TOP OF HIS CLASS: Gators Stop Kentucky, Tebow Astute

Most college sophomores live a life of the occasional class, late night Taco Bell runs, frequent binge drinking and ultimate frisbee. Not many play college football in the toughest conference in the nation against elite competition week after week and score five touchdowns against the #7 team in the nation.

Then again, most college sophomores aren't Tim Tebow.

The Florida wonder-kid was next to perfect Saturday as the Florida Gators rebounded nicely from a rare two game losing skid and knocked the Kentucky Wildcats off their high. A week after knocking off then No. 1 LSU, the Wildcats fell in a competitive, crazy SEC matchup that could throw the entire conference out of whack.

After Kentucky struck first, Tebow responded with touchdown tosses of 10 and 66 yards and a nifty 1-yard jump pass to give Florida a 21-10 halftime lead. And with the Florida defense holding the Wildcats to sub-100 yards for the game, Kentucky had to air it out.

Fortunately the Wildcats also have a pretty good QB in Andre Woodson.

Yet another Tebow TD pass to Andre Caldwell put Florida up by 18, and the game looked as if it was about to get out of hand.

But Woodson and the Wildcat offense answered.

Kentucky struck back with a 14-3 run to close the quarter and the gap, capped by Dicky Lyons 50 yard-probably-shoulda-been-a-short-to-medium-gain-but-was-not touchdown grab.

A Percy Harvin end-around gave the Gators some breathing space, and even after Woodson hit Lyons again for a score, Tebow hit Harvin for a 40 yard gain to the Kentucky 2. He then took it in himself for the score.

A meaningless Kentucky score that ended the game made the score look closer than it actually was.

Heisman-candidate Woodson ended up throwing for five TDs, but paid a price also, taking six sacks by a relentless Florida pass-rush that was lacking in the previous two games.

Now after a promising resurrection the first half of the season, Rich Brooks squad finds itself in the same position as the rest of the conference—a few losses, but still a shot at the league title.

But while all the other college sophomores were in their dorms crunching Doritos and probably watching him, Tim Tebow did something none of his fellow classmates did.

And if he keeps it up, he could do something no sophomore has done; he could wind up in New York holding the stiff-arm-trophy-thingy.

—C. Nierman