Tennessee football: Five reasons Vols could upset Florida
4. Florida tends to start slow, and the Vols tend to start fast
Despite its issues all year, Tennessee football has been really good in games early on. In three of their five losses, the Vols were either tied or leading at halftime. They scored the first touchdown against the Georgia Bulldogs, the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Auburn Tigers.
Against Georgia, they took a 21-17 lead into halftime, and they had 13-0 and 10-0 starts against Arkansas and Auburn respectively. For the Vols, holding onto the lead has been the difficult part, not building the lead.
The Florida Gators are the opposite. Just last week, they trailed the Kentucky Wildcats late in the second quarter. Before that, they allowed the Vanderbilt Commodores, the worst team in maybe SEC history, to take a 10-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Arkansas tied them in the first quarter, the Missouri Tigers led them 7-6 in the second, and they spotted Georgia a 14-0 lead. Oh, even the South Carolina Gamecocks took a 7-0 lead on them. It takes these guys a while to get going.
Now, it’s true the Vols blow leads and the Gators score quickly, but could this difference allow UT to set a massive tone early? It’s possible. Doubling down on this disparity could give them a huge advantage to start things off.