Over at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Darren Epps shares a pretty amazing stat with us:
Cover your eyes, Tennessee fans: Urban Meyer is 23-3 when he has more than a week to prepare for an opponent and hasn’t lost a game following a bye week since he coached at Bowling Green in 2001.
And it gets better from there. Not that *cough* we have any *cough* reason to think that Meyer *cough* might be sensitive in any way to *field goal* betting interests, but there’s this, too.
Here’s the amazing number, courtesy of a gambling expert: Meyer is 13-2 against the spread after a bye week. That’s incredible. His Gators are 7.5-point favorites against the Vols this week.
Throw in how shaky UT’s confidence has to be after seeing BYU destroy the same UCLA team that the Vols couldn’t get by along with the lingering damage to the team’s psyche from last year’s 59-20 debacle in Gainesville and I’m not seeing a lot of positive trends there for Tennessee to hang its hat on right now.
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UPDATE: Tennessee isn’t man enough to beat the Gators, either. So there!
Get The Picture 
Is there a way for both of them to lose this game?
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What’s worse about the UCLA loss to BYU was they had a week off to prepare and still got the snot beat out of them.
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Nebraska, just pray for a meteor to hit the stadium on Saturday.
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With the exception of 2002 (31-13 uf win), tennessee has played the gators close in knoxville. I think this may end up being a little closer than everyone thinks. Fulmer needs this game…bad.
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UT’s rushing totals in the last two years’ games:
— 37 yards in 2007
— (-11) yards in 2006
The Vols can pack it up now if they can’t do any better than that on Saturday.
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Physics be damned, that fat man can dodge a bullet. I think UT plays out of their mind on Saturday and will have a very good chance to win.
I am also throwing out a prop bet right now that Tebow won’t make it through the entire season. I know we all said that last year, but ever since our game with them last year, it seems like teams that can match up with them athletically are going balls out to kill him. FSU, Michigan, and Miami all really laid it on him. It’s not a matter of how tough he is, the body can only take so much. What if he had broken this other hand against FSU? How easily could that have happened? Urbs better have developed some QB depth; he’s going to need it before the season’s over.
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This is a great game for a blimp crash.
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I don’t think there are any real parallels between this game and our game against UT last year…but maybe it’s Florida’s turn to get stymied in Knoxville and our turn to blow them away at home. Maybe?
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From your mouth to God’s ears.
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I’ll say it. UT wins straight up.
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The score of the UCLA game last week has no bearing on this game. It may show a weakness in UT, but I doubt it. The only people concerned with relative scores of previous opponents are pollsters, who are Themselves irrelevant. UT has good RBs and a decent defense. If They can pressure Tebow and keep the score close , UT has a good chance to upset the Gators.
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I think you are right, Hobnail.
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Sorry guys. It will not be close. UF by 14. Too many weapons.
UgaMatt–you have a good point though. If Tebow gets hurt, all bets are off.
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