Florida and Tennessee renew what was once a fierce and nationally prominent rivalry this weekend in Knoxville (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS). The No. 6 Gators are a prohibitive favorite to win their 15th game in 16 tries against the Vols, who have dropped 5 consecutive games after opening the 2020 season with 2 wins.

At first glance, the game appears to be a mismatch, with Florida’s high-octane offense facing off against a Vols offense that is among the worst in the Power 5 at scoring (20.1 per game). Florida can’t afford to put too much stock in perceptions Saturday. The Gators are coming off very pedestrian performances against Vanderbilt and Kentucky, and while Florida won those games by 21 and 24 points, respectively, Dan Mullen lamented the lack of crispness and consistency on both sides of the ball this week. While Mullen’s sideline blow-up with defensive coordinator Todd Grantham got most of the headlines, Mullen was particularly concerned with his much-ballyhooed offense’s performance against a solid Kentucky defense.

“We weren’t very efficient offensively last week,” Mullen told the media via Zoom this week. “We didn’t hit any of our pregame goals. Just didn’t play well there.”

Offensive coordinator Brian Johnson agreed.

“There are games where (you score) 34 points and you played really, really well,” Johnson said. “It’s whatever the circumstance is based on the number of possessions, the flow of the game you’re playing. But that was a game where we scored 34 but we did not play well, and we didn’t play clean.”

That didn’t matter much at home against a Kentucky team that lacks any vertical passing game. It could matter on the road, in the cold, against a Tennessee team that occasionally shows signs of life and balance.

The Gators have a great deal to play for, obviously, and will be motivated to clinch their 1st SEC East title since 2016 Saturday. That doesn’t mean it will be easy. Indeed, while most of Florida’s players were in diapers the last time these programs met in December, Florida fans will remember an underdog Tennessee vanquishing Florida’s SEC Championship Game and national championship dreams in The Swamp in 2001. That memory alone will have plenty of Gators fans on edge until the win is in hand.

Here are 3 matchups that will define Florida’s game against the Volunteers.

Can Florida protect Kyle Trask and exploit the biggest mismatch in the game?

Tennessee’s pass defense is miserable.

The Vols rank 113th nationally in yards allowed per pass attempt (8.8), which is the 4th-worst mark in the Power 5. That’s surprising, in a way, given that corner Bryce Thompson is a ball hawk who grades out as one of the best players in college football defensively. But the numbers bear out that 1 dude in the secondary isn’t enough.

Florida is a difficult passing offense to defend, period, and we saw last week how much more explosive they are with Kyle Pitts back on the field. Jeremy Pruitt called Pitts “the best tight end in the country” this week, a fairly obvious sentiment that raises a more complicated question: How will he defend him? Henry To’o To’o is one of the best linebackers in the country, but linebackers haven’t fared well against Pitts, and To’o To’0 hasn’t played since Nov. 7. Safety help is fine, but that opens things up for lethal perimeter playmakers Trevon Grimes and Kadarius Toney. There simply aren’t effective matchup answers.

The Gators are 6th in success rate nationally and 6th in offensive S&P+, and Trask is completing 71 percent of his passes with an obscene 34-to-3 TD-to-INT ratio. This is a very bad matchup for Tenneseee.

The Vols’ best chance? Pressure.

Tennessee ranks a respectable 38th nationally in sack percentage and sack rate. The dismissal of Kivon Bennett from the team this week on guns and drug charges takes away one of the best weapons the Vols have in the pass rush. But Deandre Johnson has 5 sacks and is a handful, and Tennessee does an outstanding job of moving him around and disguising his blitzes.

Johnson knows that to hurt the Gators, you can’t let Trask sit like a statue in the pocket. Trask is a Heisman candidate for a reason, one of the best dropback passers in college football, especially with a clean pocket and the ability to look downfield. Trask has a success rate of 67.4 percent on throws of 10-20 yards when he has a clean pocket, the best number in the country. When you pressure him, he’s still good, but human:

Florida’s offensive line is elite at limiting pressure, ranking 5th nationally in sack rate allowed (2.1 percent) and 13th in pressures allowed. Tennessee will have to buck that trend to have a chance.

Will the Florida run defense keep Eric Gray and Ty Chandler from getting to the 2nd level?

Florida’s run defense has improved steadily as the season has progressed, but it will be tested by a talented Tennessee offensive line and backfield, led by Eric Gray, who ranks 5th in the SEC in rushing with 651 yards this season. Gray has racked up 296 yards rushing in his past 2 games (Auburn and Arkansas), and if the Vols are to have a shot Saturday, they’ll need him to get to the 2nd level and force Florida to make tackles in space. When opponents have done that, the Gators have been vulnerable to giving up big days on the ground, having yielded 100-plus yards to Texas A&M’s Isaiah Spiller and South Carolina’s Kevin Harris already this season.

Gray has a great 1st step and is a downhill runner who doesn’t waste much movement. He loves to wait until he’s nearing the 2nd level to do anything laterally, as this run in the Gator Bowl win last season shows.

That’s the kind of back Florida has struggled against this season. And the Gators have been prone to some explosives in the run game — surrending touchdown runs of 20 or more yards against Texas A&M, Georgia and Arkansas.

The Vols offense ranks 108th in scoring offense, 94th in S&P+ offense, 103rd in success rate and 99th in yards per play (4.9). A big reason is that they simply don’t generate explosive plays (101st in the country in plays of 15 yards or more). If they can chalk up some in the ground game against a Florida run defense that ranks only 49th in yards allowed per rush (4.1), they’ll have a chance to keep Florida’s offense off the field and maybe score some cheap points.

Can Tennessee limit — and finally produce — turnovers?

The Volunteers defense is a respectable 35th in the country in S&P+ efficiency. It isn’t great at anything defensively, really, and the pass defense is woeful, but when it limits explosive plays and forces you to drive the length of the field, it can produce stops.

What it hasn’t done well enough this season is take the football away. Tennessee has produced only 8 turnovers on the season, ranking 91st nationally in turnover margin. The Vols are at -.4 turnovers per game, numbers that simply won’t get it done against Florida.

Making matters worse, the Vols have played their most error-prone football against the SEC’s elite.

Tennessee turned it over 5 times against ranked foes Georgia, Auburn and Alabama, the most costly of which came against Auburn, when the Vols appeared poised to either tie the score or take the lead until this pick-6:

The Gators defense began the season unable to turn teams over — but that has shifted a bit since the program went on pause for COVID-19. Florida has produced multiple turnovers in 3 of their past 5 games, including 3 against both Georgia and Kentucky. Tennessee must protect the football and figure out how to take the ball away to have a chance Saturday afternoon.