Tennessee and Florida will meet for the 54th time on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.

The No. 8 Vols (4-1, 1-1 SEC) are looking to bounce back after their first loss at Arkansas last Saturday, while the Gators (3-2, 1-1) will try and ride the momentum of a victory over Central Florida in their last outing.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Tennessee opened as a more than two touchdown favorite as it tries for its second win over Florida in three years.

Ahead of the match up, which is slated for a 7 p.m. ET start on ESPN, Vols' head coach Josh Heupel and Florida coach Billy Napier previewed the match up on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday.

Here is what they said.

"Just finished our Wednesday practice. Had a good day. Put some guys on the grass. You know, for us, looking forward to being back home. It's been about a month since we were inside of Neyland Stadium. Obviously, a huge football game against a Florida football team that just continues to get better throughout the course of the season. Recognize what we're going up against. We've got to win the preparation and be ready to play smart football and competitive football for four quarters. Looking forward to Saturday night with our guys."

"I was fortunate to play in two of them. You know, the first thing that hits me is just the win in 2000. A rainy day inside of the Cotton Bowl and the start of a huge month for our football team, opponents that we played. But, it was kind of springboarding us to the kind of success that we had the rest of the season. That's one of the most unique games in college football. From it being a neutral site game, in the Cotton Bowl, you know the historical nature of that stadium, all of the games that have been played between the two schools. The drive into the stadium is unique. Both teams pull in through the narrow pathway, all of the fans are there. It's a great atmosphere and when you get inside of the stadium, the field being split with where it's at. One side feels like a home game and the other one feels like a road game. Just a really unique atmosphere and obviously it's a game that both of those fan bases circle on their calendar and you can feel the urgency in that."

"There were similarity in the structure. There were some differences in the structure, too. During the course of the Arkansas game, I thought we adjusted some things early and it gave us a chance. But, as much as anything in that football game, we didn't play smart football. You know, the first play of the game we got illegal man downfield on a nice chunk play. There's multiple times where we're playing behind the chains with playing penalties or pre-snap penalties, and that effected the way we played on third down and we weren't good on third-and-long. So, when you combine those two things, it's a huge part of how that game played at. For us, in that ballgame, some of the things that we did well in the first conference game of the season, on the road at Oklahoma, not having a bunch of those pre-snap penalties and doing ordinary things at a really high level: communication, assignment technique, getting off of the ball. We didn't do that on Saturday night.

"That's been the challenge for our football team, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, to be better at those things. And we had some communication issues on the defensive side of the ball, too. Coaches and players together have got to be better than we were Saturday. It doesn't have to be anything extraordinary, just everyone doing their job at a really high level."

"First of all, their quarterbacks are playing at a really high level. Smart, efficient football. They've done a good job of running the football here, understanding the style of game that we're going to get in. You know, I mentioned communication. We've got to do a great job of all of their shift, trade and motion. All of the eye candy, we've got to handle that extremely well. You know, offensively for us, their front four looks like a Florida front four. Their back-end looks like a Florida back-end. Their backers can run, they're physical. I think they're playing their best football right now. They've continued to get better throughout the course of it. We've got to do a great job at the line of scrimmage. That's in the run game, that's in pass-protection out on the perimeter. There's going to be one-on-one opportunities. You've got to go win out on the outside and inside of the slot, too. We understand the challenge that we're getting into with this football team and expect it to be a great environment and a great game."

"The Oklahoma game, we played good football at times early in that game. Just the flow of the game, the second drive of the second half we got a holding penalty. We were behind the chains, second-and-long, killed that drive. You know, by the third drive, the style of the game, it changed the way we played offensively and with the way that our defense was playing over the course of that football game. You know, last Saturday at Arkansas, that's a little bit different than the Oklahoma game. I mentioned some of the things that we control, that's not taking away anything from Arkansas. But some of the things that we control--and truly, it was everybody. Coaches and players, all of us being dialed in together. And that can be with things that we had in the gameplan, some subtle things that we changed, pre-snap penalties, communication, all of it. The great thing about all of those things is, a lot of it is really in our control.

"To me, that's where we've got to get better. As a competitor, everybody wants to talk about the last week. As a competitor, win, lose or draw, you've got to move on to the next one. We've got to continue to prepare the right way for this one."

Florida hardly looked competitive in each of its two losses this season against Miami and Texas A&M.

The Gators were outscored, 74-37 in those games--both of which were at home, leading to even more uncertainty about third-year head coach Billy Napier's future in Gainesville.

Florida has since shown some improvement, winning back-to-back games against Power 4 teams in Mississippi State and Central Florida, but the Gators will face a Tennessee defensive front that has largely been dominant this season.

Napier talked about going up against the Vols' defense and the opportunity of playing in a "historic game."

"Our team is excited about the opportunity to play in this historic game. We're right in the middle of preparation here and it will be slightly different over the next few days, but overall, excited about our team and their attitude. I think we've improved. We need to continue to improve. That is where our current focus is. We look forward to going to Knoxville."

"Overall, I would say that both teams play really good defense just in general. I think the staff (at Arkansas) has done a nice job and I think that (Oklahoma) Coach (Brent) Venables, his history on defense. The effort on the fundamentals and the mindset, they both play really good gap integrity, play really good on all three levels of the defense and they tackle well. Created favorable down-and-distances and had the opportunity to effect the quarterback. So, in general, just really good fundamental play at all three levels of the defense. Ultimately, I do think that I've got a lot of respect for how both of those teams play defense."

"Our guys don't have school today or tomorrow. I think we've moved the schedule up today to try and get everyone here ready before the arrival of the storm. Tomorrow is a little bit to be determined based off of what type of situation we have when we wake up in the morning. Overall, just moving things up today and I think tomorrow, we anticipate sliding things back, slightly. We've had a huge influx of people in Gainesville, from all of the evacuations, so all of the hotels are full. We've just got quite a few people that are evacuating are coming north here. So, right now we're outside of the eye of the storm and we're anticipating more tropical storm-type weather."

"They're a twitchy group. I think they're a vertical, penetrating-style of play and they've done a nice job really recruiting and developing those players. They are as deep of a group as we've seen in awhile. They rotate a lot of players and I think they've got great 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. The big part of the challenge this week is accepting that challenge up front. We've got to be ready to go on the offensive line."

– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.

– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.

– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @ByNoahTaylor, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media.