BATON ROUGE, La. - Just under six minutes into Saturday night's showdown between No. 1 Florida and No. 4 LSU, The Gator Nation held its collective breath.
On first and 10 from the UF 49-yard line, senior quarterback Tim Tebow dropped back to pass, stood tall in the pocket and delivered a pass to tight end Aaron Hernandez with cornerback Patrick Peterson bearing down on him.
Peterson put a clean hit on Tebow and sent the Heisman Trophy winner to his back for the first time since Kentucky's Taylor Wyndham knocked Tebow out of the game with a concussion two weeks ago in Lexington.
The play went for an 8-yard gain, and Tebow bounced up to his feet right away.
"First drive, hit by Peterson, actually I liked it," Tebow said. "First time I got hit, everything felt good, so I was like all right, ready to go."
UF coach Urban Meyer admitted to using a "somewhat conservative" game plan to keep his quarterback from taking too many hits. Meyer felt as long as the defense was holding LSU, he didn't need to expose Tebow too much.
Those factors dictated the way the game was played - a 13-3 defensive struggle between the winners of the last three BCS national championships.
"That was two sledgehammers going at each other," Meyer said. "Obviously, LSU is as talented a team as there is in the country."
Tebow threw for 134 yards on 11-of-16 passing and added 38 yards on the ground on 17 rushing attempts.
The number of rushing attempts logged by Tebow came as a bit of a surprise considering he only ran the ball five times in the first half.
An unofficial count had him keeping the ball just three times out of 15 option and read-option plays in the first 30 minutes.
On instances of third and 3, third and 1 and fourth and 2, Meyer elected to put the ball in the hands of three different players, none of whom were wearing No. 15.
"I tried to play smart," Tebow said. "I said I'm not going to go out there and play tentative and scared. That's just not me. I'm going to play hard and be smart and get out of bounds, get down, not try to fight. I think I avoided some of the hits I probably would take like that, but I wasn't scared or tentative at all."
Running backs Jeff Demps and Emmanuel Moody carried the ball in the first two situations with Moody converting on third and 1 and Demps gaining only a yard on third and 3.
Meyer elected to go for it on the subsequent fourth and 2, but the Gators ran a reverse with wide receiver Brandon James rather than pounding the ball up the middle with Tebow. LSU sniffed out the play, and UF turned the ball over on downs.
"I think we were conservative toward Tebow," Hernandez said. "So he didn't have too much hitting."
Tebow wasn't cleared to play until a few hours before kickoff, but Meyer said before the game that if his starting quarterback was cleared by the team of doctors, he would play in Tiger Stadium.
The decision wasn't an easy one for Meyer, who wrestled with the implications of trotting out Tebow just two weeks after sustaining a concussion.
"It was very emotional. It was a tough deal," Meyer said. "I just kept saying, 'Would I play my son?' Tim is my son. He's part of the family, and would I play my son? At one point, I think I would."
Meyer said he sat down with Tebow's father, Bob Tebow, and the two had a 90-minute discussion about the possibility of playing Tim.
"He said, 'My son is going to be fine. Once they get clearance, I'll support anything you do,'" Meyer said. "I know he's a special guy, and he said, 'The reason he's healthy is because 40 million-plus are probably praying for him right now.'"
