Tebow delivers on promise, lifts Florida to SEC title

Dec 7, 2008 - 3:47 AM By Phil Foley PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ATLANTA (Ticker) -- A contemplative Tim Tebow sat slumped in his locker composing himself after Florida was shocked by Ole Miss in "the Swamp."

A blocked extra point and tough late stand by Mississippi's defense stymied the Gators, who were installed as three-touchdown favorites on that late September day in Gainesville.

Florida fell, 31-30, and things looked grim.

The Gators had to meander through a tough Southeastern Conference schedule, which included powerhouses LSU and Georgia, if they even hoped to make it to the Georgia Dome for the SEC championship game and a shot at a national title.

There was no margin for error. No one knew that better, or took the loss harder, than Tebow.

"To the fans and everybody, I'm sorry," Tebow said in the post-game press conference. "We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida's never done here. But I promise you one thing - a lot of good will come out of this.

"You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season and you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season."

The reigning Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback backed up his words with actions the rest of the way as Florida rolled, winning their next eight games by an average of nearly 40 points.

Florida ascended to second in the Associated Press poll and fourth in both the USA Today poll and the BCS standings and would get a chance to play for another national championship - that is - if they could get past their undefeated SEC foe, top-ranked Alabama, in the league's championship game.

Before a packed house of 75,892 at the Georgia Dome - the largest crowd to ever witness an SEC championship game here - Tebow delivered on Saturday afternoon.

The junior imposed his will at the Georgia Dome, accounting for 76 percent of the Gators' total offense, passing for 216 yards and running for 57 more while rallying his club from a fourth-quarter deficit to defeat Alabama, 31-20.

Redemption was at hand.

"I've had some great players and I have a bunch of good players on this team," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "But I've never had one like this. There's something special inside of him, I'm talking about the ability to make the level of play of everyone else around him better."

To get there, Tebow dispatched of a couple of knocks against him.

Although he threw for a touchdown in Florida's lopsided 41-14 win over Ohio State in the 2007 national championship game, Tebow's detractors claimed that he had been a no-show in the big game.

And the 6-3 quarterback from St. Augustine, Florida had never rallied his team back from a fourth-quarter deficit.

That is, until Saturday night. But Tebow didn't give such statistics even a glancing thought.

"(Never rallying the team back in the fourth) was really never in my head," Tebow said. "I just wanted to find some way that this team could get a victory today, and that was all that I was really focused on."

Trailing, 20-17, going into the final 15 minutes, Tebow engineered a pair of scoring drives, willing his team down to the Florida 1 with a gritty rush down the middle before Jeffrey Demps powered into the end zone to give Florida a four-point lead.

After telling his team to put the game away in the huddle before Florida's next possession, Tebow did just that - finding Riley Cooper with a 5-yard strike for the final margin of victory.

Mission accomplished - well, almost.

As confetti streamed down from the Teflon-coated roof of the Georgia Dome, a fan flashed a sign equating the Florida quarterback as an action hero, which read "Can't Beat Superman."

Tebow, who easily won the game's MVP award, decided to take a three-quarters around the stadium, slapping the hands of the Florida faithful along the way.

"That was practically the hardest part of the day," Tebow joked. "I was getting so tired. These fans have supported us through everything, and they're great fans. I just wanted to give back as much as I could by shaking a hand."

Superman may be human after all.