It’s that time of year again, SEC football is here, and Gator fans think of the joys of Peyton Manning’s success against Florida. Gator fans wear blue and remember legends like Alex Brown, Jabar Gaffney and his incredible TD catch, Tim Tebow’s coming out party, Tyler Murphy saving the game, Muschamp happy for all the disappointed people, 4th and 14, Heave to Cleve, wearing blue helmets with Gators script and now await what wonders might be before us. It’s football time in Tenne…It’s The Swamp, Where Only Gators Get Out Alive.
Growing up Tennessee was my most hated SEC rival. Georgia was just a team we beat in Jacksonville every year around Halloween. 4 years in a row (debately 3 times in 4 years) one of these teams played in the National Title game with Florida giving Tennessee its only regular season loss in 1997 behind a highlight Pick Six by Tony George that would be played with Breakfast with the Gators for years. The Gators are 16-4 over the last 20 years, but the momentum has the opportunity to swing this season.
This year, the Vols are favored in the Swamp. A QB who has accuracy issues, but 66.7% on the season. The Vols running game is top 5 in the Nation. They will have their experienced center, Cooper Mayes returning to action for the first time this season. Their coach has 8 straight top 15 offenses. The Gators have lost 4 straight games to FBS opponents and have been down multiple scores in each game. The Gators have failed to run the ball well in 3 of those 4 games. UT returns a great run defense allowing less than 100 yards per game. There are a lot of reasons many have picked the Gators to lose.
There are many things that are not considered, in fact there are many things that can point to a Gators victory if only the Gators do what they know how to do.
On offense, the Gators have two choices, establish the run or use the passing game to set up the run. Maybe we do try to screen Tennessee to death. Maybe it works. This is a Tennessee secondary that was 127th in pass defense last season and gave up 260 passing yards to lowly Austin Peay a week ago. We have better athletes at receiver than we have had in a long time, get the ball to them in space. I have lamented no quick passing game, maybe this is the week we see quick slants, hitches or other routes that force a defense to not stack the box against the run. In doing so it allows a running game with two great running backs to have space to operate.
Indeed, Tennessee had a good run defense last year that looks as solid this year, but we have better threats who might be able to take balls outside of the box on jet sweeps, end arounds and reverses like Eugene Wilson. The Gators’ recent run of dominance began in 2005 where the highlight play was a reverse to Andre Caldwell. I wouldn’t be surprised with a run like that or two in this game.
Josh Heupel has had 8 straight top 15 offenses, but has he had a QB with accuracy issues at times like Joe Milton? The Vols have a top 5 running attack, but haven’t played anyone yet. They might regress to their 200 ypg mean from last season or more against the Gators. Utah has a pretty good running attack and a running back in Jackson that averaged of 6 yards per carry against several teams at the end of last season including Penn State in the Rose Bowl. We held him to 3 ypc on 5 carries and overall slowed Utah’s running game save for a run or two. The do return Cooper Mayes and that will help them, but how much if Florida’s front seven play disciplined as they have so far.
A little under 1/3 of our passing yards given up were on one play where a safety falling over in man caused a chain reaction ending in a 70-yard TD. Marshall, Kimber, Moore and Hill were built for man coverage. Good man coverage leads to tight windows and for QB’s with accuracy issues, that is a problem. Good man coverage can allow a QB to hold on to the ball longer, which gives a DL and/or blitzing LB more time to get home. Getting home means a RB might be brought in to help block, removing one potential receiver from the fold. Princely, Banks, McClellan and Sapp need to live up the billing and cause chaos.
I think it is very fair that perhaps UT has been very vanilla this far. However, the Gators have looked sound overall against teams that offensively been far less vanilla. Discipline, gap integrity, and extreme increase in 3rd down production aren’t just things that benefit from Utah and McNeese State.
There is a major intangible here that many have not talked about. That is Joe Milton has never started a true SEC road game. Spare me he started at Vandy. If that crowd wasn’t 80/20 Tennessee and basically a central Tennessee home game, someone is lying. He did not start against us in 2021 as some on social media would have you believe. Just like I said in 2021 with Bryce Young, a first true road game in the Swamp is different. It is a deep, loud stadium unlike anything that QB has ever played in. If you don’t take the crowd out of it, the crowd will take you out of it. Bama took the crowd out of it, but then when it came back in, Bama was holding on for dear life. Tennessee isn’t Bama. This defense is not 2021’s defense. This offense has more athletes than the 2021 offense. This scheme may not be as good, but if you get your best weapons the ball in space, good things will happen.
Is this game a must win? Maybe, possibly. You win and the storm clouds begin to part, the remaining schedule looks less daunting. You lose, the rest of the schedule looks more formidable. 5 straight FBS losses becomes the echo in the halls. Even beating Charlotte it becomes 5 straight power 5 losses going into a road match up with Kentucky. Does this game determine the fate of Billy Napier? No. Could this game be a springboard into either the right or wrong trajectory? Maybe.
For us fans attending, Wear Blue, Be Loud, and give the team 4 Quarters of support.
We don’t know who exactly 2023 Tennessee is yet because they faced a UVA team that is still recovering from tragedy and the coach said the victory was just being on the field and a poor Austin Peay team. We know the Gators faced a pretty good Utah team on the road where Utah hasn’t lost with fans since 2018 and lost in part due to self-inflicted wounds. If the Gators play smart and force Milton to beat them with tight windows, they have a great shot.
Gators 21, Vols 17
Go Gators!
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Also, I realized I wrote a whole McNeese State review that didn’t post. I write on Word and transfer after I’ve had a few issues with a sensitive track pad erasing paragraphs or even posting a post with little to nothing in it before. Apparently, I wrote the whole thing on Word and didn’t transfer cause I can be dumb. That said, in short, we did what we need to do, had 10 of 17 passes by Mertz 4 yards or less vertically, and although good, need to keep in mind who the opponent was. I can post in this thread if people want, but let’s be honest at this point what difference does it make?
