Tennessee football vs. Florida: Vols and Gators keys to the game

9. Turnovers

This is the biggest cliche in the book, and every team worries about it. But the turnover battle especially applies to his game, and it especially applies to these specific teams through two games so far. That’s because they’ve both been pretty good at taking care of the ball.

Tennessee football has lost just two fumbles on the year, and they have no interceptions. The Florida Gators, meanwhile, have lost one fumble on the year and have just two interceptions. So the two have combined for five turnovers through three games, an amazingly impressive stat.

On the other hand, while Florida has been very good at forcing turnovers, getting eight overall, the Vols have only forced four. So the Gators have a plus-five turnover margin, while the Vols have it at plus-two.

Taking all this into account, which team can force turnovers against an offense that’s taking good care of the ball will go a long way towards determining the winner. This is a a huge part of the series history. Remember the 1996 game? Six first-half turnovers cost the Vols. Two years later, Tennessee football got a thrilling victory by forcing five turnovers.

Right now, the Gators may have a bit of an edge because the Vols struggled last week. Both of their fumbles came against the UTEP Miners, hinting at a bit of a regression. However, to be fair, one of them may have been a bad call, as Jeremy Banks looked to be in the end zone.

Either way, they will have to play better this week. And as Jeremy Pruitt has stated, they’re going to have to force more turnovers when they get the chance as well. Otherwise, this will be another loss for the Vols.