Not long after their 52-7 dismantling of Charleston Southern, a group of veteran Miami players approached coach Randy Shannon and, according to the coach, said, ``It's over. Let's get back to work.''

The Hurricanes played 18 true freshmen Thursday night, showing the face of what UM hopes will be a thriving future and prompting Shannon to call the 2008 Canes ``a lot better than the team we had last year as far as guys doing what we wanted.''

But few players just out of high school, if any, could envision the type of talent and speed they will see at The Swamp next Saturday night, when UM will face Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators.

Shannon said he is ready for the hype.

''ESPN has it, so it's another nationwide TV game,'' Shannon said. ``You're going to have the atmosphere, you're going to have the TV audience. You're going to have a state rivalry game, so you can't try to downplay it. It's going to be hard, no matter what.''

BLOWOUT ALERT?

Shannon was told there was talk that Florida coach Urban Meyer might run up the score to assert the Gators' dominance after losing six consecutive games to the Hurricanes, dating to 1986. It could do wonders for recruiting.

''I don't worry about what he does,'' Shannon said. ``If that's what he chooses to do -- they've got a great offense. They've got a great team. You've got a Heisman Trophy candidate [Tebow]. [Wide receiver] Percy Harvin is a Heisman Trophy candidate. The last couple of years they've been in the top five in recruiting. They've got the talent to do it. I don't know what Urban is going to do. I can't control what another coach does. I won't run the score up on nobody.''

One thing the Miami coach will do, however, as promised, is start redshirt freshman Robert Marve against the Gators. Marve won the preseason quarterback competition but was suspended Thursday, allowing true freshman Jacory Harris to play almost the entire game.

''Marve will be the starter and Jacory will play,'' Shannon said. ``Nothing will change. Jacory did a great job [Thursday] night.''

Reviewing the Charleston Southern game, Shannon said the Hurricanes ''got into a lull, kind of a sleep mentality'' in the second quarter.

''We talked about it at halftime, that we don't want to be a team that starts off and is just satisfied,'' Shannon said. He said his players came back and ended the game well.

Shannon added that he wants to see better tackling ``in key situations.''

''We didn't wrap guys up,'' he said. ``We hit them and knocked them back three or four yards, and then they balanced their feet and kept going.''

The coach said freshman Sean Spence exhibited ''perfect form'' with a big hit.

''He drove his feet, grabbed the guy and took him to the ground,'' he said.

``Darryl Sharpton had the same kind of hit but he didn't wrap up. That's more repetition and stressing it in practice, and we'll do that.''

On special teams, Shannon said he thought kickoff coverage ``was very good. We just have to get our kicker to do a better job of placing the football. Our score team -- our punt-return team did a phenomenal job of putting pressure on the kicker. And [Graig] Cooper doing that [66-yard] return [for a touchdown] coming out of halftime was very very huge for us.''

INJURY UPDATES

Shannon said he still doesn't know if defensive ends Eric Moncur (hernia) and Allen Bailey (pectoral muscle) will be ready for the Gators. He said right tackle Chris Rutledge, who left the game early with an injury, will play. He also said right tackle Reggie Youngblood, who sat out with a head injury, should be back.

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