Tebow searching for Heisman form

Reigning Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow has thrown eight TDs and just one interception this year, but he hasn't been as dominant as last season. AP Andy Staples's Mailbag Have questions or feedback? E-mail Andy Staples. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Andy Staples on Twitter

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- As Tim Tebow tried to strangle the podium he stood behind, he fought back tears. The last question had been asked and answered. The Florida quarterback didn't need to publicly flay himself further for all the failures in a 31-30 loss to 22-point underdog Ole Miss on Sept. 27. Tebow didn't need to say more. But he did.

"I just want to say one thing to the fans, and everybody in Gator Nation," Tebow said. "You know what ... I'm sorry. Extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal. It's something Florida's never done here. But I promise you one thing: A lot of good will come out of this. You've never seen any player in the entire country who will play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. And you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. And you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless."

That promise offered the first glimpse this season of the 2007 Tebow. Remember him? It's probably tough with all those highlights of Big 12 quarterbacks and their 300-yard games dancing in your heads, but Tebow is less than a year removed from a sophomore season in which he threw for 32 touchdowns and ran for 23 more and became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. A year ago, Tebow appeared poised to revolutionize the position. This season, something seems off. He has yet to dump-truck a hapless linebacker. Some throws seem aimed instead of launched by a shoulder-mounted cannon. Perhaps most troubling for the Gators, Tebow got stuffed on fourth-and-one in the waning seconds of the Ole Miss loss.

There isn't an easy answer for the change, but here's a guess at a possible cause: It's almost impossible to dump-truck a linebacker when you're trying to carry the football and the weight of the world.

If the contents of his apology didn't reveal some of the forces squeezing Tebow, this quote a few days later in The Miami Herald did. Asked why he put "Why I Pray For Tebow" on the sign at Gainesville's Campus Church of Christ, minister Eric Brown said this to reporter Joseph Goodman: "I'm going to pray that [Tebow] is true to his faith because if he falls and gets caught up in some kind of scandal it will be bad for Christianity."

That's right, Tebow isn't just responsible for leading Florida to a national title. He also must protect the reputation of a faith with an estimated 2.1 billion adherents. No pressure.

OK, the fate of a major world religion doesn't rest in Tebow's hands, but he's so passionate about his faith, he may wonder if it does sometimes. That can't be fun. Neither can constant pressure -- applied internally and externally -- to complete every pass, get a first down on every run, score 50 points every game, all while maintaining a squeaky clean image in one of the sports world's smallest fishbowls. Tebow handled it all with aplomb while playing like Superman in 2007. But even Superman needs a chance to be Clark Kent every once in a while. Tebow hasn't gotten that opportunity.

If the 11th-ranked Gators hope to beat No. 4 LSU on Saturday at Florida Field, Tebow will have to have some fun. While he'll certainly have to avoid the pressure from LSU's ferocious defensive line, he'll have to try harder to avoid the pressure he puts on himself. He'll have to follow the piece of advice Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen offered Wednesday. "Just play the game," Mullen said. "Don't think about it. React."

Florida coach Urban Meyer noticed Tebow's lack of joy last week during a 38-7 win at Arkansas. After Tebow whipped a 21-yard touchdown to Percy Harvin, he jogged to the sideline. Last year, Tebow celebrated even one-yard touchdowns like an 8-year-old who just unwrapped a present on Christmas morning. Meyer saw a guy who looked like a CPA scanning AIG's balance sheet. He told Tebow to enjoy himself a little. So the 240-pound Tebow chest-bumped the coach. "I just wanted him to feel good about himself," Meyer said. "That was his best throw of the season."

Meyer and Mullen know a smiling, chest-bumping, instinctual Tebow is a productive Tebow. Mullen worries he may have put too much on Tebow entering this season, not realizing that Tebow's natural tendency to care so deeply would occasionally cause him to suffer from paralysis by analysis.

"I think we got a little bit too much into worrying about, 'Read this coverage. Read this coverage. Check this.' ... Our expectations of him executing put that on him," Mullen said. "He wanted to be perfect on every play instead of just going hard on every play."

Against LSU, all that reading and checking will get a quarterback buried beneath a pile of purple and gold. The Tigers have the nation's most athletic defensive line, defensive backs fast enough to cover almost anyone one-on-one and an aggressive philosophy that makes predicting their behavior about as easy as tackling Tebow last season.