The last time Miami played the Florida Gators was back in 2002 when the Hurricanes trounced the Gators 41-16. Miami was then the defending National College Champions and Florida was but a run-of-the-mill college football team. Leave it to the then-coach of the Gators Ron Zook to make a Nostradamus-like prediction. “We’re going to look like them in four or five years.”

Nail on the head.

Not only are the Florida Gators now one of the premier teams in all of the NCAA but the Hurricanes have fallen to the ranks where the Gators used to be. Last year, the Hurricanes posted a lackluster 5-7 season record, as compared to the Gators’ current number 5 national ranking.

Now the two teams will meet for the first time since that last match in 2002 and don’t think for a moment that Florida players have forgotten, even though they weren’t present for the last match.  “It’s a whole different year,” Florida linebacker Brandon Hicks said. “Miami’s going to come in here and we’re going to show them what the Florida Gators look like.”

The game is this Saturday at 8:00 pm ET at the Gators’ home stadium.