College Football & the 2010 Gators

I suppose that now is probably as good of a time as any other to deliver my two cents' worth about the upcoming college football season, due to commence this coming weekend. The team I am primarily following is naturally the University of Florida, based here in Gainesville. With last year's enormous hype about senior star quarterback Tim Tebow, the Gators' #1 ranking for week after week, and their convincing Southeastern Conference title game loss to eventual National Champion Alabama, there is a marked difference in this year's squad and outlook. The Gators are no longer considered the best team in the conference and there are many questions about the new starters, especially so since junior John Brantley will be replacing Tebow. But as I have written before, I think that Brantley will make the Gator offense much more explosive with his passing ability than did Tebow. On the other hand, I have observed over the years that a team with a good ball control offense, especially with a player who is consistently successful on third or fourth down with short yardage in getting first downs (as Tebow was so successful at), tends to not only have better field position over their opponent over the course of a game, but also rests their defense and keeps the opposing offense off the field. And that is my main concern with Florida: can Jeff Demps and the rest of the Gator running attack step up and consistently keep drives alive with short-yardage runs? We'll see.

Florida's first game is on Saturday September 4 and, as usual, is at home against a smaller college. This time it's against Miami of Ohio. It will be interesting to see how the Gators' offense presents itself on the field, but it won't be until subsequent games that they are truly tested. And they will be severely tested with early games against Tennessee, LSU, and their nemesis Alabama (on the road in Tuscaloosa).

Other than that, I haven't paid a lot of attention to college football. I still don't know how teams can be ranked like they are when no one has yet played any games!