Brandon James is a threat on special teams returning the kickoff and punts and he should see some time playing receiver with Harvin being out. Junior linebacker Ryan Stamper would most likely be starting in Spikes place if Coach Meyer chooses to sit Spikes out. In 15 games, the 6′2/232 pound junior recorded 25 tackles. Is it the right move to sit Spikes and Harvin for Saturday?? I think they both need to just sit and watch for the first 2 games because Florida has enough backup behind Spikes at linebacker and Gators are stacked at receivers, so there’s not a problem to find a replacement to fill in the slot. Florida will kick off against Hawaii this Saturday at 12:30 at the swamp.

What you should expect? Florida’s Offensive Line to protect, Tebow AND Harvin to have HUGE games …..you should expect Hawaii to get no more than 21 points (if they get that lucky) and then see that Hawaii is nothing close to what they were a year ago.

What has changed since last season?

Florida- They have gotten more experienced. Plain and simple.
Hawaii- Colt Brennan is gone…..plain and simple
Florida- Much improved Defense that was the cause of them losing a few last season.
Hawaii- The dates on the calendar and whereas they will still be chasing a WAC title, they will not be even close to the Gators.

Keys to Victory-

Florida- Score, Score, and Score some more….nothing is better for the Gators than Tebow scoring. Don’t let Hawaii stay in this game past the opening kickoff.

Hawaii- Slow the game down. Stop Tebow and Harvin EVERY down. Keep this game close well into the 4th quarter. You never know….look at Appy St. vs Michigan last year. Appy went home a winner…………

Prediction: Florida 48 Hawaii 17

(Written by Josh Schwader)

VS

The top 8 looks just like this:

1. Penn St
2. Stanford
3. Texas
4. USC
5. California
6. UCLA
7. Nebraska
8. Florida

Time will tell how Florida starts their season, its not going to be easy….especially playing a tough schedule.

Gators and former Gators are making a great showing so far. Dara Torres, a former Gator swimmer, is, at 41, a member of the U.S. team for her 5th Olympic games. American Dara Torres chalked up a first for the over-40s on Sunday when she became the oldest athlete to win an Olympic swimming medal.

“The water doesn’t really know what age you are, so it doesn’t really matter when you hit the water what age you are,” the 41-year-old said after anchoring the U.S. team to 4×100 meters freestyle relay silver. Torres’ split of 52.44 was the second-fastest of all swimmers in the 4×100m final.

No other swimmer has won an Olympic swimming medal beyond the age of 40 and Torres also equaled the all-time women’s record held by German canoeist Birgit Fischer of winning Olympic medals over a 24 years span.

The first U.S. swimmer to compete in five Olympics, Torres has a two-year-old daughter and has twice come out of retirement to add to her medal collection.
The 10th of her Olympic career came 24 years after she won her first gold in the same event at the boycotted 1984 Los Angeles Games, before most of her rivals at the Water Cube were born.

In the 50-meter free, Torres earned her 11th medal in American Record speed, with a time of 24.07, good for the silver medal.. Torres wrapped up Olympic swimming action for the Gators as the freestyle anchor leg of the U.S 4×100-meter medley relay that finished second in silver medal fashion with an American Record time of 3:53.30. Torres earned her 12th Olympic medal as she swam a split of 52.27 in attempts to hunt down Australian freestyle swimmer Lisbeth Trickett, who owns the fastest 100 free relay split in history.

Torres Olympic career at a glance:

Dara Torres, USA Swimming
Los Angeles 1984 1 Gold
Seoul 1988 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
Barcelona 1992 1 Gold
Sydney 2000 2 Gold, 3 Bronze
Beijing 2008 3 Silver

Ryan Lochte, who was just competing for UF this past season, has also had a big Olympiad… his second. He took the 400m individual medley bronze in 4:08.09. Fellow U.S. teammate Michael Phelps took the gold in the world-record time of 4:03.84, while Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh Hungary was second in 4:06.16. At the 2004 Olympics, Lochte claimed a relay gold as a member of the 4×200 free team and the silver for the 200 IM.

Lochte also claimed Gold as a member of the 800-meter freestyle relay team this time, alongside U.S. teammates Michael Phelps, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay. The quartet smashed the World Record with a time of 6:58.56 becoming the first 800-meter freestyle relay to ever swim under the seven minute mark. Lochte split 1:44.28 as the second leg of the relay, swimming the third-fastest split in the final heat of the event behind Phelps and Filippo Magnini of Italy.

Lochte rallied for his first-ever individual Olympic gold medal, complete with a new World Record in the final heat of the men’s 200-meter backstroke Thursday at the Water Cube in Beijing. Lochte clocked in at a World Record time of 1:53.94, surpassing backstroke foe and U.S. teammate Aaron Peirsol, who captured silver with a 1:54.33 swim. Arkady Vyatchann of Russia (1:54.93) rounded out the top-three medalists.

Approximately a half hour later, Lochte took to the water once again in the final heat of the men’s 200-meter IM, his last individual race of the 2008 Olympic Games and the event in which he claimed silver at the 2004 Games in Athens. Lochte registered a third-place bronze medal finish (1:56.53) behind second-place Laszlo Cseh of Hungary (1:56.52) and gold-medal winner, U.S. teammate Michael Phelps (1:54.23 WR). Lochte was barely out-touched by Cseh with only one one-hundredth-of-a-second separating the silver and bronze medal performances.

Lochte’s Olympic career at a glance:

Athens 2004 1 Gold, 1 Silver
Beijing 2008 2 Gold (2 World Records), 2 Bronze

Caroline Burckle illuminated the swimming and diving field for UF athletes, reeling in her first ever Olympic medal, earning bronze as a member of the women’s 800-meter free relay.

After swimming a lifetime best 1:57.86 200-meter free split as the first leg of the prelim bunch, Burckle secured a spot on the Wednesday evening relay final team alongside U.S. standouts Allison Schmitt, Natalie Coughlin and Katie Hoff. The quartet raced to a third-place, bronze medal finish, tapping in at 7:46.33 behind second place China (7:45.93) and gold medalist Australia (7:44.31 WR). Burckle swam the third leg of the relay in the final showdown, again lowering her 200 free split to a lifetime best 1:56.70 and recording the second-fastest split on the U.S. team behind Hoff’s 1:54.73. A very promising start for a young Gator in her first Olympiad.

Rest of the Top 25 (and a surprising one at that……)

USC, the defending National Champions are atop the polls at #1.

The Lady Gators first couple of games aren’t too great…however, they travel to Boulder Colorado to play the Colorado Buffaloes. They return back to Florida to play Florida Atlantic, and then plays Central Florida. This schedule looks pretty tough for the lady Gators, however, the SEC Championship looks still possible. Georgia and Tennessee will try to keep the Gators from winning another SEC title.

(Written By Josh Schwader)