FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - This could become one big, complicated mess.
No, not UF's offensive gameplan or even its run defense that brought back flashes of a decrepit 2007.
It's Tim Tebow's mind.
Last year, defenses didn't respect Tebow. They had a near pee-your-pants type of fear of him.
Now, Tebow is afraid of Tebow. Or at least the type of Tebow he has become. This is a Tebow who, with every mistake, makes it linger with him. This is a Tebow who expects himself to be perfect. This is a Tebow who is flat-out trying too hard.
Yes, I am criticizing one of the greatest college athletes of this era for his inhuman desire.
And that's just the point. He expects himself to be perfect and becomes increasingly frustrated when he's not.
Ask yourself this: At the beginning of the season, would you have expected Tebow to have just two rushing touchdowns through five games? What about eight passing scores?
Or how about the fact that Arkansas' Casey Dick has more passing yards than he does through the same number of games?
Teammates have attested that Tebow is borderline nuts with his level of intensity. Now, that level is starting to drive his self quackers.
After his first interception of the year, Tebow threw his face down to the ground for a brief moment.
Later, Tebow threw his best pass of the year with a 21-yard touchdown strike to Percy Harvin. He then sauntered to the sidelines with a look of placidness that said, "I'm just doing what I should do." That wasn't good enough for Urban Meyer. Tebow's coach wanted more and eventually got a chest bump.
The Tebow I had the privilege of watching last year wouldn't have needed his coach to get his fists pumping or from hurling his 6-foot-3 body into the nearest offensive lineman's hefty arms.
Last year, I fully believed there was no way Tebow would live up to the massive expectations fans and media had placed on him. Oops. I'm not very smart.
Now, however, the only person's expectations that Tebow can't meet are his own. He's making mistakes he didn't make last year. He has consistently overthrown receivers. He has stayed in the pocket when he should've taken off and run. He has run up the gut of the defense when he needed to option off to one of the Gators' 18 speedsters.
Last week, I saw perhaps the most badass moment I have ever seen. I saw Tebow, whose eyes were clearly red from tears, man up and say he would push himself harder than any other player in the country.
The problem is, Tebow doesn't need to do that. Perhaps a player who doesn't have the talent Tebow does should. Tebow needs to sit back, maybe grab a cold one and relax. Last year, he let the game come to him, and he made history. Now he's forcing things that don't need to be.
Nobody will tell Tebow this. It's too hard to criticize someone who is that driven and does everything right. Pundits have been searching for over a year to find a dent in Tebow's armor.
There's nothing. He is perfect. And that's precisely the problem.
