Former Alabama QB predicts the winner of Tennessee Vols vs Florida Gators

The Tennessee Vols will return to Neyland Stadium on Saturday night for the first time in nearly a month.

After spending the last couple of weeks on the road, the Vols will host the Florida Gators in a key October showdown.

Tennessee is a 15.5 point favorite against the Gators, which is a bit of a surprise considering how close the games between these teams have been over the years.

Ultimately, though, the Vols just want to get a much-needed win against Florida.

And former Alabama quarterback turned ESPN analyst Greg McElroy thinks that's exactly what will happen on Saturday night.

McElroy said on Thursday that he has the Vols beating the Gators this weekend.

"The Gators' run defense has not been very good," said McElroy. "They're allowing 172 yards a game on the ground. That's gotta feel pretty good if you're Tennessee and you understand that your passing attack is still very much a work in progress. But the one thing you can do is run the ball with a lot of efficiency. Nico Iamaleava, last week, made some mistakes. And you would expect those mistakes as a redshirt freshman. Still crazy talented and he's going to get better as the season goes along. But they gotta be able to run the football and I think they can against a Florida defense that has been pretty inconsistent.

"The question is will Florida watch that Arkansas tape and adjust their scheme and structure to kind of eliminate some of the looks that Tennessee had eliminated against them last week. A couple of trends in the game, Florida's covered five of the last six meetings between these two teams. Tennessee, this will be the largest [they've been favored] over Florida in the last 45 years. And Tennessee is 11-4 against the spread in their last 15 games as a double digit favorite. I'll take Tennessee in a big bounce back performance here. I'm just 100 percent sure that Florida can stop the run ."

Tennessee and Florida kick off at 7:00 PM ET on Saturday night in Knoxville.

Related: Former Vol gets real about Tennessee RB Dylan Sampson's 'lackadaisical' comments after loss to Arkansas