Florida football has had to prepare this week for the latest rendition of its rivalry game against Tennessee with a watchful eye on Hurricane Milton, as the Category 5 storm has barreled across the Gulf of Mexico towards the Sunshine State.

Gators head coach Billy Napier stated on Monday that Florida had “several discussions” Sunday to “build out Plan A, Plan B and Plan C,” in order to be prepared for how the Hurricane could affect their preparation for this weekend’s game against the Vols. Napier added at the time that he anticipated Monday and Tuesday being unaffected, but that they were “ready to adjust” if need be.

The state of Florida is bracing for Hurricane Milton to make landfall on Wednesday night. Sustained winds reached 175 mph on Monday as the storm strengthened from a Category 2 to Category 5.

Napier was asked on Wednesday during his weekly appearance on the SEC Teleconference if Florida’s routine has changed any this week due to Milton.

“Well our guys don’t have school today or tomorrow,” Napier said. “We’ve moved the schedule up today to try to get everyone here sheltered before the arrival of the storm. And tomorrow is a little bit to be determined based on what type of situation we have when we wake up in the morning. So, overall, just moving things up today, and then tomorrow I think we anticipate sliding things back slightly.

“Right now we’re outside of the eye of the storm, and we’re anticipating getting more tropical storm-type weather.”

Napier went on to say that Gainesville has had an influx of people making their way north from where the storm was expected to make its biggest impact, and that hotels are full due to all of the evacuations.

“The most challenging part, is a lot of these guys’ families are right in the thick of it down south,” Napier said. “We’ve been touching base with them throughout the entire week, trying to provide them with the most up-to-date information. We have done quite a bit of planning in terms of what they need to be doing here to anticipate what’s coming, and then we’ll be there as an organization and athletic department to fully support the players and any family situations that maybe come up where we can help.

“You try to keep them up-to-date as much as you can — a couple times a day, providing them with the most up-to-date information. And, obviously, we have our athletic department, our operations people meeting with the university leadership, so a couple times a day we’re able to give them kind of the latest news and information.”

No. 8 Tennessee will be looking to bounce back when it hosts Florida on Saturday night after Arkansas ended UT’s six-game winning streak last weekend. Kickoff between the Vols (4-1, 1-1 SEC) and Gators (3-2, 1-1 SEC) is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The Vols are returning to Neyland Stadium for the first time in 28 days, for what will be the first of four straight home games over a five-week stretch. They’ll do so in front of a sold out crowd that will checker the stadium for the eighth time in program history.