Question marks surround the East Division’s top contenders after the first three weeks of the season, but Saturday’s matchup should provide some clarity and insight into how these two teams factor in the conference’s overall pecking order.
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College Gameday has hosted the Tennessee-Florida game seven times before with four being in Knoxville and three being in Gainesville. But the one dimension that was still working for Dobbs almost knocked the Gators into another dimension. Del Rio wasn’t much of a threat to stretch defenses downfield, as he had only had two completions of 30 yards or more.
UF coach Jim McElwain said Callaway has been updated from doubtful to questionable or probable. “They may have lost a close one the year before or maybe three of four years, but those are different teams and teams reload”, Voight said. But a 55-yard field goal attempt by Aaron Medley drifted right to spoil quite Herculean effort by Dobbs, who rushed for 136 yards, passed for 83 and caught a 58-yard touchdown. Dobbs became the first FBS player since 2003 to lead his team in passing, rushing and receiving in a single game.
TENNESSEE: The Volunteers are also a flawless 3-0 but like the Gators, they’re 1-2 against the spread.
Of course, the Gators also have to prepare for the other dimension of his game – the passing part.
“It’s really what you train for and your mindset over the summer and winter when you’re exhausted and don’t want to do an extra rep”, quarterback Josh Dobbs said.
“We had guys trying to do too much”, McElwain said. Tennessee lost a heart-breaker past year in The Swamp, whipping this rivalry into one of the hottest in the country.
The Gators were strong against the run for most of last season. Either way, this weekends’ matchup between the No. 14 and No. 19 teams will be one of the interesting SEC games, and it won’t be one to miss. The reasons for their failure jumped off the screen. “Now, they’ll never forget the guy”, Harry said. They’re going to need all the help they can get as they will be going up against one of the best defensive fronts in the nation. He’s a great player and we never stopped him an ounce past year.
“Well, I guess first thing is I didn’t know they used to do that”. But moving forward, he’s out for the foreseeable future. “He’s a great player”. The under is 7-1 in Florida’s last 8 games on grass.
“We’ve just been motivated to really hold ourselves to a higher standard and just show everybody across the nation that we’re not coming to play any amusing games”, UF linebacker Jarrad Davis said. “And we kind of made the moment bigger than what it really was, and we were out there doing things that we naturally do not do”.
Last week: pass protection won the poll, and while there was still pressure, Josh Dobbs did have his most accurate day as a Vol. It’s on everybody – line, linebackers, secondary.
“I don’t want to take anything away from last year’s (Florida) defense, but I believe this defense is a lot better”, Tennessee offensive coordinator Mike DeBord said. We work all those just like we do every week so they can’t really try to get a beat on it.
The Gators could have the best starting corners in college football, but depth behind Tabor and Wilson remains a concern, Gray said. There a lot of fun to be around and you know what, they’ve invested a lot into it and like other positions, we’re missing our right guard (Tyler Jordan) that’s out again that was a long-time starter for us.
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Let’s make everybody a little more nervous.
