UT v. UF SEC battle

[Eric the Red]

Meyer schemes to top UT talent

 

Meyer schemes to top UT talent

 

Florida coach's system drew praise at Utah

 

By CHRIS LOW

Staff Writer

 

KNOXVILLE — The system or the players?

 

The debate has begun as the spotlight in the Southeastern Conference shifts to the Florida-Tennessee showdown Saturday night at Gainesville, Fla.

 

Florida Coach Urban Meyer, making his debut in the rivalry, didn't exactly tiptoe around what worries him most about the Vols.

 

"They're not a team that will wow you with scheme," Meyer said yesterday. "They are a team that wows you with personnel. They're as talented a team as I've ever coached against."

 

Meyer's offensive scheme has been the rage around college football the last couple of years. It gained more notoriety when he left Utah following last season to take over at Florida.

 

The Gators (2-0) cruised in their first two tuneups, 32-14 over Wyoming and 41-3 over Louisiana Tech.

 

Now comes their first real test — and Meyer's first chance to prove that his spread offense can work anywhere.

 

"It's all relative," Tennessee Coach Phillip Fulmer said. "The guys Utah were playing against were the same kind of football players, and it worked very efficiently up there with a first-round draft choice at quarterback (Alex Smith).

 

"The things that go with that offense, the option and those kind of things, are tough to defend. But a lot of people run the option routes, the reverses, the screens and those kinds of things that they run. It gets back to people and gets back to the best players doing their assignments and making plays."

 

The Vols (1-0) had a week off to work out the kinks from their shaky 17-10 victory over Alabama-Birmingham in their season opener.

 

Outside of one sustained touchdown drive, Tennessee's offense had little success against the Blazers.

 

The "too vanilla" criticisms came pouring in from around the country, a common theme in the Fulmer era despite his success at Tennessee.

 

Fulmer's response, to Meyer or anyone else, is that schemes can only take you so far.

 

"We are pretty much like a lot of folks around the country and in pro football in that we like to run the football," Fulmer said. "From a scheme standpoint, I think in the passing game we do about as much as anybody could do with the protections and routes and those kind of things.

 

"We try to stick to a pretty standard running game so we can be physical with our offense. It's served us pretty well for a number of years. We've changed with the times as we've gone along a bit and played with a lot of different things.

 

"I kind of like where we are … actually."

 

Tennessee has won its last two trips to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, also known as The Swamp.

 

Fulmer stopped short of calling this game an end-all affair, especially with the league looking as wide open as ever two weeks into the season.

 

Still, the loser of this game hasn't made it to the SEC Championship Game since the Vols lost at Florida in 1997. UT managed to get to Atlanta and win the SEC Championship.

 

"You'd like to start off and put yourself in the driver's seat the best you can, so you're not in a chase mode and having to depend on somebody else to do something for you," Fulmer said.

 

And given the way the schedule stacks up for the Vols, the last thing they need to do is start out 0-1 in the conference.

 

The schedule seems to become more challenging by the week. Four teams the Vols will play are ranked in the top 10 this week —Florida, LSU, Georgia and Notre Dame.

 

The swing through Florida and LSU the next two weeks will mark the first time in school history that Tennessee has played back-to-back games on the road against top-10 teams.