Billy Napier previews Florida's Week 4 matchup with Tennessee

Billy Napier knows what his team’s getting into when they head up to Knoxville this weekend. The Florida Gators will be the next team with the tall task of trying to slow down the Tennessee offense. That’s easier said than done, though, especially with how Napier described the Volunteer’s play as a unit overall.

Napier did a full breakdown of their Top-15 opponent during his press conference on Monday. He says the Vols are a deep, experienced team who have a system that has taken hold within the program.

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“Tennessee’s got a good football team. You can see where Coach Heupel and his staff have improved in their time there. A lot cleaner product in all three areas of their team on film…This is a veteran team that we’re playing against, starting with a quarterback on offense and a number of players on defense that have played a lot of football. They’re a deep team,” said Napier. “Gotta go play at their place. Very familiar with Knoxville and certainly the challenges that comes with that. It’s gonna be a challenge and we look forward and embrace that.”

Josh Heupel’s offense is all about tempo, tempo, and more tempo. It’s the greatest challenge in slowing the Tennessee offense that’s currently averaging 52 points a contest. They run highly efficient plays and then have another one set up to run before a defense can recover. Napier realizes that his team’s best chance will be to control that tempo the best they can but specifically by keeping them in long-down situations.

“I think there’ll be some strategy when it comes to controlling the tempo of the game. I do think that how you play offensively can ultimately influence how they play offense,” Napier said. “It’s about every 20.5 seconds or so they’re running a play. I know they want to do it in 18 so that’s part of their philosophy. There’s some things that go with that…You’ve got to try and throw them out of their rhythm. There can become a problem when it turns into five, six, seven, eight play drives. It’s a momentum system. You’ve got to do everything you can do to slow down that momentum and that starts with playing well on first down.”

Heupel’s offense averaged 34.8 points per game in SEC play last season. While it wasn’t under Billy Napier’s leadership, Florida held them to their fewest points in the conference in 2021 with just 14. Their defensive unit held Tennessee to fewer points than Georgia did a year ago and they’ll need a similar defensive performance again on Rocky Top this weekend. Whether their defense throws them off or the Gator offense keeps them on the sideline, Napier will need his team to execute at a high level if they want to leave Neyland Stadium with a win.