For Florida and Miami, next week is game week – something fans have been waiting for all year.

Even though the Aug. 24 Week 0 rivalry showdown in Orlando is still over a week away, media members are already previewing the match-up between the Gators and Hurricanes. Former UF quarterback Tim Tebow appeared on “The Paul Finebaum Show” this week to share what he sees as the biggest key to the game, and potentially the 2019 season, for his alma mater.

“I’ll you what, It’s a big one. It’s one of the biggest starting games that I can think of in a long time, at least 10 years for Florida,” Tebow told Finebaum. “This is a huge opportunity. They’ve gotten so much hype, they’ve got to live up to it. Last year doesn’t matter anymore. This summer hype being Top 10? You have to show up on the field and you have to earn it this year. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s a different team. It’s a different group of coaches and players. How do you mold? How do you rally together? Nothing has been earned yet.

“A big thing for Florida is coming in with a chip on their shoulder a lot like they did at the end of the year last year. But they have to figure out that mesh a lot earlier than they did last year. If they do that, I think they have some of the pieces to be sneaky and be pretty good. But they’ve got to come together and each team is different.”

Whether Florida looks like the team that finished the 2018 campaign on a four-game winning streak is certainly one of the bigger questions surrounding Dan Mullen’s squad for 2019. We’re not too far from finding out if the Gators can tap into that “chip on their shoulder” energy again this fall.

Tebow was on the last Florida team to beat Miami, the 2008 squad which went on to win the BCS championship.