Tennessee Volunteers Football: Will Muschamp On The Vols

April 6, 2013; Gainesville FL, USA; Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp during the spring practice for the Orange and Blue Deput at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp met with the media on Monday, in advance of the Tennessee-Florida match-up this Saturday.

Here’s what he had to say about the Vols.

"We’re excited about starting the SEC schedule with Tennessee. Butch Jones is a guy that I’ve got a lot of respect for; he did a great job at Cincinnati. They’ve got an up-tempo offense and 139 starts on their offensive line; this will be the best offensive line we will face this year. Our guys felt that way last year after we played them. Defensively, they’ve got eight starters back, they’re an over and under team, they’ve simplified some things they’re doing defensively and A.J. Johnson led the SEC in tackles. We just need to take care of Florida.  And we’ll get Tennessee’s best effort, and Oregon’s got a good football team, so we just need to take care of Florida and start the SEC schedule, their tempo and momentum will be a lot different walking in there I assure you that.  They have eight starters back, guys that have played a lot; McCullers inside is a hard guy to move, I don’t know about Couch’s situation; but he’s a good inside player.  Corey Miller on the edge, Jordan Williams, those guys are all guys who can rush off the edge, A.J. Johnson is a guy that has played a lot of football, Curt Maggitt has been injured, but we expect him to be back.  So again, you have a lot of seasoned guys that have played a lot of football for them, and I’m sure they will play well. (On the Florida-Tennessee rivalry being a big rivalry in the 90’s) It’s still a huge rivalry, it’s still a very important game to the University of Florida.  There’s no question because of the prominence that both schools had in the 90s, it was a leadoff game for CBS it seemed like every single year, so there’s no question it’s got great, great history.  It’s a huge game for both teams (On Tennessee’s new offense) They were very successful running their system at Cincinnati and they’ve been very successful doing that they do. It takes that time to install offensively, schematically and philosophically what you want to do and who you want to be and that’s what they’re going through right now."

Will Muschamp definitely isn’t overlooking the Vols and is anticipating a tough match-up with Butch Jones and Tennessee. There’s always a lot of coach-speak involved in rivalry games like this, where one team is heavily favored, but you’ve got to believe Muschamp fully believes it when he says the Gators will get the Vols’ best effort.