Tim Tebow Confirmed to Play vs. LSU

Speaking to CBS Sports, Urban Meyer just explained that Tim Tebow will start tonight’s game, and that the Florida coaching staff will do “more than usual” to make sure they keep him protected.

A source tells ESPN’s Pat Forde that, having been medically cleared, Tim Tebow will play tonight in Baton Rouge.

The Gainesville Sun reported the news, as well, and says that a decision on whether Tebow will start will not be made until tonight’s 8 P.M. kickoff:

Senior quarterback Tim Tebow has been cleared by Florida’s medical staff to play in tonight’s game against No. 4 LSU, a source close to the situation told The Gainesville Sun.

A decision on whether Tebow will start the game or not will be made at game time, the source said.

Gator Sports is reporting that Tim Tebow has been medically cleared to play.

A decision on whether Tebow will start the game or not will be made at game time, Meyer said.

According to a report on ESPN, Meyer says Tebow will play.

“If he’s ready to play, cleared to play, we’re going to play him,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said Saturday morning in an interview with ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi.

As a former resident of both Orlando and Gainesville, I’d trust the Sun a lot more than Channel 6. Not being cleared to go until after Saturday morning tests fits a lot better within the medical regimen that Tebow’s been going through than making a decision on Friday does. Unless someone more reliable than an Orlando TV station says so, he’s probably still a game time decision.

We remain in the same holding pattern we knew we’d be in this week: Tim Tebow practiced once again on Thursday, but afterward, Urban Meyer still knew nothing of his status for Saturday night. From the Orlando Sentinel:

The call will most likely be made at game time.

“I don’t know [if he’ll play yet]. Once again that is still day-to-day,” Florida Coach Urban Meyer said. “They want to see how he reacts to the flight. There are all kinds of things they are still looking at.”

Meyer said he doesn’t think the doctors from the University of Pittsburgh that have been in Gainesville examining Tebow will travel to Baton Rouge, La.

Tebow participated in the full practice Thursday and split the reps behind center with backup John Brantley. Tebow jogged off the field smiling and talking with members of the team’s staff.

CBS Sportsline’s Dennis Dodd reports that Urban Meyer will not be making any decisions Wednesday about Tim Tebow’s availability for this Saturday’s game against No. 4 LSU.

But, of course, he did have to leave the window of possibility ajar:

“After yesterday’s practice I was told that there was a chance Tim could play,” Meyer said during the SEC coaches conference call.

No word yet on whether Tebow will be at practice this afternoon.

The AP reports that Tim Tebow took snaps with the first team offense and threw some passes at practice today, although he is still not cleared for Saturday’s showdown with No. 4 LSU.

ESPN’s Joe Schad reports that Tim Tebow is at practice in full pads today. Whether that means he’s actually participating in practice, or just felt like seeing if the gear still fits, is anyone’s guess.

Buried in the Palm Beach Post’s story about Tim Tebow not practicing on Monday is this:

UF sources said Monday that even if Tebow is medically cleared to play, he likely will sit in favor of backup quarterback John Brantley.

Urban Meyer said yesterday that even if Tebow does practice this week, he won’t be taking any hits. Which is the wrong way to reintroduce a concussion victim back into football, according to a neurology expert:

“The first hit you take is not in the game. It should be in practice,” said Cantu, a clinical professor of neurology at Boston University and a pioneer in concussion research over the past three decades. “Normally, it’s better if the athlete has practiced the week that they’re going to play. And generally speaking, that’s certainly the ideal situation, so that you’ve taken hits during that week and you know that the hits that jar you are not producing symptoms.”

So, yeah: all medical and logical signs point toward Tebow sitting out this week. Although neither of those necessarily come into play when we’re talking about Florida’s biggest regular season game of the year.

Urban Meyer said that despite positive test results and his overall “good” condition, Tim Tebow will not practice today and has not been cleared to play in Saturday’s game against LSU.

Meyer also said he was “very disappointed” in the unsportsmanlike penalties dealt out at the end of the LSU/Georgia game. “It’s just awful” was the exact quote, he said, distracting reporters while handing concussion test cheat sheets to Tebow, who we all know will be cleared to play at the end of the week or my name isn’t Mr. Internet McSnarksalot.

The SEC Network isn’t all that interested in allowing you to view the Tim Tebow hit, apparently. The Palm Beach Post’s Ben Volin explains the situation:

The highlight package, which lasts 2:23, completely skips over Taylor Wyndham’s hit on Tebow late in the third quarter. The play happened with 4:11 left in the third quarter, and the highlight tape jumps from 12 minutes to 54 seconds in the third quarter with no mention whatsoever of Wyndham’s devastating hit and Tebow’s concussion.

At the very end of the tape, Lauren the announcer finally addresses the Tebow injury. Here is the full text:

"Tebow, after being sacked in the third quarter, was tended to briefly on the field and walked off under his own power, but he did not return to the game."

Talk about the understatement of the year.

Weird, right? And that’s not even the only place the SEC has attempted to erase the memory of the Tebow concussion. All of the SEC’s various online entities and video distribution systems and widgets — all of them are missing Tebow’s play.

It’s almost as if the SEC wants you to forget the whole thing happened. Which only barely makes sense itself. Can someone explain this to us? We feel very confused.

(HT: The Sporting Blog)

Tebow is going to play. Don’t believe me? Listen to how his coach is talking just four days after his quarterback was rushed to the hospital with his first concussion ever:

Meyer said Wednesday on the weekly Southeastern Conference teleconference that Tebow "looked terrific" when he saw him late Tuesday night.

"That’s the best I’ve seen him," Meyer said.

Meyer also saw Tebow earlier Tuesday, when the coach went through balance and memory tests with his star player, and said he just looked OK.

This has bad news written all over it, does it not?

Those people in Florida are nice because those people in Kentucky are darn nice, too:

The University of Florida has sent a letter to the University of Kentucky, thanking the school for its prompt and considerable assistance in treating Gators’ quarterback Tim Tebow after he suffered a concussion in the third quarter Saturday night in Commonwealth Stadium.

Considering all the trash talking and taunting that occurs in college sports these days, it was a splendid response by UK and a nice gesture from Florida.

John Brantley is a name you may not have heard before this week, but now know because he is the backup to Tim Tebow, and could in theory start against LSU if Dr. Forhire somehow doesn’t approve Tebow for the game medically.

This means Brantley’s family has to be thrilled for the opportunity to watch their boy take the reins against LSU and…no? (holds finger to ear) I’m sorry, my producers are now telling me this is not the case.

…surely, as much as the Brantley family loves Tebow, the Brantleys hope John gets the call at LSU?

“Heck no!” Scot Brantley said. “I want to see Tebow!”

Scot Brantley, a former Gator football himself, then points out that he wants to see Tim Tebow play to fulfill his promise to play because “Tebow made that commitment to come back, and I want to see him fulfill his commitment.” Even if his brain is bruised. I’ll be over here mourning the death of common sense if you need me.

The Florida Gators don’t play again until October 10th against LSU. When that game is played, It will have been only two weeks since Tim Tebow went down with a severe concussion. Anyone with any grasp of the severity of concussions (or if you watched the special about it on Real Sports earlier this month) should be somewhat terrified that Urban Meyer thinks Tebow will play:

Meyer said Monday that Tebow has a headache, but is eating well. He thinks — but doesn’t know — that his star player will be ready to go against the Tigers.

There is no specific timeline for concussion recovery, and how long players who suffer them need to sit out, but it should certainly be longer than two weeks. You know, it really is just a football game.

Spencer Hall at SB Nation’s Every Day Should Be Saturday takes a break from discussing cock-punching to break down Tebow’s brain injury real serious-like:

The important distinction is that a concussion is an injury to the brain. It is not a kneecap: it is the brain, an irreplaceable object containing everything you are as a thinking person, an organ of complexity mystifying the smartest people in the room for centuries. It does not respond to training table’s attentions. It does not get game-ready with a cortisone shot. It needs the most expensive treatment possible to heal: time.

He will probably be out there, and it will be a bad example for the kids he hopes to reach with the scripture painted onto his eyeblack each week. When they suffer a concussion in their high school football games, what template will they use for making a decision? Or worse still, what example will their coaches urge them to use? Someone like Tebow, most likely. This is what you might call a teaching moment. We hope he chooses the lesson that it is just football, and that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Simultaneously, we are not optimistic about him making this choice.

If Tebow has suffered a concussion, and is genuinely concerned about setting an example for the people he wants to reach, he should let John Brantley start against LSU.

Tim Tebow will be sleeping in his own bed tonight. He’s back home after spending the night in the hospital:

“Tim is doing fine this morning,” said coach Urban Meyer, who stayed behind with Tebow. “His CT scans came back and indicated that Tim suffered a concussion. Our medical and athletic training staff will continue to monitor him to determine how much rest and recovery he needs. We will have additional information and updates this week.”

Tim Tebow was released from a Lexington hospital this morning, and will return to Gainesville this morning. From the TBO.com report:

“Tim is doing fine this morning,” head coach Urban Meyer said in a statement released Sunday morning. “His CT scans came back and indicated that Tim suffered a concussion. Our medical and athletic training staff will continue to monitor him to determine how much rest and recovery he needs. We will have additional information and updates this week.”

Tebow has a bye week to recover before Florida faces LSU in two weeks.

The latest word is that Tim Tebow has a “bad concussion,” but that a CAT scan revealed no internal bleeding.

SB Nation’s Florida Gators blog, Alligator Army, addresses a couple of questions that people are asking this morning.

The two non-health responses that will come out of this are; did UK celebrate too much when they knocked out Tebow and should Tebow have been in the game? In regards to Kentucky, they celebrated as much as anyone who has smacked Tebow. When they realized Tebow wasn’t bouncing up, the building went silent. I don’t hold any ill will towards UK and the hit was clean. Meyer has said after the game that Tebow would have been removed after that drive, giving Tebow 8 drives in the game. I am more protective of Tebow than UF’s coaching staff, but Tebow played the same amount in the Kentucky game last season. Hindsight is 20/20 and the decision to allow Tebow a second 3rd quarter drive now looks like a bad idea.

Meyer said Tebow had just one question after the hit.

“He asked me ’Did I hold onto the ball?”’ Meyer said. “I told him he did and he winked at me and said ’It’s great to be a Gator.”’

He then vomited three times and went to the hospital, so it wasn’t all great to be a Florida Gator. Dave Curtis of the Sporting News reported that the CT scan showed no damage to the brain, but that Tebow has what is most likely a severe concussion.

Urban Meyer is not a doctor and hasn’t played one on TV but he’s weighing in on Tim Tebow.

“I don’t know, I think it’s a concussion,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "I think he’ll be all right.

“He took a pretty good shot.”

We shall see, Dr. Meyer.

Meanwhile, Kentucky coach Rich Brooks called the hit a “clean hit.” It looked fine to me too, just some broken blocking on the play allowed a clean rush at Tebow.

SB Nation’s UF blog analyzes the impact of Tim Tebow going down:  

Even if Tebow wasn't hurt, UF has to trust other guys to get hard yards. I know Tebow had most of his yards on option reads, but you'd think at this point UF would know that you have to pull the reins on him sometimes. If Tebow is able to return this season, they will definitely have to do that. UF still has no passing game, which is kind of a big deal.