GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Cue the tumbleweed. Go ahead and press play on the theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” It might not even hurt to wear a 10-gallon hat.

If conventional wisdom prevails, 22nd-ranked Tennessee’s SEC opener against No. 5 Florida this afternoon in The Swamp (TV: WVLT, 3:30 p.m.) will be a shootout more fit for Tombstone than Gainesville.

Through two games, the teams are averaging a combined 84 points and more than 900 yards of total offense.

Both defenses are young and the Gators’ unit, which replaced nine starters from a year ago, has yet to be truly tested in opening games against Western Kentucky and Troy.

But with a high-scoring game comes momentum swings, and controlling those swings can often mean the difference between winning and losing.

“During the course of the ballgame, you kind of have to stay smooth and calm and know there’s going to be another upside,” UT coach Phillip Fulmer said. “If it’s late in the fourth quarter, you know you’ve got make something happen fast. These have been such close ballgames and both sides have had swings. That’s where your veterans on your team help you a lot. We expect them to help.”

The Vols (1-1) will be counting on senior quarterback Erik Ainge the most.

UT’s unquestioned leader on offense is completing 66 percent of his passes and has 547 yards and five touchdowns without a single interception so far this season, despite a broken pinky finger on his throwing hand.

Wide receivers Lucas Taylor and Austin Rogers have upped their game, and both topped 100 yards receiving last week. Taylor has done that in both of the Vols’ games this season.

Combine that with the effective running of Arian Foster, and the expected improvement of gamebreaker LaMarcus Coker, and the Vols’ offense is capable of putting plenty of points on the board.

That offense has also shown it’s capable of handling some pretty big momentum swings.

When Cal returned a fumble for a touchdown on UT’s opening drive of the season, Ainge recovered from a vicious hit by linebacker Zack Follett and led the offense 70 yards for a touchdown.

Staring down a six-point deficit late in the second quarter last week against Southern Miss, the offense responded again with a 73-yard touchdown drive to take a 17-16 lead going into halftime.

In the second half, UT scored on four of its first five possessions to take control in a 39-19 win.

“We talk about that,” Fulmer said. “That’s one of the game maxims: If things don’t go well, you put on more steam. We’ve had two tough ballgames that we’ve handled it both times pretty well. One we got it done real well, the first time we didn’t.”

What matters this week is getting the job done against Florida (2-0) and its spread option offense.

Sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow has shown that he’s not just a running quarterback in completing 75 percent of his passes for 536 yards and five touchdowns. He’s also averaging 5.2 yards on 25 carries and is the ideal quarterback for Florida coach Urban Meyer’s spread option offense.

They key to defending the Gators will be what gave Tennessee so much trouble in its 45-31 loss to No. 8 Cal: Tackling superb athletes in the open field.

“You have to defend the entire field, and you have to be able to make great plays on great athletes in space,” UT defensive coordinator John Chavis said. “That’s what makes it so effective. They get the ball to their most talented athletes in open space. Our challenge is to make the play in our first opportunity.”

And ultimately, take advantage of the one presented today in Gainesville.

Whether it turns out to be a shootout like the series was in the mid-1990s or a grind-it-out game like it has been recently, the stakes are the same.

“It’s a big SEC game. It’s a rivalry,” senior tight end Chris Brown said. “The winner of this game usually goes to the SEC championship (game). We just want to do what we can do and control what we can control.”

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.