Preview: No 19 Florida at No 14 Tennessee

The Florida Gators will travel to Knoxville this Saturday to take on the Tennessee Volunteers. The highly anticipated matchup between two ranked SEC East teams will be on display in Neyland Stadium at 3:30 p.m. Not only that, but the College Gameday crew will also travel to Knoxville to preview the games from around the country.

Florida’s early season success has a lot to do with their defense. The Gators have allowed less than 10 points on the entire season, and are coming off a game where they allowed only 53 total yards. Florida is also one of two teams who have yet to let an opposing team score through the air.

Tennessee is looking to change that this Saturday. A Volunteers team who is led by Senior quarterback Josh Dobbs, came into the season ranked inside the Top 10 and were the rumored favorite to win the SEC East. After pulling out an overtime victory against Appalachian State in Week 1 and late starts to Week 2 and 3, Tennessee has dropped to 14th in the rankings.

In order for Tennessee to win, Dobbs will need to make an immediate impact on the game, whether its through the air or on the ground. In Florida’s first three games, they started off slow in two of them, but their defense made up for it.

Florida will be without starting quarterback Luke Del Rio for this game. Del Rio suffered a knee injury during the North Texas game and will be out the next 2-3 weeks. That means graduate transfer Austin Appleby will get his first start under center for the Gators. Appleby, who originally played for Purdue University, has plenty of in-game experience.

If Florida can establish the run, open up the play-action game for Appleby and play half as good of defense as they have all season, then they could come out on top on the road.

Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.