GAINESVILLE — Don’t expect Florida coaches to learn too much about their team Saturday when the Gators open their season against Western Kentucky. The only fresh knowledge anyone in orange and blue may take away is the fact that the Hilltoppers’ amorphous blob of a mascot has a name (Big Red).

And while it is intriguing to ponder how WKU has managed to avoid getting sued by McDonald’s — Big Red is just a red Grimace, for goodness sakes — it won’t be intriguing to watch the Gators pound a team that until this season has toiled in Division I-AA. WKU is making the transition this season to what the NCAA now officially calls the Football Bowl Thingamajig, and in a few years the Hilltoppers will be the doormats of the Sun Belt Conference.

Big Red Grimace

The Gators originally signed up to open the season with Central Florida, but UCF moved the game last winter after agreeing to a home-and-home with North Carolina State. That left Florida scrambling for a game, and the Hilltoppers were the best the Gators could do.

WKU has played six Division I-A teams since 2002, going 0-6 and losing by a combined total of 246-80. That aggregate score would have been uglier had the Hilltoppers not hung 35 on Florida International — in its first year in I-A — in a 2005 loss.

So is Western Kentucky the worst team Florida has opened against in the past 20 years? Maybe. Maybe not.

Montana State (69-0 losers at The Swamp in 1988) and The Citadel (49-10 losers in 1998) certainly can make a case, but Montana State has an intercollegiate snow-skiing team — which is just really cool — and I don’t want to tick off any Citadel cadets.

At any rate, the Gators are paying the Hilltoppers $500,000 to take their whuppin’, meaning they’re getting less bang for their buck than in any previous year. For a measly $100,000 more a year ago, Florida brought in a Southern Mississippi squad fresh off an appearance in the New Orleans Bowl.

Florida fans will have to wait a year for a season-opener with a little juice. Hawaii brings its chuck-and-duck offense to The Swamp to kick off the 2008 season. That game will set the table for a visit from Miami in Week 2.