| Can Tyler Bray become the first Tennessee QB since Erik Ainge to beat Florida? (US Presswire) |
Mike Gillislee and the Gators' second-half defensive effort stole the headlines, but there's no way Florida would have come away from Kyle Field with a victory without a solid first career start from the sophomore quarterback. Driskel took a whopping eight sacks (more than one of them due to a correctable tendency to run out of bounds instead of throwing the ball away), but when he found time to throw he was money: 13 of 16 for more than 10 yards an attempt, without an interception. He wasn't bad even when he didn't throw, running for 56 yards (not counting sacks) to take some of the pressure off the ailing Gillislee.
It wasn't spectacular. But the way the Gators line was opening holes and the way Gillislee was running, it was enough. And now Driskel will have the chance to repeat the feat against a Volunteers defense that had its moments in Week 1 against NC State, but still allowed more than 400 yards and permitted Wolfpack tailbacks Mustafa Greene and Tony Creecy to averge 4.8 yards an attempt.
If Driskel does, can the Vols front seven shut down Gillislee -- far more of a threat than Greene or Creecy -- without the extra help? The Aggies couldn't, and it helped cost them the game.
The absence of Jelani Jenkins will hurt the Gators, but let's be clear: The Tennessee rushing attack probably isn't going to do much more than serve as a semi-functional decoy. After having the FBS's 116th-ranked running game in 2011, the Vols had numbers that looked much better vs. the Wolfpack, but that was thanks in large part to a 67-yard reverse from wideout Cordarrelle Patterson and one 42-yard dash from Marlin Lane. Take those two runs out of the equation and Tennessee averaged a whopping 2.3 yards per carry, 2.86 for tailbacks Lane and Raijon Neal. Things aren't solved yet, especially against a Gators front that shapes up as one of the best in the SEC and allowed primary Aggies tailback Christine Michael all of 2.5 yards an attempt.
So: it's on Bray (it's always been on Bray), and his job won't be easy against a Florida secondary featuring the likes of Matt Elam, Josh Evans, Marcus Roberson and Co. But in Patterson and Justin Hunter he has the best pair or targets in the SEC, and even against a secondary of the Gators' caliber, in the friendly confines of Neyland Stadium, Bray has the potential to do all the chain-moving, all the big play-producing, all the points-scoring the Vols will need. If he plays to that massive potential, who needs a running game?
THE X-FACTOR: Curses aren't real, but that doesn't mean we have a good explanation for some of the losses Derek Dooley has suffered in his has-it-really-only-been-two-seasons tenure at Tennessee. If the game comes down to the final ticks of the clock, the final few snaps of the ball, supernatural forces will not dictate the outcome of the game. But Dooley and plenty of his players still remember the LSU game, the North Carolina game, the Kentucky game ... and the outcome could be decided by a failure to put those failures out of mind in those critical moments.