Meyer knows what to expect fron UT

[TheTodd]

It doesn’t require a tremendous amount of guesswork to figure out what the Tennessee Vols are going to try to do when they come to Gainesville Saturday to face the number one-ranked Florida Gators (3:30 p.m., Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, CBS). Forget the gadget plays or the four-wide, spread the field look. The Vols are going to play to their strength, which is to let those talented running backs pound away behind that big, strong offensive line.

‘We all have a good clear feeling what they’re going to do when they come in here,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said after practice Tuesday. “They’re going to try to pound the ball right at us.’

The Vols have two outstanding running backs in Montario Hardesty and freshman Bryce Brown. Hardesty leads the team in rushing through two games with 249 yards for an average of 5.7 yards per carry while Brown has138 yards for 6.3 per carry.

“They’re very talented guys,” Meyer said. “They run really hard. Our defensive players are pretty impressed with them. I asked them and I watched for myself today and those guys, both of them go really hard.”

The Vols have three veteran seniors on the offensive line in left tackle Chris Scott (6-5, 332), left guard Vlad Richard (6-4, 300) and right guard Jacques McClendon (6-3, 324). Right guard Jarrod Shaw (6-4, 332) and undersized center Cody Sullins (6-1, 260) fill out the line, which needs to establish control to give quarterback Jonathan Crompton a chance to be effective.

When the Vols run the ball, Crompton doesn’t have to make the precise throw. It’s when the running game gets stuffed and Crompton has to make throws that the Vols tend to sputter offensively. Last week against UCLA, Tennessee managed only 115 rushing yards and that forced Crompton out of his comfort zone. He completed 13-26 of his passes but only for 93 yards and he was picked off three times.

If the Gators can stuff the run on first and second down, that will allow them to go into their Joker package, which is run from a base 3-3-5 set. Most of the time, the Gators will insert Justin Trattou to play the nose tackle and they’ll move 6-6, 290 pound Carlos Dunlap up and down the line to force confusion with the blocking assignments. In the secondary, the Gators are at their best when they play with the three-safety package of Ahmad Black, Will Hill and Major Wright.

“On third downs, that’s when you’ll see a lot of the Joker package,” Meyer said. “We to confuse and pressure. That’s what we do with any quarterback.”

The Joker package is designed to maximize the coverage in the secondary while still applying plenty of pressure on the quarterback. Like all schemes the Gators run, it’s personnel based. The Joker package requires athletes who can multi-task like linebackers Brandon Hicks and Brandon Spikes, who can play in coverage or rush like a lineman in addition to carrying out their linebacker responsibilities.

As Florida’s recruiting has filled the roster with plenty of athletic, strong guys who can run, the Gators have been comfortable running the Joker against any team that spreads the field. Of course, it’s also a great third down defense because it allows pressure and coverage.

“It’s a big part of what we do now,” Meyer said. “We have those kind of athletes.”

Meyer credits defensive coordinator Charlie Strong with evolving the Joker package into a viable defense.

“Coach Strong was one of the first guys to start running that stuff at South Carolina years ago,” Meyer said. “I was at Bowling Green and we went out and had lunch or dinner together. He was showing me some of the stuff they were doing and I never really saw that before. It’s obviously much more complete [now] than it was. He’s very comfortable with it and we have the personnel that matches it. We can find those Brandon Hicks type athletes and the same with Spikes and (Carlos) Dunlap that come down and rush [the quarterback]. We have the athletes to do that.”

The flip side to the Joker package is that Meyer learned to attack similar packages when he had those conversations with Strong.

“I would ask him what bothered him,” Meyer said. “We talked quite often.”

BLOODY TUESDAY: Meyer put the Gators through a hard Tuesday practice. It was full contact, the toughest practice of the week and probably the toughest practice the Gators have had all season long. Meyer liked the effort he got from his team even if things were a bit ragged at times.

“We got to clean it up,” Meyer said. “They [Tennessee] do enough pressures and blitzes on defense that it has a tendency to make your Tuesdays look awful. The effort was there and guys were trying. We just have to clean up our scheme a little bit. The defense had a good day.”

BIG GAME ATMOSPHERE EXPECTED: In terms of atmosphere at The Swamp, this game figures to be a typical Florida-Tennessee matchup, which means the stadium will be electric at kickoff. From his own experience on the road, Meyer knows that a kickoff return or a punt return or a blocked kick can shift the momentum quickly and take the crowd out of the game so he’ll put plenty of emphasis this week on taking care of the ball in every aspect of the game.

“This is going to be one of the top five environments this place has ever seen,” Meyer said. “We all know what it’s going to be like in here. We can’t give them momentum.”

INJURY REPORT: Deonte Thompson, who injured his hamstring after catching the second of two touchdown passes against Troy last Saturday, practiced Tuesday but he wasn’t quite at full speed.

“Deonte did minimal, not much,” Meyer said. “He could have done a little bit more.”

Nose tackle Lawrence Marsh, who is trying to come back from a high ankle sprain got in some practice time but Meyer didn’t sound optimistic that he can get a full game from his 6-4, 300-pound fourth year junior.

“Marsh did a little bit today but he’s got to do a lot more tomorrow to be ready to go,” Meyer said.

Freshman linebacker Jelani Jenkins seems likely to play.

“He did a little bit today, not in team work but in individual work, but he’s getting close,” Meyer said.

[MinGator]

Thanks again Todd.

I wish Marsh was ready to go. With their small freshman center I think we have the opportunity to be in their backfield often if we can get a good push up the middle.