a factor next season. The thing that impressed me most was his pass pro. But I also liked that Bishop got most of the run. I hope he's the workhorse against Vandy. Speaking of which, the run game was what we've needed it to be all season and it helped Joey to be more efficient. I think a solid run game actually prevents turnovers because Joey doesn't feel the need to force it.
-Loved the playcalling. The Ethan Davis TD has gotten a lot of love, but the quick pass to him early in that drive was a cool design. The Mike Matthews run play, the use of crossers to attack underneath, and the patience with the run game were all elements of a solid game plan and excellent playcalling. Florida was off balance defensively.
-The fact that we decided to bleed the clock in the 2nd half (only three 2nd half possessions) and not score more on them was almost more insulting to Florida than trying to score more would have been. We felt sorry for them. In the swamp. And they waved the white flag with the field goal down 31.
-Arion Carter was making plays in space that were really impressive. We need more from the Edge rushers (Josephs, Herring, Ross) against Vandy.
-That said, we need to be LOUD in Neyland on Saturday. Make that punk Pavia pay for the things he said about Tennessee on the Netflix documentary. This needs to be the loudest UT-Vandy game in history. I hope everyone attending plans to lose their minds every time Vandy has the ball. I know I will. I want to ruin their season.
Well now that's gone. We've won 3 of the last 4 against Florida. The swamp streak is over and we ended it in dominant fashion. This program has taken another giant step under Heupel. More thoughts:
-While folks will focus on Florida's record and number of injuries, they were 3-1 at home this year, defeated a good Texas team by 8 points in the swamp, and nearly beat Georgia and Ole Miss away from the swamp. And all those injured players were out for Ole Miss too and Ole Miss wasn't nearly as dominant against them as we were. They may not have a good record this year, but no one has dominated them the way Tennessee dominated them and certainly not in the swamp.
-That was the most crisp Tennessee has looked all season. If we'd played like that against Oklahoma, we'd be playing for a playoff spot on Saturday. Only 4 penalties (1 of which was taken intentionally) and 0 turnovers. The defense is playing much more sound. The offense didn't shoot itself in the foot. I don't recall any drops.
-I noticed Sham Umarov made some nice blocks. Sanders had some nice blocks on pulling plays. The Oline played well, even without Moe. And Pendleton has really improved this year. Remember the early season snap problems? Those have gone away.
-Ty Redmond has really grown this season. He's going to be a really good CB next year, on the other side of Gibson. But he will have a big challenge on Saturday. He will have to respect the deep ball with Vandy, which he hasn't really had to do the last 3 weeks.
-I loved seeing Morris get some run because he's going to be a factor next season. The thing that impressed me most was his pass pro. But I also liked that Bishop got most of the run. I hope he's the workhorse against Vandy. Speaking of which, the run game was what we've needed it to be all season and it helped Joey to be more efficient. I think a solid run game actually prevents turnovers because Joey doesn't feel the need to force it.
-Loved the playcalling. The Ethan Davis TD has gotten a lot of love, but the quick pass to him early in that drive was a cool design. The Mike Matthews run play, the use of crossers to attack underneath, and the patience with the run game were all elements of a solid game plan and excellent playcalling. Florida was off balance defensively.
-The fact that we decided to bleed the clock in the 2nd half (only three 2nd half possessions) and not score more on them was almost more insulting to Florida than trying to score more would have been. We felt sorry for them. In the swamp. And they waved the white flag with the field goal down 31.
-Arion Carter was making plays in space that were really impressive. We need more from the Edge rushers (Josephs, Herring, Ross) against Vandy.
-That said, we need to be LOUD in Neyland on Saturday. Make that punk Pavia pay for the things he said about Tennessee on the Netflix documentary. This needs to be the loudest UT-Vandy game in history. I hope everyone attending plans to lose their minds every time Vandy has the ball. I know I will. I want to ruin their season.
