Tebow showed heart with heady effort

He played.

Everyone who doubted he would should have their heads examined.

He came, he saw, he Tebowed.

"I'm feeling great," he said.

Maybe they should just ship No. 15 a second Heisman right now. President Obama has phoned Stockholm and told them to forward his peace prize to Gainesville. Saturday night, the angels wept - and wore Tim Tebow T-shirts.

Two weeks after he lay motionless on the field with a severe concussion, Tim Tebow played quarterback. There was no way a player for the ages would miss the game of the season.

Get it into your thick skulls: It's not his head.

It's his heart.

Tebow and the top-ranked team in the country left the largest crowd in Tiger Stadium history dazed. Tebow lifted his team up just by being in there, but didn't settle for that. Florida's defense took if from there in a methodical 13-3 win. And the legend grew some more. It wasn't a night for numbers (Tebow ran for 38 yards and threw for 134 more), but then numbers never have told the story of Tim Tebow, and they never really will.

When Tebow emerged from the tunnel for pregame drills, parked in front of him and his teammates, behind very thick bars, was Mike the Tiger, LSU's live Bengal mascot.

Mike, Tim.

Tim, Mike.

Tebow the Lion-Hearted played, and he played, and he played.

He wasn't here for show. He was here to win.

A small army of physicians had cleared him after neurocognitive testing and imaging. We can just picture what happened after their last meeting with Tebow.

"Tim, could I get a picture with you, me and the CT scan?"

Florida coach Urban Meyer made an unfortunate choice of words himself when he told ESPN that his beyond-star quarterback was "dying to play" LSU. But we know what Meyer meant.

No. 15 wanted this one.

It went beyond fourth-ranked LSU, Tebow and the Gators still striving for back-to-back, for perfection. And Death Valley has been the valley of tears for the Gators the last two times.

Meyer, seemingly lost his first season at Florida, choked on his emotions after LSU beat the Gators here in 2006. In 2008, LSU and Coach Mad Hatter Les Miles gambled five times on fourth down and won and came from behind to beat the Gators at the end.

Tebow broke down after the game.

Who's crying now?

Saturday, he played, and he played, and he played.

The Gators played smart football. They played keepaway all night. They used their fleet running backs and didn't let Tebow sit back like a sitting duck on too many pass plays. The Florida offensive line didn't let their man get sacked.

And the nation's top-ranked defense suffocated LSU's mediocre offense, holding it to 162 yards. The D even stuffed LSU on a late fourth down.

Put that in your Mad Hat ...

On any other night, Florida's defense would have been the main story.

Only it wasn't.

There was only one.

Who didn't hold their breath the first time Tebow was hit?

In the first quarter, as he released a pass to tight end Aaron Hernandez (complete), LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson smashed Tebow, who landed on his back, hard, though his helmet hit the grass.

Then he got up.

It didn't matter what happened after that. OK, so it did. The point is, Tebow went in, got up, kept going and another hundred pages went in the storybook.

Late in the first half, he started to look like his old self. He lowered his head and he went after it on a big third-down play deep in LSU territory. The next play, he threw a 24-yard touchdown pass for a 10-3 Florida lead.

Put that in your neurocognitive ...

The second half? Tebow, fueled by the face mask on him deep in his own end. He brought the Gators downfield, carrying the ball again and again. He made short-term memories and long-term memories. He was relentless, and so was the No. 1 team in America.

There is still no telling if they'll stay that way the rest of the season. The issue remains in doubt. What isn't in doubt is the heart beneath the head on No. 15, not now, not ever.