New-and-improved Florida quarterback's Heisman campaign runs through South Carolina

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Alligator, an impressively thorough University of Florida student newspaper, had headlines this week including "Jenna Bush to visit Gainesville" and "On-campus dining facilities should serve cage-free eggs" to go with "Tebow sets SEC season record for most rushing touchdowns by quarterback".

Of the three, it's that last one South Carolina football fans and coaches must fret most.

The iconish and famously versatile Tebow also earned distinction as one of the Alligator's "Swamp Studs" for running for two touchdowns Saturday in No. 17 Florida's 49-22 Southeastern Conference rout of Vanderbilt to give him 14 rushing touchdowns for the season.

With the Gamecocks' defense having just allowed Darren McFadden-led Arkansas to run for 541 yards, Tebow might be able to skip into the Williams-Brice Stadium end zone Saturday night sporting the orange Crocs he wears around campus.

If the Arkansas debacle was a red flag for the Gamecocks defense, it has to be an invitation complete with wine and roses for any ball carrier able to pass a physical.

But Tebow would rather pass.

"There were a few plays where I might have taken off before, but I hung in there and made the throw," Florida's sophomore Heisman Trophy candidate said of his newfound pocket discipline on display against Vanderbilt.

Though Tebow watched Arkansas run wild, his lone personal encounter with the South Carolina

defense is the 17-16 nail-biter the Gators survived last November when defensive lineman Jarvis Moss blocked a Ryan Succop 48-yard field goal attempt as time expired.

No Moss, no ring

"Kind of a stall match back and forth," Tebow recalled.

Until Moss stretched high for his second blocked kick of the game, the turning point in Florida's run to the national championship.

"Our biggest play of the year," Tebow said. "That was just an unbelievable game. Our fans were just unbelievable. I remember we were sitting in here (the Florida football meeting room at The Swamp) after the game and Coach (Urban) Meyer showed us a video from YouTube that someone who was in the stands had filmed of that kick. You could just hear it. It was just good for all the players to hear how crazy and excited the fans were for us and just going nuts, people crying and everything."

Florida, No. 6 at the time, went on to defeat Western Carolina and Florida State, beat Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game and clobbered No. 1 Ohio State, 41-14, in the BCS Championship Game.

Chris Leak was the starting at quarterback but Tebow played a big role. His popularity is captured by Clay Travis in the SEC road trip book, "Dixieland Delight."

Among Travis' "signs that Florida has succumbed to Tim Tebow fever" are:

--"Every time Tim Tebow goes on a date, the other girls on campus carry the girl he dated to Lake Alice wrapped in uncooked chickens and feed her to the alligators."

--"Once, Tim Tebow took out his mouthpiece and threw it into the stands. It sold the next day on eBay for $14.2 billion."

But what if Moss, later picked in the first round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos, whiffed on his second block attempt?

No national title ring?

"Hopefully, it would have gone wide left," Tebow said. "But that was a pretty good field goal kicker so he might have made it and the season would have been a lot different. I'm just glad that Moss is 6-6 with a big vertical leap."

Stump speech

On paper, it shouldn't come down to heroics for Florida this week. Tebow alone has rushed for 598 yards and thrown for 2,228 yards with 21 touchdown passes and four interceptions.

Columbia sounds like an ideal Heisman Trophy campaign stop. Tebow even has the political stump speech down.

"I think they have a very good defense and played very well for a lot of games this year," he said of the Gamecocks. "But Arkansas was able to find a few weakness and a few holes based on how they played them. And then McFadden just made a few unbelievable, ridiculous plays.

"They'll have a tough week of practice. You know the coaches will be on them with, 'We've got to regroup' and they'll come back with a hunger. It's just a pride thing, like 'It's not going to happen to us again.' So they'll come out ready to go and fired up and play like they played against Kentucky or Georgia. They were able to manhandle those teams pretty much all game long, and those are good offenses."

No Jarvis Moss for South Carolina to deal with, either.

But the Gamecocks will have to defend against a continually evolving Tebow, who at any moment might run or pass or throw his coveted mouthpiece into the stands.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com.