Florida head coach Billy Napier has his eyes on Tennessee’s defensive front heading into the game on Saturday – and for good reason.
Tennessee presents one of the top defensive lines in college football this season with veteran players leading the charge and a platoon of talented players waiting their turn to rotate in and make an impact on the game, such as Joshua Jospehs or Jaxson Moi.
Napier knows that getting through Tennessee on Saturday night will have to involve a sharp game plan to take on the Vols’ defensive front.
“Well, it’s a twitchy group,” Napier said on Wednesday. “I think they’re a vertical penetrating style of play and they’ve done a nice job really recruiting and developing those players. I think they probably are as deep of a group as we’ve seen in a while. They rotate a lot of players and I think they’ve got both good players on the edge and also inside players that have density and mass and power. That can be a problem in the run game, but also they’ve got some really unique pass rushers.”
More from RTI: Josh Dobbs and Jauan Jennings Forced To Pay Up Bet After Vols’ Arkansas Loss
While a lot of talk this week has been about Tennessee’s offensive sputter against the Razorbacks this past Saturday, the Vols’ defense continued to hold Tennessee in the game until the dam burst in the backend of the second half. Tennessee’s front seven is a dominant group that the Vols will rely upon heavily against Florida’s two-quarterback system on Saturday.
“So a big part of the challenge this week is accepting that challenge up front,” Napier said to close out his thought. “We got to be ready to go on the offensive line.”
Florida released their first injury report on Wednesday night with starting left tackle Austin Barber listed as “questionable” for this weekend’s game. Barber’s backup, Devon Manuel, is listed as “out” for the contest.
If Barber is not able to go on Saturday night against the Vols, Tennessee’s defensive line will have a third-string lineman to attack in their pursuit of the quarterback.
Check out everything Billy Napier said on Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Call here.
One Response
A hungry dog runs faster.