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Tebow, Florida need strong showing vs. Arkansas

Oct 4, 2008 - 10:06 AM (13) Florida (3-1) at Arkansas (2-2), 12:30 pm EDT

FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas (Ticker) -- Tim Tebow blamed himself for last week's upset loss.

The reigning Heisman Trophy winner can make himself feel better Saturday when 13th-ranked Florida visits struggling Arkansas in a Southeastern Conference contest.

Tebow was impressive statistically, passing for 319 yards and a touchdown with two rushing scores during Saturday's 31-30 upset loss to Mississippi. But the junior lost a fumble and was stuffed on a critical 4th-and-1 on the Gators' final possession.

Gators coach Urban Meyer refused to blame his superstar quarterback and shifted it to the entire team.

"We did not play Florida football," Meyer said. "We dropped the ball and did not catch passes. We didn't stop third down in the second half."

Florida (3-1, 1-1 SEC East), which did not commit a turnover in its first three games, lost three fumbles, dropped four passes and gave up big plays to the Ole Miss offense.

The Razorbacks (2-2, 0-1 West) could provide the cure for the Gators' woes. Florida has defeated Arkansas in six of their previous seven meetings.

Arkansas also has struggled lately, dropping its last two contests by a combined margin of 101-24.

Colt McCoy and then-No. 7 Texas treated Arkansas like a warm-up game this past Saturday. McCoy, who threw just two incompletions, had five total touchdowns - three passing - to lead the Longhorns to a 52-10 rout of the Razorbacks last Saturday.

"We can't panic," Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. "We've got to make sure that we stick to our beliefs, to our fundamentals, and how we're going to build this program and just keep grinding and working hard."

It won't get any easy this week against Tebow, who passed for 808 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions this season. The dual-threat quarterback also has 125 rushing yards and two scores.