Tim Tebow claims Tennessee must 'win the physical matchup' to get back on track

Tim Tebow is trying to diagnose why the Tennessee Volunteers have been slightly disappointing in 2023.

Ahead of their showdown against the South Carolina Gamecocks, Tebow joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Friday to discuss the Vols, listing what Tennessee needs to improve at to save their season.

“No ability to run the football consistently. Inconsistent play at the quarterback position. Don’t quite have the same play-makers on the outside they did last year. Their defense, when they’ve needed to come up with stops, couldn’t do it against Florida. Especially on third down, in good situations. Those are critical, all critical things to win big time, SEC football games,” explained Tebow. “Where are they going to get that? I would say probably what’d makes me most nervous as a Tennessee fan is, you lost a physical matchup against Austin Peay. That’s a concern.

“So I think if it’s Tennessee, I think it’s first, we’ve got to win the line of scrimmage. I mean, I look back at Tennessee over the years, growing up and then playing against them, that was the one thing you could count on. Tennessee would show up, and they would hit you in the mouth, and they would be super physical. I think for Tennessee to take the next steps, it’s got to be offense and defensive line, winning the physical matchup.”

While Tennessee fans might not want to hear what Tim Tebow is saying, especially after falling to Florida a couple weeks back, the Volunteers would be well-served to utilize his advice. If they fall to the Gamecocks this weekend, this disappointment will continue to reign over Tennessee in 2023.

Josh Heupel anticipates Joe Milton will be at full strength against South Carolina

Meanwhile, Tennessee bounced back from their disappointing loss in the swamp with a dominant performance on Saturday, defeating UTSA 45-14 at home. 

Things were running smoothly for Tennessee’s offensive attack until quarterback Joe Milton went down in the second quarter after his left knee bent awkwardly during a tackle. Milton got up gingerly, went to the sideline, and would return for the remainder of the game with a brace on his knee.

Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel was asked about the injury status of his quarterback as the team heads into their second SEC matchup of the season versus South Carolina, first addressing a picture circulating on social media of Milton checking in at the UT Medical Center on Sunday.

“Yeah I can’t believe it took this long to get that question,” Heupel joked eight minutes into his press conference. “For us I know there’s a picture out there. But for us, routinely on Sundays, we’re going to make sure that our players are healthy. We have a diagnosis inside with our doctors, but we’re gonna make sure medically they check up on him as well.”

Milton getting his knee evaluated sounds like a standard procedure for the Volunteers as it is for many teams across the country, as Heupel believes that his quarterback will be just fine when they host the Gamecocks on Saturday night. 

“Joe’s been good, feels good. He was with us today so I anticipate him being ready to go play really well,” Heupel said.

On3’s Kaiden Smith contributed to this article.