Tomas Verde is a journalism student at the University of Florida and proprietor of 4th and Fail.

On a weekend rife of capital matchups, without a doubt, one rises up above the rest in the eyes of most college football fans. That’s right: Florida at LSU. The winners of the last three BCS National Championships will come to blows under the hazy somber skies of Baton Rouge.

The all important question looms, what is the status of Tim Tebow? Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know he suffered a severe concussion two weeks ago in Lexington, and didn’t practice with the team until Tuesday. Even then, he wasn’t taking, or more appropriately delivering, contact. As of right now, Orlando Local 6’s David Pingalore is reporting that Tebow will not only play against LSU, but start. However, nothing has been confirmed by Urban Meyer. There’s a chance this is gamesmanship or even if it’s true that Tebow may not be physically able to play the entire game.

So I’ll delve into the unknown and preview the game as if Tebow wasn’t playing. In lieu of Tebow lining up in the backfield, Florida will have redshirt sophomore John Brantley taking snaps. There was chatter at the beginning of summer the he was the third best quarterback in the SEC behind Tebow and Ole Miss gunslinger Jevan Snead. Six weeks into the season, I would say he’s taken a backseat to Ryan Mallett and Greg McElroy, but is at worst still better than Tennessee’s Jonathan Crompton (muhaha 23-13,23-13, 23-13).

With Brantley taking the helm for the Gators offense, we should expect a few tweaks to fit the offense to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses. Expect option-keepers to be replaced by the three-headed monster of Jeff Demps, Chris Rainey and Emmanuel Moody. And even though Brantley has a better arm than Tebow, I don’t think we’ll see many deep throws, but rather, more short, quick, high percentage routes. For starters, Florida’s vertical passing game has been AWOL for most of the season. More importantly, the Tigers are maintaining an eye-popping 32 game winning streak for Saturday night games (the lone night home loss over that span was to Tennessee in 2005, but that game was moved to a Monday night due to Hurricane Rita). Meyer is going to ease Brantly into the flow of the game and put the pressure on/give the ball to more experienced players.

LSU has a tremendous home field advantage, but the game is played on the field not in the stands. LSU could’ve easily lost their past two games. They needed a goal-line stand to seal the deal against Mississippi State and a questionable unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for excessive celebration on Georgia’s AJ Green to propel a last minute game winning touchdown drive.

Calm down big guy, shit’s about to hit the fan

Basically, of the unbeaten teams, LSU has probably impressed me the least. That doesn’t mean this won’t be a tough game, because trust me, it will. It’s a showcase of two great defenses, and I think Florida’s will come out on top. Brantley probably won’t put up mind-boggling statistics, but I think he will manage the game enough for Florida’s run game (first in the nation and would be sixth without Tebow’s 271 yards) to handle business.

Regardless of who starts for the Gators, I see LSU’s 32 game Saturday night home winning streak being snapped, Florida avenging the 2007 loss in Death Valley, and the Gators making it through one of their biggest obstacles en route to another SEC Championship.

Prediction: Gators 27–Tigers 17.