Florida's Tebow expected to return for LSU game

Florida coach Urban Meyer thinks the odds are good that Tim Tebow, recovering from a concussion in the third quarter of the Kentucky game that sent him to the hospital overnight, will be ready for the Gators' next game on Oct. 10 at LSU.

"Tim's doing good," Meyer said after Monday's practice.

"All the tests are coming back positive and I'm going to leave it up to the medical staff to update (the media) because I don't want to give you information I don't know. But he's doing good. I talk to him all the time. He's feeling better."

Meyer stayed with Tebow at the UK Medical Center on Saturday night in his room.

"You do that with any player but Tim's a special guy," Meyer said. "His family's there. I just wanted to make sure he was all right. He was actually responding very well to everything."

The group watched college football games on TV and Meyer said it was a very light atmosphere.

"What it was like, it was basically a family member. You're all together in there and he smiles at you. It was all fun. We were watching TV and talking about the plays, talking about the offense ran for 362 and then we were watching,'' Meyer said. "I can't remember which game we were watching, but we were watching the game on TV."

Meyer said Tebow, "Still has got a little bit of a headache, which I guess is normal, but he feels good. He's eating well. Other than a little soreness and a headache, that's it.''

When Tebow, who has no neck or back issues, returns to practice is "day to day." Meyer said there are tests scheduled today that will be important. But Meyer added the tests taken on Tebow on Monday were "real positive."

The medical staff will ultimately make the decision when Tebow gets back.

"As far as health-wise we won't play him until he's ready, and Tim's Tim. He'll be ready to go," Meyer said.

Asked if he thought Tebow would play against LSU, Meyer said, "I think so, but I don't know that (for sure)."

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks called UF on Monday to check on the quarterback's health.

"You talk about first class people and the people of Lexington, I can't remember the name of the hospital, I've been to some hospitals in my life and I've never seen anything like what they did. We're very gracious people,'' Meyer said.

UF offensive coordinator Steve Addazio took blame for Tebow getting hurt, refusing to say anyone missed an assignment on the play to allow Kentucky defensive end Taylor Wyndham to have a free shot at Tebow. On the way to the ground, he hit teammate Marcus Gilbert in the leg, making the impact even worse.

"I'm not a medical guy, but he's the toughest guy in college football without question, without a doubt in my mind," Addazio said of the odds Tebow will play against LSU. "I've been around this game a long time, in a lot of places and I've never seen a guy like him, okay? For who he is as a person, his mental and physical toughness is just superior. Certainly you always have your best shot with a guy like Tim Tebow. He is just tough as nails mentally and physically, so we're lucky we've got him on our side."

While most of the starters took Monday off to rest, the full squad will be together today. Backup quarterback John Brantley was among those who practiced Monday. He realizes he has to get ready if Tebow can't play.

"He looked pretty good, I saw him yesterday,'' Brantley said of Tebow. "We didn't really speak too much, I didn't want to bother him. I saw him yesterday, I wanted to say hi and see how he was doing. He looked pretty good, he was smiling. He was wondering how I did, he was like, 'I heard you did alright in the game.' He was smiling, looking pretty good.

"I've seen him take a lot of hits and I've always seen him bounce right back up from them with a smile,'' Brantley said. "To see him not get up for that first time, that was kind of weird. It was a little bit of a shock."