This year’s Gators look like a different team.

New attitude.

New plays.

New swagger.

After an impressive offensive display by both players, the 18th ranked Gators take on UAB in Gainesville on Saturday night on Charter Cable.

Florida won its first four games last season but finished 8-5 as Brantley struggled to follow in Tim Tebow’s footsteps and Rainey ran into trouble off the field.

Rainey was a significant contributor for the Gators in ’08 and ’09, combining for 1,227 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. However, Rainey was suspended for five games last year after being arrested for aggravated stalking and was limited to just 366 yards and two touchdowns in 8 games.

Rainey looks as though he’s put the drama behind him. In Saturday’s 41-3 victory over Florida Atlantic, he became the third player in the nation since 1996 to have a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown, and a return for a touchdown in the same game.

“I thank God all the time that I’m still here,” said Rainey, who returned a blocked punt for 21 yards. “I stayed here one more year, and that’s the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s a pro offense, I’m made for it.”

Rainey, who touched the ball 18 times in all, is referring to coach Will Muschamp bringing in former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Charlie Weis to lead the offense, which ranked eighth in the SEC last year with 29.8 points per game.

Although the Gators weren’t facing elite competition, the Gators finished with 468 yards of offense, scoring on their first four drives. FAU’s lone score came after an interception by true freshman quarterback Jeff Driskel, who entered late in the first half.

Coach Muschamp told the media after Saturday’s game, “I think we need to be realistic here, we’ll face better opponents throughout the season……We didn’t face as much adversity as we had hoped for, but I’m very pleased with the effort and energy of our players.”

Brantley looks like he’ll benefit from playing under Weis’ system. Florida ranked 88th in the FBS with 184.3 passing yards per game in 2010, with Brantley throwing nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

His performance was more promising last Saturday. Although he had two interceptions, Brantley went 21 of 30 for 229 yards and a touchdown. Last season he passed for more than 200 yards only four games.

Rainey said after the game, “Looked like the old John Brantley you saw in high school, being the leader, taking over, he’s got all his confidence back.”

Brantley’s confidence should be high Saturday with fullback Trey Burton and receivers Deonte Thompson and Omarius Hines expected to play after suffering injuries last week.

The Gators likely won’t face much more adversity against UAB, which opens its season after going 4-8 last year.

Tropical Storm Lee forced the Blazers to move the location of their practices earlier this week, but they are eager to face the Gators, even knowing they will be heavy underdogs.

UAB quarterback Bryan Ellis is back after starting the final nine games of 2010. He finished with 2,940 yards passing, 25 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

Pat Shed also returns for the Blazers after rushing for a team high 847 yards and three touchdowns last season. He also had 471 yards receiving and four TD’s.

UAB scored 31 or more points five times last season and played close games against Tennessee and Mississippi State, losing by a combined eight points.

The two teams’ only previous meeting was a Florida 51-3 victory in 2002 in the Swamp.

OK, so I am going to give an early assessment after one single game against a cupcake.

Offense:

I liked the protection. It wasn't perfect and it was against a cream puff, but not bad for the first game. There certainly is some potential as they get more cohesion.

I liked the running game. Demps appears to finally have a little wiggle and Rainey looks great on his first cut. Seems having a FB is going to pay off for them.When Burton gets healthy, motioning him as a co lead with Joyer has great potential, especially against the 3-4 teams.

Reed looks ok as a TE in what limited plays we've seen thus far. Dunbar looks like a good one, as Hammond looks poised for a breakout. DT still looks hopeless, and Debose looks positively lost on downfield plays, but I liked Debose's willingness to lay a hat on people, so that counts for something.

It'll be interesting to see how Hines and Clark factor in.

Brantley still looks like a lost cause. When you take away his swing completions and yardage, his numbers were on par with last year. That's particularly disturbing since the apologists blamed it on him being miscast, a square peg in a round hole as it were. We heard non stop about how his skill set is better suited for Weis' offense, that it's similar to the offense he ran for Kerwin Bell.  I (and others) warned people that Bell's offense was prolific because it was a run first league that teams were not built to stop and Brantley's high school stats were inflated because of this - much like Shane Matthews' numbers when Spurrier first arrived were an illusion because of the opponents. We saw what happened when Matthews went up against elite athletes (read: FSU, Bowls) in top flight OOC games. The same can be said against Brantley - the defenses he is facing now are all geared to stop the run and the pass, so he'll have no advantage derived from scheme specific personnel.

Brantley just doesn't have "it."

Defense:

Hard to gauge based on the competition, but I did like a few things.

For starters, Easley looks like a beast. The level of competition doesn't play a factor in how one fires off the ball, and his first step is freakish. Whether he can knife past the better players he will face is another matter, but his first step automatically means teams HAVE to account for him.

Powell was still a non factor. Where is this freak we heard about ? He had a coverage sack on a cleanup play. Where was the steady menacing expected ?

I like the instincts of the D coming up to tackle. From the DBs to the LBs I loved the quick reactions and beelines they made on plays at or behind the LOS and the way they stormed up. This bodes well, as they seemed to have learned how to force the play, rather than let the play come to them while they are flat footed. They'll miss some tackles, but they'll also force some ballcarriers to the inside on occasion where they'll have their bells rung and/or cough up a turnover.

I like the way Elam patrolled the middle. He wasn't tested, but that has as much to do with his positioning as anything else.

All in all the season hold promise. While they stand no chance of winning the SEC title, they could challenge for the EAST. I don't think they will though. While they will most likely beat Georgia, Tennessee, and SC that triple header of Bama, LSU and Auburn will likely cause them to lose out on the east. They have to steal the Auburn game to have a chance. They need a 6-2 SEC record. Georgia has a cupcake schedule, with SC being the only other opponent of note. Florida needs Georgia to lose to SC, then they need SC to lose to Arkansas or MSU. This works on the idea that Florida beats both Georgia and SC thus having the head to head edge. I haven't mentioned UT because they have Arkansas, LSU and Bama from the west. They are losing at least 2 of those, plus I am assuming they lose to Florida and probably SC as well as Georgia.

Special teams:

Like the 51 yard bomb. Like Patton's block. Like the return (not the nullification)

So, all in all, decent first outing. Lots of potential for down the road. In reality, I think we should temper our excitement for this year, and think 2012-2013.