Should it come down to a long distance field goal in the University of Florida's football season opener against Hawai'i or another early game, Gators' coach Urban Meyer says he'll feel a lot more comfortable about calling on true freshman kicker Caleb Sturgis.

"People undervalue what it is like for an 18, 19-year old playing out there in front of (61,000) people on national TV and seeing how they perform," Meyer said.

Coaches don't. So, when Sturgis nailed a 60-yard field goal in the Orange and Blue game before 61,000 in The Swamp and an ESPN GameDay audience earlier this month, Meyer was nearly as jubilant as the 17-year old. "Now, at least, I know ..." Meyer said.

The Warriors would like to have upwards of 20,000 for the inaugural Football Ohana Festival spring game tomorrow night at Aloha Stadium and ESPN won't be on hand, but UH coach Greg McMackin knows where Meyer is coming from. The Warriors, with new or inexperienced players at several positions, want an indication of who can perform under the lights and in front of a crowd well before they step into The Swamp, 88,548-seat Ben Hill Griffith Stadium, in four months. And this is it.

Producing on the lower campus practice field in front of a couple dozen scattered onlookers in drills is one thing. Proving a worthiness for game-type conditions can be another. "Receivers, for example, can catch it when they know they're not going to get hit, but you want to see who can catch it in a game like this where they know they are gonna get blasted," McMackin said.

Once upon a time, when spring games were warmed-over practices "you focused on player development because you didn't have the crowd factor," Meyer said. But now, with spring games being given bigger stages and becoming more elaborate productions, they have become crowd-drawing events.

As such, schools use them to boost interest and coaches tailor them to evaluate players and kickoff early-season recruiting.

Coming off the 12-1 Sugar Bowl season of 2007 and heading into a schedule that sends the Warriors in Gainesville, Fl. and Corvallis, Ore. in the first three weeks, the Warriors have both a lot to sell and a lot to find out about themselves.

In time, McMackin, who has grand plans for the spring game concept, would like to grow it into a major attraction with satellite events. For the moment, the Warriors would just like to find out who they can feel comfortable about putting on the field come Aug. 30th.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.