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Tebow 'Sorry' For Upset Loss

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 28, 2008

GAINESVILLE - An emotional Tim Tebow, voice strained and blinking repeatedly, came to the postgame interview session and patiently faced all the questions about Florida's 31-30 upset loss to Ole Miss and his failed fourth-down effort for a late-game first down that could have set up a winning field goal.

After the last question had been asked, Tebow stepped back to the microphone.

"To the fans and everybody of Gator Nation, long pause I'm sorry," Tebow said. "Extremely sorry. We were looking for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something that Florida has never done here. But I promise you one thing. A lot of good will come out of this.

"You will never see any player in the entire country who will play harder than I will play the rest of the season. And you will not see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody for the rest of the season and you will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless."

It was a tough day for the Heisman Trophy winner. Despite going 24-for-38 for 319 yards, he was not sharp, overthrowing and underthrowing open receivers often. He was sacked three times.

It was a day most Gators will want to forget quickly. But Tebow said no.

"For me, I don't want to," he said. "I want it to stay in our hearts and keep hurting, because this will motivate me personally, and I think everybody else, to never let something like this happen again."

NICE TO BE BACK: Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead, who once gave Florida coach Urban Meyer a verbal commitment before changing his mind, had an enjoyable day.

"This is a great feeling," he said. "This will be the turning point of our season."

Snead threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score. He went 9-for 20 for 185 yards, not outstanding numbers, but he made plays when the Rebels needed them. His biggest was an 86-yard touchdown pass to Shay Hodge that put the Rebels ahead 31-24 with 5:26 to play.

SOUND OF SILENCE: The Florida locker room was about what you would expect.

"You could hear a pin drop," DB Joe Haden said. "Nobody talking, nobody saying anything. People just sitting at their locker in full pads."

OG Mike Pouncey confirmed the shock.

"Everybody in there is down on themselves," he said. "We got to see if we got leadership now. Lead this team to a victory over Arkansas."

HANG ON HOUSTON: After close losses against Wake Forest and Vanderbilt, this was first-year coach Houston Nutt's signature victory.

"It would have been so easy to let go of the rope after Vanderbilt," Nutt said. "I asked the guys to believe in ourselves and to believe that we have a good team. We've always played hard, but we finished this game today. We can build on that."

GATOR BITES: Saturday's defeat by the Gators is their third loss to an unranked team under Meyer. ... The last time Florida lost three fumbles in one game before Saturday was in a 34-17 win against Vanderbilt on Nov. 6, 2004. ...Tebow continued his streak without an interception, now having 183 attempts without a pick, a school record and fifth all-time in the SEC.

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