Florida isn’t playing Tennessee this football season until November, but Gators fourth-year coach Billy Napier is seeing a lot of the Volunteers this week.
Napier’s Gators are hosting South Florida late Saturday afternoon, with the Bulls under the guidance of third-year coach and former Vols offensive coordinator Alex Golesh. The Bulls are coming off the biggest win of the Golesh era, having opened their season last Thursday night with a 34-7 drubbing of No. 25 Boise State.
“There is a ton of carryover obviously with Coach Golesh’s experience at Central Florida and at Tennessee and having been the coordinator and calling the offense,” Napier said Wednesday on the Southeastern Conference teleconference. “We have a history, because he was at Tennessee our first year here, and we continue to play against that system a couple of times a year. I do think there is a little cat and mouse there in general, and I just think as a program overall that you see a little bit of their DNA is similar to Tennessee, in my opinion.
“They’re improving on defense and played at a high level in the opener, and Tennessee has improved over the last few years and statistically were one of the better defenses in the country last year.”
Florida is statistically stout following last Saturday’s 55-0 humiliation of Long Island, especially from a discipline standpoint. Out of the 136 Bowl Subdivision members, the Gators are the only team yet to commit a penalty.