AM850.com

When the dust settled this past Saturday in Gainesville, Florida had another big win under its belt as it blasted Troy 56-6. You certainly want to have some confidence when you are set to begin SEC play, and the Gators did a lot of nice things in this game to build that confidence when Tennessee hits town this week.

Let's start with the Gator defense. It has not allowed a touchdown in two games. Gator linebacker Ryan Stamper likes what he sees so far.

"I think the defense is clicking," Stamper said. "It's the same defense from last year you know, no new guys. Just practicing against our offense every week pretty much keeps us clicking you know so I think the defense is clicking. This week pretty much showed how much we're clicking."

Fellow linebacker Brandon Spikes said the defense felt it had to perform better than it did in the first week and I think that happened. The defense held Troy to only 139 yards of total offense while causing a couple of fumbles and getting an interception.

The Gators played most of the game on defense in their 3-3-5 "joker package" alignment and Gator coach Urban Meyer had high praise for defensive coordinator Charlie Strong and how he and his defensive staff have made that alignment a successful one. Combine that with Florida's 4-3 and the blitz packages the Gators employ from each set and you have a nasty defensive package to deal with as an offensive staff.

The Gator offense statistically was good too against Troy; 663 yards of total offense and a very sharp quarterback in Tim Tebow who ended up 15 of 24 for 237 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for a score.

The Gator running attack was terrific too. Tebow, Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey combined for 243 yards with three touchdowns. Demps averaged an incredible 12.4 yards a carry as he runs 7 times for 87 yards while solidifying himself as Florida's number one runner to this point. Meyer had high praise for his running game and his offensive line.

"I'll tell you I thought our running backs ran real hard," Meyer said. "I thought Chris Rainey was tremendous (tonight) and the offensive line...we're as good as our offensive line right now and they're playing at a pretty high rate of efficiency."

But as well as Florida played against Troy, Meyer and his team knows there is still work to be done to get better. The Gators got off to a slow offensive start Saturday, in part because Troy used some defensive packages Florida had not seen. In a perfect world, you would like to come out a little sharper this week offensively.

Games are won at Florida on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; the coaches preach that and the players buy into that work ethic. And certainly one thing the offense will work on this week is hanging on to the football. Uncharacteristically, the Gators put it on the ground three times against Troy and did it at one point in back to back possessions, resulting in a field goal and a missed field goal try for the Trojans. Against better teams, those turnovers could be more costly.

But now we have reached the third Saturday in September and that around here means the Tennessee game. Even though Meyer after the game said this would never be about coaches and what they might say, you know Gator fans don't have to feel that way and they'll be a little extra something to Ben Hill Griffin this week when Lane Kiffin brings his Vols to town.

It's the start of the SEC season. It's Lane Kiffin. It's that God awful Rocky Top. Meyer wants all Gators to wear blue to the game. The Gators are number one and confident.

It all spells...Tennessee Week.