[vulturesrow]

Florida vs. Tenn is the game of interest for me. Florida played two teams so far that werent the typical early season cream puffs (Southern Miss, and UCF, both played in bowl games last season FWIW). In the first game, Florida looked a bit mediocre in my mind, but I chalk that up to opening game jitters. Against UCF, Florida looked much more in control. Tenn spanked Cal pretty good in week 1 and then won a squeaker over USAFA last weekend. The key matchup in my mind is UF's young O-line against a tough Tenn defense. As long as Leak gets decent protection and UF can establish some sort of running game they should prevail. I expect Urban Meyer to run more plays to get Leak away from the pass rush. I hope to see true freshman Percy Harvin make some noise. He has sick physical talent and so far in the season has displayed a very good grasp of the game for a true freshman. Also Meyer said to expect more play time for true freshman QB, Tim Tebow, who is quite an athletic talent well. He brings a whole different look to the UF offense and in all honesty is probably a better fit in Meyer's spread option offense. Leak is a very good dropback passer but his running skills are probably slightly better than average. I really like this move by Meyer because it gives that much more for the Vol's defense to worry about.

On the Vol side, UF has to deal with an always punishing UT run game and UT has some very good receivers who are also big and strong. Erik Ainge is a very capable QB. The UF DL is tough and the LB corps is strong as well so hopefully they will be able to contain the UT running game. If UF has a defensive weakness it could be in the secondary. UF is still solid by most standards in the secondary but has a tough matchup against the UT WRs. On defense UT is playing without starting CB "Inky" Johnson and All-SEC DL Justin Harrell is playing with a torn bicep, electing to forego season ending surgery in order to play against UF. The CB loss could be the most significant for UT given the strength of UF's receiving corps.

Interesting factoids about this game:

1) In the past ten seasons the winner of the UF-UT game has gone on to win the SEC East title.

2) The lower-ranked team has won four of the last five and six of the last eight in this series. This year Florida goes into Neyland Stadium ranked higher than UT.


Great weekend for college football and obviously Im quite excited about this game in particular.