ATLANTA — Now that it’s all over — aside from a likely trip to the national championship — Florida coach Urban Meyer could finally say what he felt about his team.
Meyer’s trademark stone-cold demeanor was gone after Florida’s 31-20 SEC Championship win over Alabama. The deadpanning was still there, but Meyer — for his standards, at least — was downright gushing.
“I love these players. You don’t hear me say that too often,” Meyer said. “I love this football team, I love the way they fight, I love what they’re made of and this will go down as one of the greatest wins in Florida football history.”
The player who sat right next to him at the postgame press conference, in between Meyer’s 9-year-old son, Nate, didn’t skip a beat.
Quarterback Tim Tebow was smiling, cracking jokes and laughing at a number of Meyer’s answers.
Tebow’s most difficult task of the day? Running a lap around the Georgia Dome as confetti rained on the field, he said, to high-five everyone he knew, or those that simply put up a willing hand.
His play on the field, which has been nothing short of perfect since Florida’s mid-season upset loss to Ole Miss, allowed him to be that way. Tebow’s 216-yard, three-touchdown performance against one of the toughest defenses in the country wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It’s what he’s done since the beginning of his 2007 Heisman-trophy winning season.
It’s exactly why Meyer had no problem — finally — endorsing Tebow for a second consecutive year.
“No disrespect to all the Big 12 quarterbacks, all three of them I think are tremendous players,” Meyer said. “My quarterback, I think, is the best in college football. I think he is the best college football player in America.”
The “best player,” Meyer said, ultimately “willed” Florida to Saturday’s victory with what Meyer labeled “the drive of the year.”
Alabama used 10:37 of the third quarter on two respective drives to turn a 17-10 Florida halftime lead into a 20-17 deficit.
Tebow ran and threw the Gators from Alabama’s 38 to the friendliest end zone in the Georgia Dome in a 5:47 drive to put Florida back on top and seemingly take everything out of No. 1 Alabama. Tebow iced it with his third-and-final touchdown pass to Riley Cooper with 2:50 to play.
The junior quarterback followed the play by jumping in his receivers’ arms before ripping off his helmet, pounding his chest and screaming at the Gator fans.
And now Florida, for the second time in three seasons, will — barring a BCS meltdown — be playing on college football’s most special day.
Source: oanow.com
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