Vols first year head coach Josh Heupel has as good of a resource on his coaching staff as any coach in America could have.

Defensive line coach Rodney Garner's resume speaks for itself. The long-time SEC assistant coach is arguably the best d-line coach in all of college football.

In just seven months on campus, Garner has changed the culture of a Tennessee defensive line room that saw its d-line coach last season fired four games into the year. Now, Garner's group faces their biggest test yet.

“You have two really good football teams playing," Garner told the media this week when discussing Saturday's matchup between the Vols and No. 11 Florida. "It’s going to be a major challenge. Obviously this is the best offensive line that we’ve faced, it’s the best group of running backs, best group of receivers, quarterback — it’s the complete package, so obviously we’ve got to elevate our level of play.

“We’re in conference now, so it’s going to be much more intense. It’s going to require more strain. Everybody’s got to strain harder, everybody’s got to do the little extra things that it takes in preparation, be it film study, be it getting extra rest, be it putting the right things in their bodies — all the little things that it takes to play at a high level.”

Florida (2-1) enters this weekend's matchup coming off a dominating rushing performance against No. 1 Alabama despite a 31-29 loss. The Gators ran for 244 yards against Nick Saban's defense and now boasts the No. 2 rushing offense in the country through three games.

Dan Mullen's offense is averaging 335.7 rushing yards per game and has rushed for 1,007 yards, which is the highest total through the first three games of a season in 40 years.

“I think they do a good job of spacing people out," Heupel said of Florida's run game this week. "The quarterback run game is a huge part of what they do, and that’s been a part of what he’s done for a long time. That’s speed option, it’s power read, it’s essentially triple-option off of different schemes and you’ve got to play disciplined, you’ve got to be able to tackle the quarterback in space, you’ve got to do a great job of tackling their running backs. They’re strong, athletic, they finish runs. They’re talented in the backfield.”

The Gators have three more than capable running backs. Malik Davis is leading the room with 212 rushing yards on the season, while Dameon Pierce has rushed for 110 on 18 carries, and Nay'Quan Wright has added 99 yards on 17 carries. All three backs are averaging more than 5.8 yards per carry.

As good as the backs are, however, it's Florida's duo of quarterbacks that lead the team in rushing. Backup redshirt freshman Anthony Richardson has rushed for a team-high 275 yards on 11 carries and enters Saturday battling a hamstring injury.

Starter Emory Jones has rushed for 231 yards and two touchdowns on 41 carries and is averaging 77.0 yards per game, which is second among all FBS quarterbacks.

“Obviously they’re a two-headed monster," Garner said. "With Emory and the Richardson kid, they’re both very good, they’re both dynamic runners. Actually, 15 (Richardson) may even be more dynamic as far as just pure, elite speed. But Emory’s a seasoned veteran. He’s got three years in that system, so he totally understands what (Dan) Mullen's trying to do. They do a great job with the Q-power, the counter, the reads.

"They don’t put them in situations for them to beat them. They give them situations that are conducive to them being successful, be it be the RPOs off the run, then you throw in the quarterback run, which now they’ve got an extra guy that we can’t account for with hats. It makes us have to make sure that we’re being really dialed in and detailed to doing all the little things correctly.”

Tennessee has fared well against the run through three games this season. It's held Bowling Green (32), Pittsburgh (96) and Tennessee Tech (35) all under 100 rushing yards and is only allowing 54.3 rushing yards per game, which ranks second in the SEC and fifth in the country.

In the process of shutting down the run, the Vols have tallied 29 tackles for a loss. That tally ranks seventh in the nation and third in the SEC.

“I think we’ve got the guys, they’re playing hard," Garner said. "They’re playing for one another. We’re playing vertically, for the most part. We’re trying to create knockbacks. When you’re getting 10 and 11 hats to the ball, obviously you’ve got an opportunity to be successful, but we have so much room for improvement when you sit there and you look at the film, just playing with more of an edge, just even improving our fundamentals with our hat placement, our hand placement, our pad level, disengaging and tearing off blocks, just doing all those little things that it’s going to take."

“A lot of positives in what we’ve done (defensively) in the run game," Heupel added. "There have been times when the quarterback has escaped the pocket and made plays with his feet. That’s a big part of the ballgame in this one. Both of (Florida's) quarterbacks have the ability to use their feet and be a real threat out in space — make plays and can throw it down the field."

Tennessee's sample size of stopping the run is a little bit different than Florida's three-game sample size of rushing the football at an elite level. That difference is No. 1 Alabama.

While the Gators were dominating the Crimson Tide in the run game last week, Tennessee's toughest opponent to this point — Pittsburgh — was busy losing to Western Michigan at home.

“This is what you came to Tennessee for, for moments like this," Garner said of his unit facing stiffer competition this week. "You wanted to play on this stage. That’s the beauty of this conference. There’s nothing like it until you get to the NFL, that mirrors the SEC. You’re getting to play against the best of the best. You think you’re good? You’re going to get an opportunity to go out there and show and be revealed. Unfortunately, on Saturday, either you’re going to be a contender or a pretender. That’s what we’re going to be able to find out.

“How close are we? We talk about moving the needle. I think we’ll find out how much the needle has moved when you go against elite competition, and obviously Florida is elite. They’ve got elite players, they’ve got elite coaches, they've got elite schemes. They do an outstanding job, and it’s going to take our best. We can’t go out there and we can’t self-inflict wounds on ourselves and have an opportunity to go out there and be competitive and compete with guys like that. We’ve got to make sure that we play a clean game, we play with relentless effort, we play for one another and we play for that T on the side of our helmet. It’s about pride.”

Florida and Tennessee will kick off at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN Saturday night in the Swamp. The Vols are looking for their first win in Gainesville since 2003.