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

8. Penalties

If turnovers are the biggest thing every coach focuses on limiting, penalties are second. As a result, this is another annoying cliche that we hate to use as a key to a big game, but with the state of both programs, it has to come up.

The Vols and Gators are averaging nearly six penalties a game, as they both have 17 on the year. Tennessee football has surrendered 132 yards in penalties, while the Gators have surrendered 150. Florida’s been luckier, however, by having their opponents commit eight penalties a game.

Both teams are learning new systems on offense and defense. As a result, the penalties are inevitable. Jeremy Pruitt and Dan Mullen will do their best to limit them, but the fact of the matter is that they are going to come this year.

Of course, nearly half of the Vols’ penalties this season came last week against the UTEP Miners, when they committed eight for 65 yards. It’s clear that penalties and turnovers really manifested themselves last week in Knoxville. So if last week was just an anomaly, then the Vols have the advantage going into Saturday’s game.

You also have to assume that they have the bigger advantage here simply because the spread offense, which the Gators are learning under Mullen, generates more penalties than the pro-style, which the Vols are learning under Pruitt and Tyson Helton. But given the concerns of Tennessee’s poise in this game, they could be the ones making the mistakes. So we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.