When it comes to Gators football this season, there are a handful of sure things.

• ESPN's Erin Andrews, a UF alum, will interview Tim Tebow at least three times, and one of them will blush at some point during one of those discussions.

• The Gators will cover the most ridiculous of spreads in college football history -- a 73-point line set for their game against Charleston Southern. Sounds like a lot, of course, especially when you consider that UF should have the second-teamers in there by halftime. But this is a CSU team that lost 42-0 to Liberty last season. The Gators' third-stringers could beat Liberty 42-0. Somehow that logic translates to a comfortable 84-7 UF win.

COCKY COACH

• Urban Meyer not only will be the highest-paid coach in the game, but will act like it, carrying himself with an arrogance only Phil Jackson can truly understand.

Notice that none of those sure things include winning a national championship, even if every prognosticator in the business

insists it's the safest bet in some time.

Of course, the Gators have almost every member of a dominant defense

returning for another season, which is even more important than the fact that Tebow came back for his senior season.

But standing on top of the college football world in August always has been a dangerous position. Standing there as defending national champions is even more treacherous.

If history tells us anything about what the Gators are to expect this season, the principle lesson is that this team, no matter who tells you otherwise, is certainly no sure thing.

The last time a national champ returned the following season as top dogs and maintained that position was the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers, one of the best teams in college football history that coincidentally trounced the Gators 62-24.

In 2004, Southern California was the only team this decade that held the preseason top spot.

And although it seems like everyone is saying the Gators have a cakewalk to, at the very least, the SEC title game, there are enough potential potholes that will make this less of a third Tebow coronation and more of an actual test.

For starters, there are at least two games that should create some level of tension for the overconfident Gator Nation.

The Oct. 10 visit to LSU stands out. UF hasn't won there since 2003, and the Tigers have the look of last year's Gators team. Like the 2008 Florida team, the Tigers went from national champs one year to a disappointing follow-up. But this year, LSU has as much athleticism and talent to return to their dominant ways, and a home game against the Gators is enough motivation to play its best game of the season.

We've learned three times in the past 13 years that one regular-season loss doesn't eliminate UF from championship contention. But its luck would have to run out at some point. And besides, Tebow wants a perfect season, so any regular-season loss would be devastating at some level.

Then there's the final conference game, at South Carolina. It's not nearly as stressful. But it is still Steve Spurrier coaching the Gamecocks -- the guy who conveniently didn't put Tebow on his All-SEC first team. And after the Gators put back-to-back beatings on Carolina, it's safe to say the former master of revenge games will have something prepared for his alma mater.

FINAL TESTS

It's more likely, though, that the danger of UF comes in the postseason. The SEC title game could match the Gators with a dangerous Ole Miss team with the conference's second-best quarterback, Jevan Snead, or an in-season rematch with LSU, or even rematch of last season's close conference title game with Alabama.

The best chance at a slip-up for the Gators would, however, come in the final game of the season. At least if history is any indication.

Just ask the 2002 Hurricanes how painful it is to come so close to repeating only to come one small piece of yellow laundry away from hoisting another trophy. Or the 2005 Trojans, who watched a bitter Heisman runner-up from Texas single-handedly ruin their repeat hopes.

The Gators could face another slighted UT quarterback in the season's final game. Or the same Sooners quarterback who came up short last year and turned down millions for another shot at Florida.

No, there is no such thing as an easy road to a national title. And no matter how many people tell you otherwise, it gets even harder for a team making a return trip.

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