Florida Gators have the blueprint to beat Tennessee

It was the talk of the offseason.

The promise of Kurt Roper’s fast, shiny new offense had Florida Gators fans going to bed dreaming of the Ole Ball Coach hanging half a hundred running the fun ‘n gun and Tim Tebow executing Urban Meyer’s spread offense to perfection.

Kurt Roper was going to come to Gainesville, light up the scoreboard, and spread the ball around to all these playmakers we’ve heard were on the roster. For one game it looked like a match made in heaven. The Gators amassed more than 600 yards of offense, scored 60 points and Florida felt those butterflies a kid in middle school feels when he sees his crush.

Gator Nation had a moment but it would turn into a fleeting one.

A triple overtime win against Kentucky was less than impressive and running into a Crimson Tide brick wall the following week made turned those butterflies fans felt into all out nausea.

Roper’s offense is running the way he wants it to. This is as balanced an offense as any in the country. Through three games the Gators have attempted 119 passes while running the ball 116 times. Against conference opponents the Gators favor the run slightly more with 77 rushes to 72 passes. Still, very balanced.

However, with a trip to Knoxville just days away Roper needs to ditch that balanced offense — at least for a week — and he needs to go back to what was Will Muschamp’s bread and butter.

The Florida Gators absolutely, positively must win the battle on the ground this Saturday in Knoxville if they want to keep their hopes and dreams of contending in the SEC East alive, even if it means ditching that balance they’ve had thus far in 2014.

The Gators have won the past nine meetings with the Vols and with each of those wins came one resounding stat — the Gators rushed for more yards in every win. The closest the Vols came to breaking that streak was in a 16-7 loss in 2005 when Florida outrushed Tennessee just 68-66. The rushing totals, however, aren’t even close during the winning streak with the Gators averaging 176 rushing yards per game to the Vol’s 62. You have to go all the way back to 2002 to find a game where the team that won didn’t win the battle on the ground as well (UT outrushed UF 99-94 in a 30-13 Florida win).

The Gators rushing attack spearheaded by Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor is more than capable of gashing an undersized, inexperienced Volunteer defensive line and Florida’s offensive line — a unit that will likely get starting left tackle D.J. Humphries back this week — should be able to win the battles up front and get a push for their backs.

After four games, Tennessee’s defense is showing vast improvement in Butch Jones’ second season. The Vols lead the country in third down defense (20.75%) and both A.J. Johnson and Jalen Reeves-Maybin are in the top-six for tackles in the SEC.

However, Tennessee is dead last in the SEC in rushing defense, allowing opponents to carry the ball for an average of 169 yards per game at a 4.42 (11th in the SEC) yards-per-carry clip.

Leading the way on the ground for the Gators is Matt Jones. Jones has 49 carries for 258 yards and two touchdowns on the season. Mixing in behind him is Kelvin Taylor who has 27 carries for 143 yards and two touchdowns on his own this season. That duo won’t be alone this week.

The last time Jeff Driskel was in Tennessee, he broke a school record previously held by Tim Tebow. It wasn’t in Knoxville (although 2012 was the site of Driskel’s best passing performance of his career) but in Nashville. Driskel ran for 177 yards and three touchdown as the Gators assaulted Vanderbilt, 33-17. Florida’s quarterback has only carried the ball 18 times this season but each game has seen his carries increase.

“I think his involvement in the run game will help our football team,” Muschamp said of Driskel. “He’s a very good athlete, he’s a very good runner, and that’s something we’ll continue week-to-week depending on schematically what the other team is giving us. We’ll add him in the running game.”

At 6-3 and more than 230 pounds, Driskel is a tough player to bring down when he gets a full head of steam going. Couple Driskel with Jones (6-2, 235-pounds) the Gators plan on bringing a physical, downhill running attack to the Vols front door this week. Two weeks ago it was a tired Gators defense that lay victim to the 6-3, 241-pound Derek Henry. As the game wore on the Gators tired on defense and their will to get in front of the moving train wearing a crimson No. 27 jersey faded.

Jones, Driskel and Taylor will aim to take Tennessee’s will to tackle just like Alabama did to them two weeks ago.

“It’s very exciting being a big back because when you get downhill people are going to get tired of tackling you,” Jones said. “They might be ready to tackle you the first, second quarters, but third and fourth quarter they get tired like ‘Oh here he comes again and I’ve got to keep on tackling him.’ So when you do that, just like similar to the Kentucky game, people get tired of tackling you.”

Florida has the blueprint to win this game. It’s tried and true and has worked for both teams for the past 11 years. Run the football better than the team on the other sideline. Go back to the brand of football that Will Muschamp wanted to run at Florida — just for a week — and Driskel and the Gators will get to watch as more than 102,000 fans empty Neyland Stadium once again.

“We pride ourselves on emptying the stadium,” said Driskel. “So we just want to go in and play hard and hopefully we get the same result as the last time we went in there.”