Vols open -4. We obviously didn’t impress people this week—I was seeing -6 or -7 in preseason. Kinda expect it to move though, we’re a lot better on paper. Still nervous as hell, of course.
This may be the closest thing to a swing game we have all year, for all that Florida looks like a bottom half of the SEC team. Between the venue, our struggles to get into a rhythm, and a couple notable injuries, there’s a real risk of dropping this one. For the sanity of the entire fanbase, please let’s not.
Tennessee is going to hammer Mertz and the run d is stout. Hand it off repeatedly to Wright, Small and Sampson, they'll bust a few and win ugly. If the receivers catch passes, Tennessee will win big. Florida is a really good match up for this team.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it bounces around like crazy before finally settling out around -7. Both of have had one game where we looked like complete trash, hard to figure out what to do with that. I saw -4 here: https://x.com/circasports/status/1700939282717016227?s=46&t=EukbMZqkx4uaOdQjm2l9cw
When you take out the psychological aspect, I tend to agree that it’s a good matchup. And the psychological aspect is probably more on the fans than it is the team—there’s nobody in the locker room who still expects to lose to Florida every year. But I am a fan and I still have been trained to expect our worst game this weekend.
They don’t have an athlete like AR at QB. They prefer to run. We are pretty good against the run. If we can run for 200 and get Joe his ugly 200 passing, then we should win. We just don’t have much of a margin for error. Need to be efficient and no special teams stinkers. And Billy went for some 4th downs last year so we might have to stop a couple of those. I don’t like the drops. Need Wright to have a good day on offense and Beasley to keep it up on defense. I wouldn’t bet on any specific outcome. We could score 50 or 13. I just wouldn’t expect UF to score over 27 (and that might be a stretch without something catastrophic)
I'm interested to see what Milton does in his first real road game in the SEC. Gainesville at night is not the ideal place for a QB to play that struggles to get in a rhythm.
Might as well start the thread. I have a coldness about this game. Hard to be confident with the passing game struggles, and yet I feel like the Vols are the better team. I do think the vols have kept it SUPER vanilla so it may help to have some more diverse looks.
I definitely think we’ve got a better team. I expect an ugly game, and I’m not sure any result would surprise me tbh
There's no mental thing with the team. That's gone. Biggest concern for me is if they make it a battle of the lines and sit in zone.
I think Joe will come out a little wild and hyped up, I expect a few designed runs for him to calm him down and a pump fake to the screen and a go route off it. Small and Wright combine for 40+ touches Beasley to have double digit tackles 3+ sacks against Mertz
I expect UF to try to rattle Milton early and often. Admittedly, I haven't watched a down of their play this year, but that's what I would do. Bring extra guys and go for the sack/turnover and count on disciplined play behind to account for screens and whatnot. For their offense, I expect them to try to run it for as long as they can. If they keep it within a score or two, they will be content to shorten the game and try to keep Milton and the rest of the offense from finding or keeping rhythm and look for a turnover.
I think you can play us a couple of different extremes. Bring the heat, or sit back and make Milton be consistent. Being able to run the ball will be huge
