A roundtable of noteworthy University of Florida football figures came together over the week to discuss the Gators’ season up ahead.
The conversation was hosted by 92.5 FM/1010 XL’s Dan Hicken and featured Steve Spurrier, former wide receiver and current SEC Network analyst Chris Doering, and former quarterback Shane Matthews.
Nearing the end of the 30-minute conversation, the roundtable turned their attention to Tennessee with the Vols’ trip to The Swamp being circled on both sides for this September.
Matthews does not have faith in Joe Milton despite the big arm and thinks the Vols will take a step back with a “one-read-only” offense.
“We get Tennessee at home,” Matthews said. “Tennessee has not had much success in The Swamp. And, dude, let me tell you something. I don’t care how far Joe Milton can throw a football. I’ve seen him play. I saw him play at Michigan. Heupel benched him when he initially got there. Now, Hendon Hooker was a heck of a player but I think Tennessee takes a step back.”
Doering, on the other hand, thinks that opponents will have figured out Tennessee’s offense in Josh Heupel’s third year as the Vols’ head coach.
“I think that’s one of the fascinating things to me is what’s done in the offseason from defensive coaches and preparing for certain offenses,” Doering said. “I think a lot of folks have watched a lot of film on Tennessee this year and have a lot of plans for how they can provide some wrinkles to stop or slow them down.”
“It’s interesting because it’s all about going fast for them,” Matthews responded to Doering. “It’s not his type of passing. There’s one read and one read-only in their offense.”
More from RTI: Blue-Chip Recruit Trolls Florida While Committing To Tennessee Football
Doering did go on to say that some of the deep choice routes were interesting for Tennessee, though, and broke down how Tennessee’s combo routes work on the outside. Doering went on to say that he believes opponents will use more three-safety looks against Tennessee’s offense and used Georgia’s defensive game plan in 2022 as the model for how to stop Tennessee.
Tennessee is gearing up for Josh Heupel’s third season as the Vols’ head coach. While Matthews and Doering did note opponents playing against Tennessee’s passing game, the Vols’ running backs room is likely the strongest returning group on Tennessee’s roster. The Vols return junior Jaylen Wright, senior Jabari Small, and sophomore Dylan Sampson – the top three running backs from Tennessee’s 2022 season.
The biggest X-Factor in Tennessee’s season is quarterback Joe Milton. And, ultimately, his success on the field isn’t going to be known until he goes up against some of Tennessee’s big early-season opponents such as Florida, Texas A&M, and South Carolina. But through everything that has been said and seen during training camp, Milton looks like a different quarterback than his time at Michigan or his initial start at Tennessee like Matthews referred to. Again, though, we’ll have to see what shakes out on the field.
More from RTI: Opponent Preview – Florida Gators
Florida will host preseason No. 12-ranked Tennessee on Saturday, Sept. 16, at 7:00 p.m. ET from Gainesville, Florida. Hendon Hooker’s Tennessee Volunteers defeated Anthony Richardson’s Florida Gators by a score of 38-33 in Knoxville last season.
See the full Tennessee conversation clip from 92.5 FM/1010 XL’s Florida roundtable using the play button below.
7 Responses
It’s nice to sit and guess what will happen. But truth is,Tennessee has great receivers,great runners,offensive line and defense is improved all round.And let me say,Florida has done nothing of great value to improve. With that said,prediction.
Tennessee-38
Florida-21
There is alot of “wishful thinking” going on with this trio.
Pretty easy to say teams will simply utilize the defense that Georgia used last year to stop TN. As if these other teams have the athletes that Georgia has. Scheme might have helped, but talent was the factor.
So a defense commits enough coverage to stop Tennessee’s passing game and is spread from sideline to sideline, and deep. Tennessee will run all over you.
Defensive Coordinators are paid to decipher opponents offensive schemes. The real question is whether the defensive talent is capable of implementing the scheme. Florida doesn’t have the defense to match VOLS receivers.
People keep saying year after year that now that there is film on Heupel’s offense, they will figure it out.
Well there is film from when he was Missouri’s OC, from Cent. Florida, and now Tennessee. DCs haven’t exactly figured it out yet!
Sounds to me like a bunch of sour grape Gators. How do you like being in the barrel?