The No. 4 Florida Gators begin the post-Tim Tebow era Saturday when the Miami Ohio RedHawks come to town. Tebow may go down as the best college football player of all time, but Florida figures to be alright without him. All you have to do is look at Urban Meyer’s record. The guy is 96-18 as a head coach, including 57-10 at Florida.

College football lines makers expect Florida to dominate Saturday, listing the Gators as a 35-point favorite with the total set at 53. If Florida is going to cover this spread, it will need a big game from new starting quarterback John Brantley.

The fourth-year junior has been waiting patiently behind Tebow, and now it’s his time to shine.  Don’t expect Brantley to be as intense as Tebow, and don’t expect him to lower his shoulder into many defenders. You can, however, expect him to be a better passer than his predecessor.

Now that Florida has a pure passer running the spread, the Gators are expected to air it out more this season, just like they did when Chris Leak helped lead the Gators to a National Championship.

Wide receiver Deonte Thompson should develop into Brantley’s go-to guy. Florida loves the way Thompson can stretch the defense with his speed.

With teams paying respect to Florida’s passing attack, there should be plenty of running room for Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey behind an experienced line.

Defensively, the Gators are expecting big things from safety Will Hill and cornerback Janoris Jenkins, who have both been named to the preseason watch list for the Jim Thorpe Award.

Linebacker Jelani Jenkins and defensive end Ronald Powell are two more guys to keep an eye on this fall. Jenkins can flat-out fly and Powell was the consensus No. 1 recruit in the country.

While Florida lost a lot of guys to the NFL, it still has a lot of talent coming back. However, this talent must prove itself. Playmakers must be identified on both sides of the football.

The biggest area of concern may be at the second cornerback spot. Jeremy Brown and Moses Jenkins must be up to the task as teams look to throw away from Janoris Jenkins.

Miami Ohio is coming off a 1-11 season, and has been picked by many to bring up the rear in the MAC East again this year.

The RedHawks are giving up a ton in the talent category, so they’ll likely need to force some turnovers in order to keep this one within the number Saturday. To give you some comparisons, Miami Ohio fell to Kentucky 42-0 in last season’s opener. And it fell 48-0 to Boise State the following week.

However, with nearly all the offense back, Head Coach Mike Haywood doesn’t expect to be as much of a pushover this season.

The offense is led by quarterback Zach Dysert, who had to carry the load while the running game struggled last season. I know Haywood wants to get more out of the running attack this year, but that won’t be easy against Florida. In other words, Dysert will likely have to provide the offense Saturday.

The Miami defense is led by middle linebacker Jerrell Wedge. Wedge was an animal last season. He recorded 114 tackles, and 18.5 of them were for loss. I’m excited to see how he will stack up against Florida’s elite athletes.

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