Tennessee football at Florida: 10 keys for Vols and Gators

8. Is Florida taking the game seriously?

Even if Tennessee football is having trouble adjusting to the road environment in The Swamp with all the Vols freshmen, they might just luck out on the other side. How is Dan Mullen going to get the Florida Gators motivated to play this game given the way the season has played out for both teams so far?

Would you be motivated to play a team that is 1-2, hasn’t yet beaten an FBS school and hasn’t even played a Power Five school? What if you had beaten that team 13 of the past 14 years and that team hadn’t made a bowl game in three years? This is seriously the perfect chance for Florida to fall asleep.

Then there is the hangover factor. Florida used a lot of emotion to hold off the Miami Hurricanes in their opener. Just last week, they had a major comeback win over the Kentucky Wildcats on the road. Can they get themselves mentally ready to play after this roller coaster of a ride en route to their 3-0 start?

The one thing working in their favor is the fact that the Gators play the Towson Tigers after this. As a result, they aren’t likely to be looking ahead of the Vols, unless they are looking two weeks ahead to the Auburn Tigers. But Towson being up next week keeps this from being a trap game. Is that enough for them to take the game seriously enough? Well, it may not even matter.