No. 14 Vols, No. 19 Gators both dealing with injury issues

Which defense shows up Saturday could decide whether the No. 19 Gators (3-0) stretch their winning streak against No. 14 Tennessee (3-0) to 12 games or fall to the Vols for the first time since 2004.

FLORIDA: The Gators are a ideal 3-0 to start the season but they haven’t been kind to bettors that have backed them at the betting window, failing to cover in two of those three games.

The Tennessee Volunteers received a massive amount of hype entering the 2016 college football season. “They expect to win, they expect to win every time they go out on the football field”, Jones said.

“When I think of the mental game or the mental side of competing, I think there’s like three P’s”, Wrisberg explained.

I don’t care who wins Saturday but I do want one thing to play out.

There’s no point in pretending that Florida is not in the head of all Volunteers.

College Football Live will air from the GameDay set on Friday with Ponder, Howard and Pollack (1:30 p.m., ESPN). The game will air on CBS.

UF may have to lean on its defense Saturday in sold-out Neyland Stadium. The new first-team line featured Brett Kendrick at left tackle, Jashon Robertson at left guard, Dylan Wiesman at center, Jones at right guard and Coleman Thomas at right tackle. In a 32-0 victory over North Texas last week, Florida gave up 53 total yards, the lowest total the Gators have ever allowed in a single game.

Florida senior quarterback Austin Appleby, a graduate transfer from Purdue, has thrown all of five passes for the Gators this season, completing two of them. Appleby, who played 17 games and made 11 starts in four seasons at Purdue, has 19 career touchdown passes and 19 interceptions. This one will be an ugly defensive affair; question is, which team’s offense makes the fewest mistakes? “The past two years we’ve only won by one point, so the rivalry is alive and it’s going to be a good game”.

The Gators have given up a total of 14 points this season.

On paper, it’s Florida’s toughest game of the young season: A top-15 opponent, a valiant offense and Southeast Conference East implications on the line. “And, not as an excuse, this guy is a good player, so he makes you look bad”.

“Obviously that we’ve won 11 years in a row”, he said.

“Let’s face it: They ran it down our throat a year ago”, Gators coach Jim McElwain said. Vols fans and/or twitter trolls dug-up an old photo in which Appleby is dressed up as Bin-Laden; And well, you can probably infer how that went after Twitter got ahold of it.

While Florida hasn’t shied away from trash talking – including cornerback Quincy Wilson saying, “Have you ever seen a duck pull a truck?”

“This is an opportunity for the Tennessee players to do something really special that hasn’t been done in 12 years and that is going to be indescribable when they pull it out”, Ravizza said. I have watched an AFLAC commercial but I haven’t seen that duck do it. Now GameDay will be on campus as the Vols take on the Florida Gators.

“Everyone associated with the football program knows what’s at stake, but also it’s a long football season ahead”, coach Jones said.

This weekend, Dobbs will focus his mental energies, competitive juices and superior athletic skills on a problem he and the Vols have been unable to solve.