Tennessee Football heads to Gainesville to take on the Florida Gators in a prime-time SEC showdown this Saturday.
The Volunteers struggled last week against Austin Peay, a far inferior team, but are looking for a rebound this weekend on the road against one of their biggest SEC rivals. There will be 100s of factors going into this game, but let’s break down five key ones that will make or break Tennessee Football in Gainesville.
5. Cooper Mays Injury Status
One of the biggest question marks for this Volunteers offense heading into the weekend is if their star center Cooper Mays will finally be healthy enough to play. Heupel had briefly mentioned last week that they were saving Mays for this week and didn’t want him to reinjure anything prematurely against Austin Peay.
Recently, Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel said center Cooper Mays has been practicing in anticipation of playing against Florida:
"“(Mays) was with us last week and warmed up with us (before the Austin Peay game). We made a decision pretty early in the week that he probably would not play in that football game,” Heupel said Monday. “(We) anticipate him having a good week of practice here and being ready.”"
It’s clear that some of the timing has been thrown off without having Mays snapping him the ball, but if Mays does suit up, I’m hoping for the chemistry to be back and better than ever this weekend and the offense to finally start clicking.
4. Establishing The Run Game
The Volunteers have a three-headed monster in the backfield with Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small, and Dylan Sampson. If any of the three isn’t putting up monster numbers, you can be sure the other two are picking up the slack.
Last weekend against Austin Peay, Dylan Sampson wasn’t as productive as he was against UVA in week one when he had four touchdowns. Still, Jaylen Wright put together another 100+ yard game on the ground as he did in week 1.
Jabari Small had a much more productive game last weekend and was just shy of 100 yards on the ground. He always has the firepower and quickness to burst out a long run at any point in the game.
If Tennessee football can establish the run early in the game, it will not only take some pressure off of Joe Milton III, but it will allow the passing game to completely open up and for “Bazooka Joe” to start playing like we all know he is capable of.
3. Defense Continuing To Step Up
Last weekend against Austin Peay, Tennessee Football’s defense was led by senior LB Aaron Beasley. He was an absolute horse on defense and was all over the field, making play after play. Beasley had nine tackles, and eight of them were solo tackles. He also ended up with a career-high five tackles for loss, two of them being sacks. This was the most by a Volunteer defender in a single game since 2004.
The Tennessee Football defense continues to lead in almost every defensive stat:
TFLs per game – 1st FBS (12.5)
Sacks per game – T1st FBS (5.5)
Total sacks – T1st FBS (11)
Total TFLs – 2nd FBS (25)
Aaron Beasley – 1st FBS TFLs (6)
If the Vols can continue this dominance on defense, then I don’t see a way that the Gators pull off the home upset.
2. Silencing the Swamp
The atmosphere in the Swamp on Saturday night will be electric, and there’s no doubt about it. So, it will come down to how quickly the Vols can silence the Swamp and not let them get any hope.
Last year at LSU was a similar game to this one, and LSU was even tougher of a matchup than the Gators this year. Still, the Vols killed the crowd from the opening kickoff and got off to an extremely fast lead. If the Vols can do this on Saturday and take out the Gators’ No. 1 X-factor, the road to victory becomes much more manageable.
There will be moments throughout the game where Florida gains momentum, but if the Vols can stay composed and weather the storm, they have a good shot at winning.
1. Joe Milton III Staying Composed
Joe Milton has gotten rattled in the past in the bright lights. Still, now that he is a veteran and has more experience, he will be able to stay composed and show the country why he is one of the best quarterbacks in College Football.
The Vols came out slow last week against Austin Peay, and Milton was having trouble connecting with the receivers throughout the first quarter. However, Milton and the offense turned things around after a slow start and were able to start putting some things together in the second half of the game. There’s a reason that the Vols schedule these easy teams early in the season, and it’s to get the early season jitters out before a game traveling to a place like Gainesville.
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