Miami vs Florida -3 by Sean Higgs

Now, the Gators have been the dominate school in Florida with their recent success under Urban Meyer. Will Mushamp is
in his 3rd year and again the defense will be the prominent unit for the Gators. Florida is off a 24-6 win over Toledo.
No flash from the Gators in the win. They just pounded the Rockets into the ground by controlling the ball for nearly 40 minutes.

The Hurricanes are off a season that saw them miss the post-season as they had a self-imposed ban on themselves. This is a hungry group of
kids with 20 starters back. Stephan Morris threw for 160 yards in a 34-6 win over Florida Atlantic, but the offensive story is RB Duke Johnson.
Johnson can easily be the ACC POY this year if he can duplicate the 186 yards he produced in the Canes win. He had a touchdown run of 53 yards and, along with Herb Waters 63 yard TD run, shows that this offense can put up points in a hurry.

As good as I think the Canes offense can be, they will have a hard time against the Gators. Florida comes in with one of the units in
the country. Toledo isn't Miami U, but they did hold the Rockets to just 50 yards rushing and a shade of 200 total yards. We know Florida can
play with the top teams as they proved last year by knocking off 3 teams ranked in the Top 10. I still think that the Canes experience, especially offensive skill players, will win out over the Gator defense.

My final thoughts

I think that the Hurricanes experience and home field will be the big difference makers here. The Florida offense in my eyes is not superior to
the Hurricanes defense. Miami HC Al Golden is also in his year 3, and has taken steps to bring ‘The U' back to prominence. An upset win here will go a long way to restoring some of that Hurricane pride.