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Florida-Tennessee Is The ‘Attrition Bowl’ Says CBS’ Rick Neuheisel
Florida and Tennessee come into Saturday's matchup with a lot of key injuries, and CBS College Football Sports Analyst Rick Neuheisel said that will make the offensive game plans conservative.
September 22, 2016
Florida and Tennessee come into Saturday’s matchup with a lot of key injuries, and CBS College Football Sports Analyst Rick Neuheisel said that will make the offensive game plans conservative.
Both Florida and Tennessee will enter this Saturday’s SEC East showdown in Knoxville with key players either out or questionable to play. CBS College Football Studio Analyst Rick Neuheisel told Campus Insiders in an exclusive interview that injuries will impact the game plan for both teams.
“I call it the Attrition Bowl. You have a few guys that you would have plugged into the lineup that aren’t going to be ready. Because of that and because of inconsistencies offensively even when everyone was healthy, I think you are going to see a very conservative, very line of scrimmage oriented game.”
Neuheisel believes the simplified game plan favors Florida.
“I have to sort of lean toward the Gators because of the way they have played in the trenches.”
Both the offensive and defensive lines for the Volunteers have been a major problem this season, getting pushed around by the likes of Appalachian State and Ohio. Tennessee has one asset that can cancel that disadvantage out: its quarterback.
“For me the equalizer there is Joshua Dobbs. Dobbs, in essence, has to give Tennessee an extra blocker by being a runner. If you look at the numbers from a year ago, he was just that. I think he had 130-some [136] odd yards rushing against the Gators a year ago and I think they are going to need every one of those yards if they are going to stay with Florida this year.”
Dobbs and company are looking to stop an 11-game losing streak to the Gators, including the heartbreaker from last season when, on 4th and 14, quarterback Will Grier found wide receiver Antonio Callaway for a 63-yard touchdown and the Volunteers missed the potential game-winning field goal from 55 yards. The streak, according to Neuheisel, could be in the back of the minds of the both teams’ head coaches.
“I think the winning streak is more of a negative for Tennessee because they feel the pressure, particularly in front of their home crowd. Like the guy rolling dice at the craps table, he knows that eventually he’s going to roll a seven.
“I don’t think the Gators feel that way. They just think that they are the team, and given their defense and the mentality of, hey, if we don’t let Tennessee score, we can’t lose. A swagger currently exists on that defense and you can understand why they feel that way.”
