Any Southeastern Conference football coach will quickly and repeatedly proclaim that there isn’t a stronger league in the country.
Which makes being your own worst enemy, which Tennessee displayed on multiple occasions during last weekend’s 19-14 loss at Arkansas, all the more difficult to overcome.
“Truly it was everybody — coaches and players and all of us being dialed in together,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said this week. “That’s with things we had in the game plan to some subtle things that we changed to pre-snap penalties and the communication.
“The great thing about all of those things is that a lot of it is in our control. It’s really all in our control, and that’s where we need to get better.”
Getting better and getting a rebound victory are the chief objectives for the No. 8 Volunteers on Saturday night (7 on ESPN) when they welcome Florida to Neyland Stadium. The Vols are 4-1 overall and 1-1 in SEC contests, while the Gators are 3-2 overall and 1-1 within the league.
Florida has dominated Tennessee in recent decades, winning 17 of the past 19 meetings, but the Vols outlasted the Gators 38-33 two years ago in their most recent Knoxville encounter.
This matchup seemed like a complete mismatch three weeks ago, when the Gators stumbled out of the gate with lopsided losses to Miami (41-17) and Texas A&M (33-20 in a game that was 33-7), but they have strengthened or at least stabilized since with double-digit wins at Mississippi State (45-28) and at home against Central Florida (24-13).
“Their quarterbacks are playing at a high level,” Heupel said. “They’re playing smart, efficient football. They’ve done a good job of running the football lately, and we understand the style of game that we’re going to get into. We’ve got to communicate and do a great job with their shifts, motions and formation variations — all the eye candy. We’ve got to handle all of that extremely well.
“Defensively, their front four looks like a Florida front four, and their back end looks like a Florida back end. Their linebackers can run, and they’re physical. They are playing their best football right now and have improved over the course of the season.”
Tennessee entered Fayetteville averaging 54.0 points per game but was held 40 points below that clip. Receivers Bru McCoy and Squirrel White were injured during the second half at Arkansas and didn’t return, but each has been listed as probable on the SEC availability reports.
Games against Florida have been huge for the Vols since the league implemented divisions in 1992, and though the divisions have gone away amid this new 16-member collection, the importance of a Gators-Vols showdown has not.
“We understand the challenge we’re getting into with this football team,” Heupel said, “and I expect it to be a great environment and a great game. We’re looking forward to being back home. It’s been about a month.
“Everybody wants to talk about the last week, but as a competitor, win, lose or draw, you’ve got to move on to the next one.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.