Gator Country

There's no doubt that Tim Tebow had different designs for this season.

When the Florida quarterback spoke on stage at the team’s national championship celebration in January at The Swamp, he thanked his teammates and coaches for all the memories and then started to walk off stage before he turned around.

“Oh, and one more thing,” he said. “Let’s do it again! I’m coming back!”

There wasn’t any doubt among the 40,000 ebullient fans there that day about what he meant. Tebow was coming back to do something that had never been done at Florida—to be part of an undefeated national championship season. Three national championships in four years would have all but cemented Tebow and the Class of 2006 in the annals of college football.

But as he watched Alabama accumulate first downs in the third quarter and erase eight minutes from the clock, and later, as he watched them run out the game from the sidelines in the fourth quarter, Tebow saw those dreams die in the Tide’s 32-13 victory in the SEC Championship Game, one game short of playing for the BCS National Championship.

And as he looked on, tears ran down Tim Tebow’s face, tears of sadness, tears of frustration.

“Obviously, that’s not how we wanted it to end, so I was frustrated with it,” he said. “It was a hurtful time. All your dreams from the year are crashing, and you know that. Those emotions are hitting you, and those feelings are hitting you. It’s hard, and it’s tough to deal with, especially for someone who cares so much. That was a frustrating time, those last few minutes. Just sitting there watching them get first down after first down and run the clock, knowing that you can’t do anything about it.”

Now there is only one thing left to do, the quarterback said – finish strong. Actually, he said it four times.

“My motivation is still the same as it was a year ago—to finish strong,” Tebow said. “Obviously it’s not Pasadena (the site of the championship game), which was our dream this year. But you’ve still got to show character. If you get knocked down, you’ve got to get back up. I think that really shows your character, so we’ll see what ours is like.”

The highest high from a Sugar Bowl victory against unbeaten Cincinnati won’t replace the feeling of hoisting that crystal football, but losing this game would be one of the lowest moments for this senior class.

After that Alabama loss, head coach Urban Meyer said that this senior class’ legacy would be decided by how it rebounded, by how it played on New Year’s Day.

Senior wide receiver David Nelson agreed. He called the game “all or nothing” for his class.

“That’s the mindset we need to have,” Nelson said. “Maybe sometime later we can come back and say that it didn’t really define our legacy, but right now, it’s what we need to think. Our focus is that we’ve had a great ride here but, like I said, it’s all or nothing in this game. You don’t want to go out with the loss. Especially with the things we’ve done within this conference as a team and as a group, we don’t need to lose.”

The game won’t just be a test of character for Florida. It will be a test of the team’s talent. Cincinnati is undefeated and seems at times to be unstoppable offensively.

The Bearcats have just as much motivation as the Gators. According to the Associated Press and ESPN, players are fuming over former head coach Brian Kelly’s decision to leave for Notre Dame. Receiver Mardy Gilyard told the AP that he was “disgusted with the situation.”

“They’re a good team, there’s no doubt about it,” Tebow said. “Their coach leaving is just going to add fuel to the fire. That probably put a little chip on their shoulder. We’re just going to have to go and compete and play hard. They’re a good team, and they’re playing for an undefeated season.”

There’s that undefeated season again. Tebow and Meyer handle most of Florida’s pressure, not because other players or coaches avoid it but because the two of them won’t let anyone else have it. They share it together.

When he feels that pressure, Tebow thinks back to his family and his faith.

“We put a lot of the burden on ourselves in these games, just for the rest of the team, coaches, family, the fans—obviously, you want the best for them,” Tebow said. “So for me, the way of handling it is being with my family and my faith, obviously, and knowing that it’s just a game. What you do with it is what’s really important. The people that you can impact through it is most important. And that’s how both me and coach Meyer get through it.”

That’s how Tebow has begun to rebound from the Alabama loss, beginning with a question from a reporter in the postgame conference about Taylor Haugen, a 15-year-old who died in a football game. Tebow wears his foundation’s band on his wrist.

That when Tebow began to realize that it’s not about what happened. It’s about what happens next.

You win some, you lose some, but you have got to finish strong.

More Football | RSS