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Meyer made the right call leaving Tebow in

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Peter Schrager

Peter Schrager is a frequent contributor to NFL and college football coverage on FOXSports.com. Feel free to e-mail him at peterschrager@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter.

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Updated Sep 28, 2009 9:12 PM ET
     
 
The Sunday morning quarterbacks were out and chomping this weekend. Less than 12 hours after Tim Tebow was knocked out of Saturday night's Florida-Kentucky game with a concussion, college football pundits and talking heads across the country seemed to take part in what was nothing short of a Sunday feast. The meal on the menu was Gator. "What was Urban Meyer thinking? Game in hand, and his star player still in the game. It was a costly miscalculation," wrote Tampa WFTS-TV's Tom Korun on his blog Sunday. "If Tebow's injury is serious, Meyer is going to get second-guessed for leaving his quarterback deep into the third quarter in a blowout game. Yes, it was only the third quarter ... but ... Florida was leading, 31-7, at the time. Mathematically, Kentucky was in the game. But the Wildcats never posed a serious threat," penned George Diaz of the Orlando Sentinel. The national TV guys shook their collective heads in disgust; the talk radio hosts have had their way. Yes, for the first time since — well, maybe ever — it appears as though the "genius" of Urban Meyer is being questioned by members of the American sports media. Tim Tebow suffered the head injury in the third quarter of what might have appeared on bottom line tickers to have been an all-out rout in Lexington. Up 31-7 and driving deep into Kentucky territory, Wildcats defensive end Taylor Wyndham came unblocked off the edge and sacked the 2007 Heisman winner. When Tebow fell backward, his helmet struck teammate Marcus Gilbert's leg, leaving the senior quarterback motionless on the ground. When Tebow finally came to, he made his way off the field before vomiting and being carted away. He spent the night in the hospital with Meyer by his side. Though Tebow's health, the legality of the Wyndham hit, and the Gators' BCS title hopes might have appeared to have been the most newsworthy stories out of Lexington after the contest, the media added an extra wrinkle to its coverage of the injury — collectively piling on Urban Meyer for having Tebow in the game at such a juncture, as well. Such criticism is unfair. On the road in a conference battle, you do not take your star quarterback out of a three-possession game. Florida came out of the gates bristling (the Gators outgained the Wildcats 223 to -1 in the first quarter), only to see the offense stall and sputter throughout the second quarter and the start of the third. After last week's rather pedestrian offensive display vs. Tennessee, and a series of consecutive drives stopped without scores at the end of the first and start of the second half, the game was anything but over when Tebow suffered his injury. To look at a scoreboard and stat sheet and assume differently is short-sighted. And yet, the critics were out in full force Saturday night and Sunday. "Why was Tebow in the game?" has dominated the national college football conversation the past few days.
This comes a week after a slew of articles questioning the Gators' offensive performance and gameplan following their otherwise solid 23-13 victory over Tennessee. Some pundits went as far as deeming father and son Kiffin as the victors in the Kiffin vs. Meyer chess match from two weeks ago. Again, that's wrong. Florida did what they had to and beat a conference rival by 10. How exactly did the Kiffins "win" that battle? If I didn't know any better, I'd say there's a little anti-Florida sentiment in the media these days. And boy, that certainly is something new. It's funny how this all works. In recent months, Tim Tebow's graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine and been interviewed at length in GQ. Yes, everyone in the media loves Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer. A lot. Or at least, they did. The truth is, the Florida Gator love-fest appears to be trending a bit downward this season. Heck, it might very well be done altogether. The country's reception of Lane Kiffin's steady of diet of chin jabs at Urban Meyer made for a curious study in media consumption. Most fans and media members viewed Kiffin's verbal barbs as tongue-in-cheek quips and nothing more than a harmless way to inspire his players and the Tennessee fan base. No one (aside from the Florida faithful) seemed particularly outraged or insulted by what could have been perceived as blatant (and unfair) cheap shots. Had Kiffin made the same types of comments — accusing Meyer of recruiting violations and sarcastically lobbing a cheap shot about the Florida coach's insistence that his team had the flu during the Tennessee game — towards a coach that hasn't won two BCS championships in three years, there might have been a different reaction from the general public. Of course, this kind of stuff happens when you're the kings of the kingdom. You eventually go from the good guys to the bad guys. From Batman to the Dark Knight. Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow have enjoyed the fruits of college football dominance for three and a half years. Respect, adulation, and a halo of media positivity — it's been all theirs. Tebow was on more magazine covers than Megan Fox this summer. Meyer's been called a "genius" more times than Einstein or Mozart. Eventually, there comes a point where we've had enough. So, a nation turns. It's how the world of sports goes. And in this case, Meyer's the one on the short end of the stick. The two-time national champion, the "master" of the spread offense — in the past two weeks, he's apparently been outdone by an opposing coaching staff despite winning a game that was never in doubt, and foolishly left his quarterback in too long. For the first time since he arrived on the college football scene, it appears as though Meyer is being doubted. It's interesting. After all, no one had any problem with Texas quarterback Colt McCoy being in the game with a 40-point lead over UTEP on Saturday. And I haven't seen any critics bashing Boise State coach Chris Peterson for leaving quarterback Kellen Moore in late in the third quarter with a 43-point lead over Bowling Green, either. In a three-possession game on the road in the third quarter, Tim Tebow absolutely should have been on the field Saturday night. But conceding that point wouldn't be much fun now, would it? Perhaps this is just how it will be in 2009 — Tebow, Meyer and the rest of the Florida Gators vs. the world. It was bound to happen eventually. Something tells me they're up for the challenge.

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