Tebow sends message to Florida fans: Season isn't over

At the end of his postgame press conference Saturday afternoon, a highly-emotional QB Tim Tebow told reporters he wanted to send a personal message to Florida fans.

Here's the transcript of what he said.

"To the fans and everybody in Gator nation: You know what? I’m sorry, extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season, that was my goal. It’s something Florida has 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 the season. And you will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season. And you will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season. God bless.''

Sophomore OL Maurkice Pouncey said this loss will either break them down or push the team harder to succeed. He expects the latter.

“If the team comes out how I know our team is going to practice, we’re going to come out even hungrier,’’ Pouncey said. “Now we’ll see who is going to wimp up and say, “Man we loss and it’s just like last year. And we’ll see who is going to come out be hungry and ready go to get it again.’’

As for the Florida staff, they have quickly reminded the players that the season is not over.

“The goal coming into the season is always how you win the SEC East and get to Atlanta,’’ offensive coordinator Dan Mullen said. “We control our own destiny still for that. That’s always the focus and that never changes. We can control whether or not we get to Atlanta. We still have our destiny in our hands.’’

Comments

I wonder if Coach Meyer apologized to his players? They were poorly prepared and suffered from some serious mental lapses on the part of the coaching staff.

[L Falcon]

How do you lose to an inferior team at home? The offense is too one dimensional and these type of games will continue since opposing teams have a simple game plan: STOP TEBOW!!!!!!

[lanslify]

Sometimes less is more. That last drive had wasted downs without results. The Gators are a college football T E A M, not the Tim Tebow Show. All they needed to do was to get into really good field goal range. The win is always more important than a 2nd Heisman for Tim, not that I wouldn't want him to get it. But still, the goal is to WIN the game. A field goal would have done.

[Ryan]

It's funny how the second guessing on that last play begins. If the Gators go for the field goal and miss, everyone bashes the coaches for not going for it on 4th and 1. I personally have no problem that the Gators went for the 1st down with 55 seconds left and a timeout from a distance that this kicker has not proven he can be consistent. I just wish we would have called a different play than Tebow up the middle. But how many times has Tebow and the Gators been stopped in that situation the last two years. Not many, so that play had less impact than giving up an 85 yard TD pass on 3rd and 9 from the 15, the blocked PAT, and overthrowing two wide open WR's on the last drive. There was plenty of mistakes, this team needs to refocus and get back to winning against Arkansas. Forget worrying about the SEC Championship or LSU or Georgia, just take one week at a time and win!

[George]

USF is the only undefeated FL team....GO BULLS!

UF couldn't handle AUBURN last year at home. USF went to AUBURN and handed it to them.

I know USF could take OLE MISS...

[SEC brainiac]

I'll think that the university of felons is legit if/when they beat a team with a winning record

[Bulls Fan]

George, you are an IDIOT. The season isn't even half over and there is a lot of football left to play. As a Bulls Fan, I hope WE go undefeated and win the Big East. Anything can happen on any Saturday. Auburn was Last Year. Until, we play and beat the Gators, we should Keep Our Mouth Shut and "respect our elders".

No-one (even a Seminole) can say that UF does not have one of the Best Football Progams in the country. I just hope that we can get there one day.

I support ALL the Florida teams,....in the following order of course (no offense Gators).

GO BULLS,
GO GATORS,
GO SEMINOLES,
GO KNIGHTS,
GO CANES,

[tHe LaUgHiNg CoW]

>>>No-one (even a Seminole) can say that UF does not have one of the Best Football Progams in the country<<<

I can ... because they do NOT --- they are a 1 dimensional, over-hyped bunch of misfits that have yet to play or beat a team with a winning record

[jose]

florida is in denial. Meyer wont admit his offense is not dependable and tebow actually had the balls to say that he got great penetration on that last drive but got a bad spot. What? he actually might have lost yardage.

the gators are in denial, they will lose at least one more

[tHe LaUgHiNg CoW]

one more? wishful thinking ... more like AT LEAST 2-3 more

[Brandon]

What is with some of you people? Who are your teams that are so great? Hmmmm, we've beaten the hell out of FSU for four yrs in a row and beat Miami 26-3 this year. I find it funny you Gator haters come out and talk trash every time we lose, but I ask who your team is? I'm guessing we've beaten you and that's why you are so bitter. Show a little class. We lost a game by one pt to a team we shouldn't have lost to. You know the Gators are going to still have a good season. Shut your mouth and worry about your own team.

What is with some of you people? Who are your teams that are so great? Hmmmm, we've beaten the hell out of FSU for four yrs in a row and beat Miami 26-3 this year. I find it funny you Gator haters come out and talk trash every time we lose, but I ask who your team is? I'm guessing we've beaten you and that's why you are so bitter. Show a little class. We lost a game by one pt to a team we shouldn't have lost to. You know the Gators are going to still have a good season. Shut your mouth and worry about your own team.

What is with some of you people? Who are your teams that are so great? Hmmmm, we've beaten the hell out of FSU for four yrs in a row and beat Miami 26-3 this year. I find it funny you Gator haters come out and talk trash every time we lose, but I ask who your team is? I'm guessing we've beaten you and that's why you are so bitter. Show a little class. We lost a game by one pt to a team we shouldn't have lost to. You know the Gators are going to still have a good season. Shut your mouth and worry about your own team.

[Brandon]

I am warning you .. .. .. I am going to post the same thing over again!
I'll get the hang of this here MS Windors for Gaders one of these days

[gkn]

Well its karma for you baby gator fans.I guess even urban has a bad day.After the Miami game you felt pretty confident,with finally winning against them after 23 years.If you had the guts to play them year after you might have beat them once or twice through the years.

[BoomerSooner]

As an Oklahoma fan, I would not be afraid of UF - without Percy harvin, you don't win 7 games this year - you have a lot of talented players but that stupid offense doesn't utilize them. Tebow is irrelevant - you always know what he's going to do, and is 12-5 as a starter. Go ahead and insult me today, but wake up tomorrow and know it's true.

I wouldn't get so cocky OSU fan. You guys may have some losses coming as well. If you win out, you deserve to be in the championship. It's a long season. Once again Gater haters, who's your team. We beat FSU four yrs in a row and we just beat Miami a few weeks ago. It's funny how we lose a game by one pt and you haters act like it's the end of our season. You know that isn't true. I'm glad watching us lose makes your week that much better. We'll see what happens and who's number one at the end. It's a long season with a lot of football to be played. We will beat LSU in two weeks and will be right back in the mix for the national championship.

BoomerSooner-As a Gator fan, I wouldn't be scared of OSU who chokes every time they get in the big game.

I hope the Gators play OSU this year. It wont happen though because Florida is going to win the rest of their games and OSU is losing at least 2 games.

gkn-It's obvious you are a Cane fan. How many championships have you won since joining the ACC? None would be the answer. Keep dreaming about the glory days with Gino Toretta.

[gkn]

5-2 baby

Actions speak louder than words, like your choke against Boise State. We'll see what happens when you start playing conference teams. By the way, you might want to check your stats before talking trash to Gator fans. Only Zook (2003) had a season with only seven wins. It's going to be fun watching you guys lose again. Bad karma coming your way...

[Ron Zook]

HERBan Cryer won that national title with MY players!

[Brandon]

What's your point? Zook was a great recruiter. It's not like all Gator fans hate Zook. I'm glad he contributed to helping Meyer and the Gators to winning a national title. Have you checked out our recruiting classes since Meyer has been here? Top three every year. He also recruited great players like Tebow and Harvin. Without these two players, we wouldn't have won the 06 championship.

[kyle]

this will be the only game florida will lose, so many people hate tebow because hes so successful, and thats disgusting. get over it, florida will always be better than ohio state, USC, all those bogus over-ranked teams. they dont belong on the top as we all can see, they lose to nobodys, but this is the SEC and its always tough regardless who you play. and thats the bottom line. end of story.

[kyle]

cuz we got so much more tradishun than ohio state or usc too!

[michael]

Gators suck and their season is WAY OVER!! GO SEMINOLES!!

Gators season is over ha?