You know, for a quarterback slotted to be taken well outside of the first round of the NFL draft, Tim’s getting an awful lot of press again.

With injury no-shows Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford, the Combine is turning in to another Senior Bowl, with a Tebow media frenzy hoping for…What are you people hoping for?

Between message boards and ESPN talking heads, you’d be hard pressed to find a consensus as to what people are really waiting to see out of Tim. Is the world looking for the Golden Boy to fail so we can all feel better about ourselves, so we can know in our hearts that no one can really be that good? Or, are we waiting for him to do what he’s done for four years in college, look for a way to keep moving forward, to keep succeeding, to keep working until he achieves whatever it is that lays before him?

One minute, you’ve got people ragging on Tebow, the next you’ve got people persecuting Coach Meyer and his staff for not addressing the problem earlier. Really? When Urban was winning all those games, you didn’t hear any complaints about his coaching.

When Tim was a part of two different championship Gator teams in the last four years, you didn’t see people vilifying Coach Meyer for his poor handling/coaching of his young QB. When Tim was breaking every record he could get his massive hands on, fans weren’t wondering why Meyer wasn’t readying him for his upcoming NFL career by fixing his throwing motion.

It wasn’t broke, why try to fix it?

The Gators were winning games, Tim was amassing a stat file for the ages, and every person watching college football knew that, while they weren’t watching QB perfection, they were watching someone who, in the system they espoused, was exceeding every expectation of what they could do. Meyer’s spread worked out of the shotgun, so why worry about getting Tim ready for the NFL by making him take snaps under center? Tim’s throwing motion was criticized before, but why overhaul someone who amassed 88 TDs and 16 INTs in four years, with a QB rating that hit its lowest point in 2009, when it was 164.7?

Would you make someone wear a flannel jacket through the summer? I mean, it’s going to be cold soon enough, why not get them ready now by making them start wearing heavy clothing so they’re used to it when the cold hits?

Coach Meyer and Scott Loeffler weren’t ignorant and we read articles in last year’s off-season about their steps to reform Tim’s throwing motion, moving it from a sidearm to an over-the-top, NFL type, but it was, again, unnecessary to Meyer’s current offense…which wasn’t broken.

To hear people now, it almost seems like they’re actually starting to feel bad for Tim and can’t, in good faith, rag on him anymore, so they’ve begun to attack his coaches, blaming them for Tebow’s failings as a potential pro. It’s as unfair as telling Tim that he “can’t play as an NFL quarterback”, because UF coaches did their job, now it’s up to their QB to take those basics and adapt them to the next stage. What you learn in college is a springboard for what comes next, be it academics or sports, and it’s up to you to take the next step when you leave, to take that base of knowledge and add to it.

However, what you learn in college is not the end all, be all of what you need to advance in the world. College is just the 101 course to life and if your learning ends there, you might as well take your college success as the high points of your life.

Regardless of whether Tim’s throwing motion is becoming more NFL like or not, the process is apparently still just that: a process. As of Thursday morning, Tim announced he would not be participating in throwing drills as his maturation to a prototypical NFL QB is incomplete and his new throwing skills aren’t tweaked enough for mass viewing. He will be there, will run and jump and lift, but the one thing most people are dying to see, whether for the better or worse, will not be on display.

Wait for the criticisms on this as well, for though Tim was beat up for playing in the Senior Bowl and hurting his draft ability, those same people will probably attack him for not participating in the Combine.

They’ll feel that they’re right to say Tim will never succeed as an NFL QB and that he’s now realized it himself. They’ll say he’s hurting his draft ability, but they were saying the same thing when he was throwing.

Seems the only way not to harm his NFL career would be to either suddenly start throwing like Tom Brady, or to break down and admit that he no longer wants to play quarterback.

Think either of those things are going to happen?

Go Gators…it’s not Coach’s fault, it’s not Tim’s fault, and it doesn’t take away from what they’ve done and why we thank them for how great it is to be a Gator.

Joshua Bauer is a Columnist for GatorTailgating.com.