Gainesville, Fla. — Florida's stadium, The Swamp, held true to its name as rain rolled in prior to kickoff. The field was left wet, the air was humid and Hawai'i was far from the tropical paradise to which they are accustomed.

It was obvious that one impressive streak was going to come to an end yesterday afternoon. Hawai'i had won eight straight road games, while Florida had won 18 consecutive season openers, not to mention 38 of their last 39 openers at The Swamp. The Gators' streak prevailed following a 56-10 victory.

UH head coach Greg McMackin gave junior college transfer Greg Alexander the chance to prove to Warrior fans that he will lead the team to a successful season. Alexander had no previous experience when it comes to playing Division I football, and it started to show in the game.

"We had six turnovers today," McMackin said. "You aren't going to win a game if you do that."

Alexander was sacked three times, fumbled twice, and had a total of 57 yards. Brent Rausch and Inoke Funaki also saw action. Rausch was sacked once and had only 14 yards, while Funaki led UH to its only touchdown and finished with 110 yards and was not sacked.

McMackin is a realist, knowing that the Warriors lost all of their playmakers.

"We are still learning our offense, we are going to get better and better," he said. "I'm not down on any of our quarterbacks."

Florida, too, had something to prove. But it was on defense, where end Carlos Dunlap said the Gators are much improved.

"The defensive line is going to show out. It's going to show everybody what we've got," Dunlap said. "So everybody knows what we have. Ain't going to hide nothing."

The Gators showed that they were clearly not the same defense from last season's 9-4 team, which gave up two touchdowns to Michigan in the final few minutes of 41-35 loss in the 2008 Capital One Bowl.

"They have improved their defense," McMackin said. "They have a lot of speed."

Even without their defensive leader, injured linebacker Brandon Spikes, the Gators held the high-powered Warrior offense to 241 total yards.

Sophomore safety Ahmad Black intercepted two passes, returning one 80 yards for a touchdown.

"The defensive line got good pressure on the quarterback and the corners had good pressure underneath," Black said. "The quarterback threw a couple of bad passes and I took advantage of them."