Tennessee plays its first Southeastern Conference game this Saturday when Florida comes to Knoxville. What a way to start conference play. The Gators are tough, and Tennessee will have to find another gear if it hopes to win.
We all know about Florida. Quarterback Tim Tebow is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, and he has a lot of weapons on offense to use. Questions still surround the Gators' defense, but the unit looked strong in holding Miami, FL, to only three points in their last game.
Tennessee showed a lot of improvement against Alabama-Birmingham last week. I know fans like to see the Vols air it out, but quarterback Jonathan Crompton's 31 passes against the Blazers seemed way too much. We have an experienced offensive line and several first-rate running backs. The bottom line is the Vols will have to throw the ball less and run the ball more to beat Florida.
Given Tennessee's inconsistency in its first two games, I just can't pick them. The UCLA loss still stings, and the wound got deeper last Saturday when the Bruins played Brigham Young and got flattened 59-0. Just thinking about that makes me choke on the bile in my throat.
Florida will find ways to make more big plays than Tennessee and that will propel them to victory.
The pick: Florida 34 Tennessee 20
Other SEC picks: Arizona State over Georgia, LSU over Auburn, Ole Miss over Vanderbilt, South Carolina over Wofford, Alabama over Arkansas, Georgia Tech over Mississippi State
Last week: 7-0 (1.000), Overall: 24-5 (.828)
5 comments:
Florida 30 Tennessee 6. Simply put, Tennessee isn't in Florida's league at this point. We got killed.
Just so you know, the reason Tennessee ain't been doing well is because ... well, I'll let you read it (from a post at FireCoachFulmer.com):
Tennessee Curse
Hoping for another long season for the Vols. Just let it be known that I placed a curse on Tennessee sports a number of years ago and it's kept your school from winning any major championships. I know, I know you won women's basketball. But I'll bet you'd trade every single women's trophy for just one Football championship.
Week after week I get so much joy watching Tennessee strug-gull-ing!
Well, that explains everything.
Was this the final nail in the coffin for Fulmer's head coaching career at UT? It's apparent to me that he has no control over or impact on this team. A quote cited on the CBS coverage revealed that Fulmer had said that the only energy on the team was coming from the staff and not the players. Sounds like the players have checked out. Any thoughts?
I don't know if the players have checked out, but the offense appears to sleepwalk at times (for example, Cromptom's fumble on a basic running play at the goal line vs. Florida). I still think the UCLA loss has this team rattled. Even weeks later, I still can't believe we lost.
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