The CheckerBoard

We will get our passing yards. You are right Bray has to be patient but Florida doesn't have CB's who can match CP and JH. It will undoubtedly come down to us being able to take some pressure off of Bray by running the ball for positive yardage. If we don't get 3rd and short yardage conversions we will lose. Chaney has to scrap those pistol runs they blow and take to long to develop. We have to run in-between the A and B gaps. If our O-line performs like last year we will lose...

It's really simple. Florida has very limited offensive firepower. The maximum amount of points they are putting up is 24-30 no more. We get tough yards we win, everything else will take care of itself.

Vols 35 Gators 17

Nice predictions
Beat nc state...and Tenn is just incredible. Delusional. Should be a great game...but scoring over 30 won't happen. Top defensive coach..more five stars on our dline then on the entire Tenn roster. Good luck in the game but if you think 38 points....lol. Wow. Tenn can win absolutely...but you won't score that much. Seven straight...maybe ill respect predictions like this when you can prove you can beat someone besides vandy in overtime or nc state.

You may be right bud but you are not gonna win an argument over here by throwing out stars.. All those five stars also lost 5 and 6 games the past two seasons so I can promise you the vols aren't scared of your 5 star linemen even tho you all do handle business against us usually

I'm scared of their 5 star lineman. They return everybody on their D-Line that tossed our O-line around like they were kittens last year. That is the only thing I am afraid of on their team, but if they control the line of scrimmage like last year we will lose.

I'll refrain from trying to post a prediction on a rival board, but I will say this: if UT does in fact win, it will be because of your defense and run game. Between a tough defense and ball control offense, Florida will keep basically all of its games low-scoring.

IF UT wins, it's because you shut down the run and harassed Driskel, and then limited mistakes on offense. Something to the tune of 24-17. I just don't see a blowout either way.

A lot of confidence here on this board. I get feeling that the Vols win because I think that too. But some of these lopsided scores are crazy imho! This should be a hard fought game. And I think it is a close low scoring game!

I went ahead and numbered a few of your points and will do my best to address them (through the Orange and Blue glasses of course) ...

1) A couple of points here. First, aTm led the nation in sacks last year and IIRC returned basically all of their front 7. Second, I believe 6 of those sacks are attributed to Driskel panicking and leaving the pocket too early, then failing to scramble/get rid of the ball/etc. The OL wasn't really the problem, it was the young QB (of course this needs to get fixed).

2) Obviously your WRs > our DBs overall. Thus, we will try to coach around that, namely by running tons of nickel to encourage the run, and by blitzing to try and get the ball out quick.

3) This (our pass rush) is what worries me the most. Our 2 best pass rushers are true freshmen. We need drastic improvement here.

4) I disagree. In fact our defense has played well when you look at the big picture. Versus BGSU: 4.3 YPA, 3.7 YPC. Versus aTm: 6.5 YPA, 3.5 YPC. Those are pretty good numbers. The only thing is we have struggled to get sacks and TOs, which we will need vs UT.

5) I agree. Except the streak part.

PS I don't blame you if you saw the "Gator" in my name and ignored the long post

I think you're overplaying the loss of two starters a tad. One of them was technically the NB (Riggs) but was really our 4th best corner. The safety, Evans, is more of a run defender.

The far bigger issue to me is getting pressure. You ask where it will come from, and that's a good question. There are no proven pass rushers on this team, so it will have to come from people stepping up in a big game.

As for our offense, I was more defending our OL than anything else; clearly the young QB needs to improve. Otherwise, your defense will smell blood in the water, like aTm's did.

Likewise. I try to be rational and civil, and I've seen it reciprocated here. Here's to a clean-old-fashioned-hate game on Saturday

You obviously didn't watch the game. Aggies have one of the premier lines in football and got tossed around like girls in the second half. One pass past 10 yards downfield. The whole first half was denard Robinson basically running and tossing some lob ball after defense committed. Your line isn't as good as the aggies. Your qb isnt as mobile. And we ate your line up last year.

Yes. We have that advantage. Watch the game before you comment. Gators line isn't great offensively. Aggies pass rush better is than Tenn to so once again not as big of an issue. Tenn hasn't beaten anyone significant in awhile. There jd a reason. We have one of the top pass defenses from last year returning. Clearly you once again speak without knowing. Gators strength on a top ten defense is against the pass.