Tim Tebow Zone

The Florida Gator Spring Orange and Blue game was held on Saturday. The game featured Tim Tebow and all the Gator stars, except Percy Harvin who is still recovering from his heel surgery. The game was nationally televised on ESPN 2. That’s big-time exposure for a team vying for that #1 preseason ranking.

Unfortunately, I am out of town the entire week and was not able to see the Spring Game. So, I can’t give you a personal recap of what I saw. Instead of reading a Tebow update here, you need to head over to the Gator Envy Forums and you will read several threads on the Spring game and what happened. The people on Gator Envy are very knowledgable and will help you if you have any questions about the game.

Go Gators!

The Florida Gators take the field in Gainesville this afternoon for the annual spring Orange and Blue game. Tim Tebow will be playing and you can count on him putting up some decent numbers.

There was a lot of talk this week about whether or not Tim Tebow should even play in the game. Why risk getting him hurt you know? Well, Meyer has a lot of things Tim needs to work on, such as the 2 minute drill and getting the ball off when being pressured. Rest assure though that Urban will be standing behind Tim Tebow the entire game to make sure no one hits him. Tim will be wearing a red shirt and Meyer will have the whistle in his mouth ready to blow a play dead befpre anyone touches Tim.

The ORange and Blue game is on ESPN this afternoon at 12:00 or 1:00. College gameday is on ESPN2 from 11:00-12:00. Be sure to check it out at the beginning and you know you’ll get to see Tebow in action.

Tomorrow, Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators football team will finally hit the practice fields. Wednesday, March 19 from 3:25 p.m.-5:55 p.m., the players will get down and dirty and start their journey towards a 2008 National Championship. The players actually won’t do a whole lot on Wednesday, just some basic workouts to get prepared. You can view the full Spring Practice schedule, which ends with the Orange & Blue game, on Gator Zone.

I remember last year coming off the 2006 National Championship, Gator fans were obsessed with the phenomenon of Tim Tebow. They stalked him around the stadium and were 4 rows deep at the practice field fence just trying to get a glimpse of his greatness.

I’m not sure if Tebowmania will start out as ramped as last year, but I would wager that there will be a good amount of fans out there to support Tim and the team. I just don’t think the coaches will have to drive him around in a golf cart for protection.

So will you be there to watch?

Matt Hayes of the Sporting News is reporting that Tim Tebow is working on his 2-minute drill. You may recall that the Gators lost a couple of games last year in the last few minutes (Auburn and LSU). With Tim Tebow being dedicated to improving his 2-minute drill, the Gators will stand a better chance at finishing games and coming home with the victory.

From Matt Hayes’ article…

“Tebow’s passer rating in the first quarter last season was an unthinkable 219.72 (Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford was the overall leader at 176.50) but plummeted to 126.24 in the fourth. The plan for the 2-minute drill this fall: run less, be patient and have confidence in the short and intermediate passing games.”

Now, a QB rating of 126.24 is actually very good. But when we’re talking about Superman Tim Tebow, we’d like to see it hover around 170+. That’s just what we’ve come to expect from him.

The curse of the Heisman Trophy winner sucking it up in the Bowl Game has struck again. Normally you wouldn’t call a four touchdown performance “sucking it up”, but when Tim Tebow is the quarterback, you expect much greater things.

Tebow arguably had his worst performance as a starter against Michigan yesterday in the Gators 41-35 loss to the Wolverines. Tebow was 17-33 for only 154 yards passing. He also carried the ball 16 times for 57 yards.

Gator fans can give Tebow all the excuses they want (like the offensive line played like crap or the refs blew too many penalties). But honestly, Tebow just didn’t play like the Tebow we know. He wasn’t accurate and he wasn’t making good decisions. You can’t put the loss on him, but once again when given a chance to bring the Gators to victory in the fourth quarter he came up short.

There’s no telling if his broken hand still bothered him or what. Tebow and the Gators (minus Percy Harvin who played a hell of a game) just didn’t play good enough to beat the Wolverines. Most of the blame, however, does go on the sorry defense. Scoring 35 points should be enough to win.

It’s New Year’s Eve… you know what that means? Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators are only one day away from their New Years Day Capital One Bowl Game against the dangerous Michigan Wolverines. Most lines I’ve seen have the Gators favored by 14 pts or so.

The Wolverines have a lot of fire power on offense, led by senior quarterback Chad Henne, wide receiver Mario Manningham, and senior running back Mike Hart. The Wolverines bring one of the most balanced offenses the Gators have seen all year. They’ll likely try to attack the Gators young secondary (much like every other team has this year) by putting the ball in the air. The Wolverines may put up 30+ points on the Gators… but somehow I don’t think that’ll be enough.

See the Gators have the X Factor. And his name is Tim Tebow.

Tebow’s been practing and chopping at the bits to get back on the field and lay it to someone, probably an unsuspecting linebacker. Tebow will prove to everyone in the country why he was named the Heisman Trophy winner and AP Player of the Year. Michigan just doesn’t have a strong enough defense to stop Tebow on the ground or in the air.

I predict Tebow will have another monster game. Something like 280 yards passing and 90 yards rushing with about 5 total touchdowns. Actually, now that I think about it… that’s not a monster game for Tebow, it’s pretty much average.

The game is being played in Orlando, so you can expect a very large and loud Gator crowd at the stadium. Michigan will travel, but they won’t come close to the number of Gators fans. The game is at 1:00, so don’t forget to tune in!

Go Gators!

For more discussion on the Capital One Bowl Game, please visit Gator Envy.

Most of you know that Tim Tebow broke his non-throwing hand against FSU a couple of weeks ago. He was giving a cast to speed up the healing process and was seen still wearing the cast during the Heisman Ceremony.Tebow is now practicing without the cast. When asked about how his hand feels, Tebow said, “It’s getting better. I’m able to have full range of motion with it. Obviously, it’s not quite as strong as it was, but the strength is pretty decent.”

I watched the entire FSU game, and never even realized he got hurt until yesterday. During the game (I haven’t found out exactly at what point yet), Tebow broke his non-throwing hand and will be forced to wear a cast on it for several weeks. Early reports indiciate Tebow should be fine for the Gators bowl game on New Year’s Day.

The Gators rocked their biggest rival 45-12 in a game where FSU never had a chance. Tebow was 19 of 28 for 262 yards and 3 passing touchdowns. He also rushed the ball 13 times for 89 yards and two touchdowns.

Tebow has now officially accounted for 51 touchdowns this season. “My goodness, that’s a lot of touchdowns,” coach Urban Meyer said Saturday. “Good for him. You want to see a bad quarterback, put a bunch of bad players around him and you officially have yourself a bad quarterback, including Tim Tebow. … We don’t have bad people around him.”

This evening, the Florida State Seminoles will run on to Florida Field hoping for an upset of our beloved Florida Gators and Tim Tebow. Of 16 ‘experts’ I saw on TV today, not one of them picked Florida State to win the game. Now that is expected, afterall, Florida is a superior team. But don’t think the Noles won’t make this one competitive.

The Noles have nothing to lose and will be very very aggressive with the ball. They would love nothing more then to come into the Swamp and win. Lucky for the Gators, we have the X factor on our team, and his name is Tim Tebow.

The Gators may be out of the SEC title picture, but Tim still has something to play for. A Heisman trophy.

I look for the Seminoles to keep this game close up through midway in the 3rd quarter. From then on it will be all Gators, with a final score of something like 35-17. Tim Tebow will lead the way with five total touchdowns, 3 passing and 2 rushing. While, I want Tebow to have 4 passing touchdowns, so he can get to 30 on the season, I don’t see him getting 4. But 5 total touchdowns and 300+ total yards should keep him in the driver’s seat for the Heisman.

For more Florida vs. Florida State game chat, visit Gator Envy.

Good luck, and Go Gators!

In the Florida Gators stomping of the FAU Owls, Our favorite quarterback Timmy Tebow became the first player in NCAA history with at least 20 touchdowns passing and rushing in the same season. Tebow now has 26 passing touchdowns and 20 rushing touchdowns this season. If Tebow throws for 4 touchdowns against FSU this weekend he can also become the only player to be 30-20. That is just insane!

Tebow had a great game against the Owls, throwing for 338 yards and completing 73.5% of his passes. He did have 1 interception, but that was overshadowed by his 4 total touchdowns. Tebow now has two straight 300 yard passing games.

Listening to the post game interview, I think it’s funny to hear Meyer criticize Timmy.

“Tim didn’t play his best game,” Meyer said. “That’s being critical. I’m being critical of Tim because he needs a little critical analysis every once in a while. He did not play his best game, but that tells you how good a football player he is.”

I know Meyer’s just trying to keep Tim humble so all this attention and record setting stuff doesn’t go to his head, but really Urban, show him some love!

The win moved Florida up to #12 in the BCS.