Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin talked the talk when he took over the Vols football program in December 2008, saying he couldn’t wait to sing Rocky Top “all night long” after his team beat Florida. “It’s gonna be a blast,” he said.
Today when the Vols line up against Florida, perhaps the only blast we’ll see is the scoreboard exploding after the Gators pile up the points.
Tennessee has an opportunity to prove they’re a better football team than the one that lost to UCLA last week.
But doing it against Florida in The Swamp is a very tall order, and despite what coach Urban Meyer is saying, the Gators want to pay Kiffin and the Vols back for his introductory news conference comments.
No one following college football believes Tennessee has a snow ball’s chance against the Gators today, myself included. But the Volunteers can make a statement even if they lose, as long as the loss isn’t by more than two touchdowns.
But therein lies the problem for Tennessee. The Gators are unquestionably the most talented team in the nation, and the defending BCS national champions have shown no signs of being hungover after easily beating Charleston Southern and Troy to begin the season.
Tennessee handled Western Kentucky without any issues, except signs of quarterback Jonathan Crompton’s continued poor play. The Vols experienced the worst of Crompton’s string of poor performances last week against the Bruins when he threw four interceptions.
For the Vols to gain any measure of respect against Florida, they must run the ball effectively, keep the chains and the clock moving, and hope that Crompton isn’t forced to throw the ball more than 10-15 times.
Taking into account Tennessee’s inability to run the ball against the Gators over the past four seasons, the likelihood of the Vols being able to do that against this Florida defense seems remote.
Tennessee’s manhood will be seriously put to the test today, and the Vols can either answer the challenge or, like so many teams have in The Swamp, prove to be nothing more than Gator bait.
