La Esquina f/k/a The Corner -- Tennessee Weekend

Finally Tennessee week is here. We have been waiting for this one ever sense Lane Kiffin started mouthing off in the offseason. You remember what he said, “can’t wait to sing rocky top at the Swamp after we beat the Gators…Urban is a cheater” and other blasphemous remarks. We’ll get to the Lame Kitten and the Vols in a second but before we do, let’s discuss the Gators’ performance last week against Troy.

I was admittedly wrong last week when stating that this game would not be a complete walk in the park. It was actually more like a summer Sunday stroll through the beach while listening to your favorite Jimmy Buffet song. That easy folks…we rocked and they sucked, simple as that. I wrote last week that I didn’t want to see any “of this bend but don't break....let them drive and then we get a late stop or turnover crap. If we're going to be the dominant defense that everyone thinks we are...we need to stop people cold...3 and out...no BS. I want to see some sacks, some press coverage (no corners playing 10 yards off the ball) and some big hits and turnovers.” I am starting to think that last week’s edition of La Esquina was leaked to the players… because this is exactly what we got. The defense looked utterly impenetrable.

The only negatives were the early turnovers by the Gators on offense, but I think that had more to do with the monsoon like conditions than anything else. We ran the ball at will and Tebow hit several big plays to his wide receivers. We were completely dominant. The o-line in particular was stout, other than for Matt Patchan who allowed a sack (that was the play where Timmy fumbled as he was hit from behind). The starting 5 on the line is starting to take shape with Big Carl Johnson at left tackle (he is the heaviest gator weighing in at a whopping 342 lbs), James Wilson at left guard (329 lbs), the Pouncey twins at center and right guard (320 lbs each) and Marcus Gilbert protecting Timmy’s blind side at right tackle (also 320 lbs). That’s a HUGE line folks. Plus we have some solid depth with Matt Patchan and Xavier Nixon among others in case some of our starters go down, which happens almost every year due to the violent and high impact nature of this position.

The receivers played great, they caught almost everything thrown their way save for an early and alarming drop by Deonte, which he quickly made up for by subsequently scoring two TDs (Note to Deonte: Use your hands to catch the ball, stop using your body to make catches…poor technique). With respect to the defense, we saw a lot more scheming by the Gator coaches than we did in week 1. They were blitzing corners and linebackers while using predominantly the “joker” package on the d-line since Troy was mainly a passing team. That’s where we play 3 d-lineman (all defensive ends who can rush the passer) instead of the more traditional 4 lineman approach with 2 defensive ends and 2 defensive tackles. A special shout out goes to Justin Trattou who plays nose tackle in that Joker package – he was making plays all over the field last week. However, don’t expect to see the joker package much this week as Tennesse is predominantly a running team. Most importantly, no big injuries in the game other than Deonte’s hamstring (which the staff is downplaying as mild but really worries me because he is one of our best receivers and hamstrings are tricky, see Debose who is out for the season).


UF v. Tenn
Forget all the chatter from Kiffin in the offseason, it’s now time to play the fuc*king game! On a side note, Kiffin seemed like he went out of his way to praise the gators this week launching every possible man-blowing accolade his little peanut brain could muster in the pre-game press conference. Smart move Lane, no need to add any more fuel to the proverbial fire. Enough with Kiffin, onto the Tennessee players, you know, the ones who have to go out there and try to cash the checks written by Kiffin’s mouth all offseason.

Tennessee is very strong defensively, no denying that. Their defensive coordinator Monty Kiffin (Lane’s dad) was in the NFL for decades and revolutionized the league with his Cover 2 defense (see the Tampa Bay Bucs teams of Warren Sapp, John Lynch etc.). They are very strong across the d-line and this will be a big challenge to our O-line. The boys up front need to create wholes for the RBs and more importantly, keep Timmy clean. Tennessee also has what many feel is the best player in the country other than Timmy, the infamous safety Eric Berry. This kid will be a top 10 pick in the league and has been balling since his freshman year, where if you recall he picked Timmy off and took it back to the house (the one lowlight in yet another Gator stomping of Tennessee). For Tennessee to have any chance whatsoever they will need to force us to turn the ball over (something we don’t do, we led the nation in turnover differential last year).

It will also be interesting to see how much, if at all, Urban plays Moody at RB. He didn’t put him back in the game last week after he fumbled in his one carry, and he also appears to have some sort of mild ankle injury. I hope Urban isn’t giving up on this kid because he is talented and by far the strongest most powerful back we have. I think we need him and his running style in this first of many uber-physical SEC matchups. Although, if Demps and Rainey continue to ball, I wouldn’t be surprised if Moody sees little action. Unlike most gator fans, I don’t think we are going to put up 50 on this defense, they are too good, I just don’t see it. I would love nothing more than to put up half a hundred on Lame though, and hope I’m wrong. On a side note, how great would it be to see Tebow in the open field lower his head and BOOM over Eric Berry as if he were some Nashville road kill!

Fear not faithful followers of La Esquina, here come the good news. Their offense sucks. It is fairly predictable. They really like to run the ball. They do have two very good backs Montario Hardesty (the big power back – great name by the way, it’s on the short list of names for my first born, but who knows, anything can happen between now and the year 2035) and Bryce Brown (the top recruit in high school last year who they stole from the U). However, they are way too one dimensional. We will simply stack the box and dare them to throw the ball with their sh*tball quarterback (the guy looks like a scared little school girl out there, with happier feet than that penguin from the Disney movie). I like our chances with Haden and Janoris matched up one-on-one against their wide receivers on the outside. The Tennessee WRs can at best be classified as young and inexperienced and at worst as dog poop. Let’s think about this, they have a guy starting for them at the position (Marselis Teague) who de-committed from us last minute this past year that would be no better than a back-up corner for us (although to be fair he has looked pretty good so far). Paired up with Teague is another true freshman, the infamous Nu’keese “I stabbed the gators in the back and switched over to the Vols unannounced on national signing day while crapping all over the entire Gator Nation” Richardson. Here is my stone cold lock prediction of the week…somebody (hopefully Spikes or Major Wright) will blow up all 5’10 165 lbs of Nu’keese next week. Think Hiroshima circa 1945. I hope the kid has life insurance. These are the world champion Gators, you don’t do us like that and live to tell about it…we have 11 instruments of vengeance on defense ready to scalp you!

Other than Peyton Manning sneaking into the game with a #8 jersey and relieving Crompton, the only way I see Tennessee staying in this game is if they can successfully run the ball on us, which is unlikely. Lawrence Marsh, our highly touted defensive tackle will see significant action after missing the first two games with a bad ankle. He is not 100% but we need him to go here and stand up to the Tennessee rushing game. Also, I see Crompton throwing some picks and Dunlap and Cunningham meeting for a Crompton sandwich early and often in the Tennessee backfield. Other questions to look out for (i) can Riley Cooper keep up his exalted level of play against some real competition, (ii) will Deonte’s hamstring hold-up, (iii) does Urban put the pedal to the metal if we get up big and continue to blast Kitten into oblivion, (iv) how does Lawrence Marsh hold up, (v) will Moody play much, (vi) does Timmy take off and make any big plays with his feet, (vii) can Tennessee move the ball on our defense, and (viii) do we get any big special teams plays?

Finally, here is my guy to watch this week: Aaron Hernandez. I am expecting a colossal game from him, expect Urban to fully unleash him this week (at least until we have a big lead) and expect Aaron to look like a man amongst boys out there. Go Aaron…it’s your birthday…Puerto Ricooooo!!!!

Final Score: 35-0 Gators. Yes, a doughnut for the vols.