Percy Harvin is back at full speed and Senior guard Jim Tartt will be back after missing the first two games with a shoulder injury, so there are no more excuses for the Gator offense this week.
The strength of the Vol defense is their secondary, led by safeties Dee Morley and Eric Berry. The secondary looked great in the first half against UCLA, intercepting four passes, but disappeared in the second half when they allowed UCLA's wide receivers to sit in soft spots of their zone defense. Third string QB Kevin Craft was able to get UCLA 17 second half points to send the game into overtime.
The Vols have to replace two linebackers, including Top 10 draft pick Jerod Mayo, and both defensive ends in the front 7. The Vols have done decently against the run, allowing only 2.4 yards per carry.
The Gators return just about everyone on an offense that scored 45 points (The defense and special teams scored the other 14) against the Vols last season. The only major losses are WR Andre Caldwell (Graduated/Drafted) and Cornelious Ingram (ACL). There are a number of talented wide receivers ready to take over Caldwell's spot, and Aaron Hernandez has done a great job filling in for Ingram.
As always, the key to stopping the Gator offense is to put pressure on Tebow. Tennessee defensive coordinator John Chavis is not known for his aggressiveness, and more often than not he relies soley on the front four to create pressure. This worked well for the Vols when Albert Haynesworth was anchoring the defensive line, but it has not gone so well in recent years. Chavis' zone defense schemes will be a welcome change to Tim Walton's blitz defense that Miami used to attack the Gator offensive line. I believe Tebow will have more than enough time to sit in the pocket and find his receivers.
This was supposed to be the year that the Gators finally saw some production out of the running back position. The RBs lived up to the hype against Hawaii, but Miami was able to shut down anyone running the ball not named Tim Tebow or Percy Harvin. Florida seemed to sabotage themselves by running light weight RBs Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps between the tackles. Emmanuel Moody did not get any carries; however, Meyer has said that Moody will get some touches against the Vols. I really have no idea how this will play out during the game. If I had to guess, I'd say Rainey, Demps, and Moody will combine for about 10 carries for 50-60 yards. Senior RB Kestahn Moore will also get a few carries.
The Vols return three starters from last year's secondary and 2006 starter Dee Morley. They will have their hands full against the Gators, who have one of the top wide receiving corps in the nation. Straight up, the Vol DBs might be able to hang with the Gators, however the true strength of the Gators passing attack is that they are able to rotate multiple four and five star athletes in and out of the lineup. Look for the Vol secondary to wear down as the game goes on and for Florida OC Dan Mullen to find holes in the Vol secondary just like UCLA's Norm Chow was able to do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment