Tim Tebow is not made of glass. Tim Tebow did not get a career ending injury two weeks ago. Tim Tebow can still get hit without being left a drooling
vegetable for the rest of his life. Coach Urban Meyer did the right thing.

I’ve been inundated for over a week now, both before and
after the Bayou Brawl on Saturday, with articles and comments about how Coach
Meyer rushed Tebow back to play.  Over
and over we’ve been getting hit with writers vilifying Meyer who “had the
national title on his mind and selfishly insisted that Tebow take a risk” or
were picking on Tim for being a “tough guy” rather than listening to common
sense.

Really?

Do all you out there in Titletown really believe that
nonsense?  Do the writers themselves
believe it, or are they just Gator haters looking to stir up a little dirt
around one of the best coaches and quarterbacks to ever hit college football?

Urban Meyer in no way put Tebow’s life in danger, NCAA rules
and the medical staff prevents that from happening, by being the masters of the
player’s fates.  Tim was cleared the
Monday before the game, the doctors said he’d be good to go and shouldn’t worry
about getting hit any more than he did before. 
Yeah, I know that once you get a concussion you become more likely to
get a second and third, but does that really make the game any more dangerous
than it was for Tebow before?  The man
runs head first into piles of three hundred pound linemen looking to tear his
head off, cram the ball down his throat, and carry his lifeless corpse down the
field for a touchdown, so I think it was only a matter of time before he got
his first serious injury.

So what?

Urban Meyer played it brilliantly last week, keeping his
comments about Tim vague and holding his cards so close to the chest you’d
swear he was Bill Bellichick.

When asked last weekend if Tebow had been medically cleared,
Meyer responded that, “Tim’s been cleared to practice.”, which sent the media
running to the papers claiming that Tim had been cleared to play, but Meyer
hadn’t said anything.  By the time Monday
rolled around and Tim was actually cleared, Meyer insisted that Brantley was
still getting the majority of the snaps in practice and they would “evaluate”
Tebow as the week progressed.

Brilliant.

Granted, Meyer is catching a lot of flack for supposedly
rushing Tebow back in to play, but he can’t do that to any player without
breaking major NCAA rules regarding player safety.  If Kiffin gets caught for using a fog machine
for a potential draft pick nobody, it stands to reason that Coach Meyer would
be caught for putting the best player in college football in danger if he
wasn’t cleared to play.

Tebow was healthy enough to start without worrying too much
about further injury, but Meyer kept the cloak and dagger up until the
beginning of Saturday night’s game. 
Why?  Because readying for two
quarterbacks means you spend half as much time on either of them in practice
and are 50% less prepared for whichever player starts.  Sure, I wanted to see Brantley get his feet
wet on a big night, in a big environment on national TV, against a big SEC
rival, but it was better just watching LSU play the guessing game all week
trying to prepare.

Will it be Brantley? 
Or Tebow?  Or Brantley to start
with Tebow coming in the same way he did in the old Leek offense?

Got to love that Meyer. 
As I said, he played it smart, even knowing he’d have to weather this
bullstorm of media attention on him for “(encouraging) Tebow to put his career
and life on the line”.  What makes it
worse, though, is that Gators seemed to be doubting him, which I’m sure wasn’t
the intention here.  It was the LSU
nation that was supposed to doubt him, not us. 
We were supposed to know what he was doing.

Meyer has been legendary this year, again taking a page from
the Bellichick manual of how to coach and altering the team to fit their
strengths.  As we saw Saturday, Meyer
knew that Tim, even cleared as he was, wouldn’t be rust free come game night,
so we saw something we haven’t seen in Gainesville since before Spurrier,
something that has been more prevalent all of the 2009 season.

The Gators have fit themselves into the SEC mold of pound
the rock and solid defense. 

Let me repeat, the Gators now have the typical SEC mindset
for how a team should play, but it’s not because of pressure to conform, but
because of Meyer’s intelligence.  Now is
the time to run the ball and play shut down defense because we don’t have the
weapons for the spread ridiculousness of last year.  We spent all preseason wondering who would be
Harvin or Murphy this year and the answer has been a resounding, “No one”. 

Our leading receiver is a tight end (Hernandez, averaging
12.8 yards a reception with 2 touchdowns) and we actually have a runner who has
outgained Tebow in yardage thus far (Demps with 390 yards), but our
explosiveness has been muted.  We went
from nukes to grenades, we can still hurt you, but the lights and giant
mushroom clouds have been replaced by quick, violent explosions that slowly
tear away at you until you just lie down and say, “Uncle”. Then the defense
struts on the field, fresh as daisies owing to their depth, and stomp you six
feet under.

Did you know that we’ve only given up 300+ yards once this
year?  To 
Charleston Southern?

The only other team to break off more than 200 yards against
us this year is the 210 we allowed Tennessee to have.  Our defense hasn’t allowed a team into their end
zone since said Tennessee game either. 
11th in rushing defense, 1st in passing defense, 1st
in total defense; are we starting to realize how strong our defense has become
and how much was really expected out of Tim Saturday night?

Listen, as soon as Tebow was cleared to play, no one had to
push him, he was ready to go.  He’s the
leader of that team, the coach on the field, and his blood runs more orange and
blue than any other player I’ve seen stride on to our field.  He is a winner and a fighter and a true
champion, you don’t have to convince those people to play, you usually have to
keep them from hurting themselves.  As
soon as Tim heard them say go he was ready, and probably had to avoid the media
all week to keep from spilling the beans. 
Even from far off during practice this week, you knew he was ready to
go.

Coach Meyer, I just really wanted to take this time to
apologize to you for all those sports writers and doubters and haters around
the NCAA (and here at home) who seem to have forgotten that you know what
you’re doing.  Meyer is no heartless
coach willing to risk his star player for his addiction to glory, any one who
has seen the fatherly way he speaks of Tebow will know that Coach values his QB
more than championships any day of the week. 
Meyer is also no dummy; he knew what he was doing last week (hell, all
year) and his coaching, to me, was never once questionable.  He was molded the Gators into an SEC team
this year because the team’s strength lay in their run and defensive depth this
year.  Meyer has shown that he can coach
the Gators regardless of personnel or talent, can still find ways to win, and
is still the coach of the #1 team in the country.

As for Tebow, he did exactly what he had to do to win
Saturday and win he did, but for all of you who thought he wasn’t fully healed…

Well, if he can win at whatever percent he was at against
LSU, I can’t wait to see him healthy again.

Josh Bauer is a Columnist for GatorTailgating.com