Josh Heupel doesn’t yet know how his team will perform against its bitter rival on a national stage. There’s no doubt, though, that he’s proud of how it has prepared to do so.
“Our guys have been really good,” Heupel said Thursday. “The focus has been really good. The practices have been intentional in the way they’ve approached it. The next 48 hours, continuing our prep and finishing our preparation will be a big part of it.”
The attention of the college football world will be turned to Knoxville when No. 11 Tennessee (3-0) hosts No. 20 Florida (2-1) on Saturday at Neyland Stadium. With ESPN’s College GameDay in town and the Vols favored to earn their first win in the series since 2016, there’s been plenty of noise surrounding the program this week.
Heupel’s well aware of that. He’s also aware of what his players need to do as the pressure swirls.
“It’s impossible to block out the noise in today’s world,” Heupel said. “It’s absolutely impossible. So they’re going to see it and hear it. You can’t let it affect what matters, which is your preparation. Everyone is going to want to win on gameday. You’ve got to do what it takes to win, so I think that’s important.
“Our kids should be and are excited about this one. It’s always big when we play Florida, so embrace that at the beginning of the week and then be consistent.”
The Vols are coming off a 63-6 win over Akron before a sold-out crowd, the program’s first sellout against a non-conference foe since Tennessee’s double-overtime 31-24 loss to Oklahoma in 2015.
Former Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield cited that environment as “unbelievable,” and Tennessee’s fanbase will be looking to recreate it against Florida on Saturday.
“Crowd noise, I can’t imagine that this won’t be the loudest stadium in the country on Saturday,” Heupel said. “Cannot imagine that it wouldn’t be that way. It was loud last year at times and certainly here in the early part of the season, but I expect it to be absolutely electric for 60 minutes.”
Tennessee’s blowout wins over Ball State and Akron, plus its overtime victory over then-No. 17 Pittsburgh, earned it the hype and attention surrounding Saturday’s game. But when the pregame festivities have concluded and the Vols and Gators kick off at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, that focus Tennessee’s players have shown throughout the week will be all that matters.
“The outside noise, the opportunity that’s here, you work to have these opportunities,” Heupel said. “Early in the week, I told our players to enjoy the fact that we have this opportunity, but that has nothing to do with how we play. We’ve got to prepare the right way, and we’ve been pretty good up until this point, so we’ve got to finish it out.”
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