As anticipated for what seems like far too long, fall practice is finally set to begin today. With so much talent returning from 2008’s National Championship team, most of the position battles and questions that usually surround the start of fall practice have already been answered. Your defense returns all 11 starters, your Heisman-winning quarterback will be taking the snaps, and you only have to replace two wide receivers as the playmakers. That is not a bad situation for the Florida football program to be in, which is why they are almost unanimously chosen as the preseason #1 team in America.

Here are the dates, times, and notes for the 4 practice sessions that are open to the public.

• Thursday, August 6th: 6:10 – 8:00am- Returning players
• Thursday, August 6th: 5:10-6:30pm – Freshmen only
• Friday, August 7th: 6:10-8:00am – Returning players
• Friday, August 7th:  4:35-6:10pm – Freshmen only

Although it is hard to find the chink in the armor of this team, all teams have questionable areas and the 2009 Gators are no different. Here are a couple things to look out for if you go see any of the practices.

1-     Who will step up at Wide Receiver? With the losses of Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy, the Gators lack two proven playmakers on offense. The Gators have the numbers and talent at wide receiver, as outlined in (THIS ARTICLE); but will the depth and talent equate to playmakers? Only practice and game time can answer that question for sure.

2-     Will the Gators stay healthy? Last year, the Gators had a rough pre-season losing 5 players to ACL injuries including TE Cornelius Ingram. This year, if the same position is hit again (TE Aaron Hernandez), the Gators will be playing with an unproven true freshman at tight end (Desmond Parks), which does not usually bode well in the SEC. Although Meyer is known for tough practices and hard conditioning, he may want the coaching staff to watch out more this year for injuries so he doesn’t deplete his roster down before game day.

3-     Will Emmanuel Moody become the power back the Gators have been looking for since Meyer came to Florida? Emmanuel Moody has the talent and skills to be special, but has had problems early on with learning the spread and injuries. This is his time to shine. With Demps possibly sharing the “Percy position” with DeBose, Moody will have to compliment Rainey to possibly become the best 1-2 punch in the SEC. With Rainey’s speed and Moody’s blend of speed and power, they could turn some heads. They just both have to stay healthy and step up to the plate this fall.

4-     Who will the Offensive Line starters be and will they gel as a unit before the season? The starting five will surely include the 3 returning starters; which are the Pouncey twins and Carl Johnson. Some players that could be included in the starting lineup are freshman Sam Robey at Center, Matt Patchan  at left tackle and Marcus Gilbert at right tackle. Obviously, the first decision is whether Robey is ready to play Center in the SEC, although he did turn coaches’ heads in spring practice. If he does, the Pounceys flank him playing both Guard positions. If he isn’t ready yet, Maurkice Pouncey would stay at Center. The coaches need to get the lineup settled in a hurry though, so the line can gel as a unit before kickoff of the Charleston Southern game.

5-     What freshman will make the impact needed to see the field with such a stacked roster in so many positions?

a.       Andre DeBose is the first freshman off of everyone’s lips due to him being named by Meyer as Percy’s position replacement. Can he live up to that acclaim? The next couple weeks is when we'll find out if he'll make his appearance in 2009.

b.      Xavier Nixon is a beast of an Offensive Lineman, but has not been mentioned as a probable starter. With the OL’s starting five not being named yet, will he show up enough at practice enough to steal a starting role? It’s doubtful, but not impossible with his talent.

c.       Sam Robey was mentioned in the previous post about how he turned heads at Center enough to be considered for the starting 5. It is uncommon for true freshman to start on the OL in the SEC due to size, but he has the best chance of any out of this year’s class.

d.      Jon Bostic has no chance at taking the starting Middle Linebacker spot, but that isn’t because he’s not an amazing player. It’s simply because he happened to come in behind an All-American named Brandon Spikes. Rest assured though, he will learn from Spikes throughout this season, and you couldn’t ask for a better mentor at MLB than Spikes.

Overall, the Gators go into spring practice without any major questions. They have lots of talent, depth at most positions, and have the majority of the starting lineup set.

Now is the time for the coaching staff to develop that hunger for another title, but while keeping them focused on one game at a time. They can’t start out the season thinking about Tennessee, LSU, Georgia, and Florida State. They need right now to have complete focus on Charleston Southern and take it one game at a time. The media will do its job of trying to get them to look ahead, but if they stay focused on one step at a time, they should be in California during the first week of January to defend their national title.

Rusty Thompson is one of the founders of www.GatorTailgating.com