GAINESVILLE -- So much for extra motivation.

All that extra energy Lane Kiffin's words gave UF players expired the moment they realized Tennessee is still a Southeastern Conference school with SEC-sized players and a proper SEC running game.

So much for drama.

The quality of the defenses in this game kept it close throughout, which meant no running up the score, no unnecessary in-your-face timeouts, not even an icy handshake between coaches after the game. No scandalous activity whatsoever, which was almost as disappointing as the current season of Mad Men.

No, all the Tennessee coach did by mouthing off about the Gators and their coach during the offseason was draw a bigger audience to a game that was never supposed to be very appealing to begin with.

But the Gators did their part to provide tension. At least tension within Gator Nation.

Because the group of Gators that played supposedly motivated football against the Volunteers on Saturday looked nothing like the team that walked off then-Dolphins Stadium with a national championship last season.

That team was dynamic offensively. It was explosive when necessary. It had options, and the primary option was not the legs of No. 15.

This team, the one that is supposed to cruise to another national championship appearance on the strength of Tim Tebow and a devastating defense? This team is flawed.

Kiffin may not have walked away from The Swamp celebrating the victory he promised his alumni after getting hired. But he could walk away knowing the SEC East, contrary to popular belief, could still be up for grabs.

There are a couple of ways to look at this 23-13 Gators victory. There's the a-win-is-a-win theory, which includes simply thanking your lucky stars that this wasn't a repeat of last year's Ole Miss debacle and figuring this is as bad as it's gonna get.

And while that very well may be the case -- just ask Southern Cal how easily a season can end up in the tank when a few things don't go your way against a mediocre opponent -- it's a fairly naive way to view it.

When you take the blinders off, you recognize that the Gators were unable to pull away from a Tennessee team in transition that features an awful quarterback and just lost at home to an average UCLA team.

That's not to say this style of Gators football -- one that's going to get every last yard out of Tebow's legs before he leaves for the pros -- isn't capable of running the table and getting to another title game. But Saturday's game made it somewhat obvious that this ride would be much more of a grind.

A PAINFUL VOID

After two weeks of playing against glorified high school teams, it became painfully obvious that, yeah, Percy Harvin actually was an incredibly damaging loss for this team. And Louis Murphy, the rookie receiver getting rave reviews from the Raiders; his exit meant a lot, too.

Without them, or reasonable replacements, Tebow was left staring at a field of blanketed receivers Saturday. The dual-threat quarterback was forced to use his feet more often than just about any point last season. When he could escape the Tennessee pressure, he did earn some critical yards. But in the fourth quarter, when the Gators were close to the ``checkmate'' score, as UF coach Urban Meyer calls it, Tebow rolled out, bought time and still couldn't find an open player. That meant he needed to scramble again, which he did well -- until he lost the ball. That turned ``checkmate'' to ``check that.''

``It was like, `Oh shoot, nothing's open, I need to make a play,' '' Tebow said.

That's an internal conversation Tebow will have with himself quite a few more times this season.

Tebow finished with 24 carries for 76 yards and a touchdown. Those are workhorse numbers for a running back. Those are frightening numbers for a college quarterback.

``That's our crutch, is the Tim Tebow Show,'' Meyer said. ``We have to get better at receiver. We've had a little bit of a drop-off.''

Short of raiding the University of Miami and stealing from its overabundance of receivers, the Gators have no option but to continue this grind-out style and hope it's enough to fulfill a season with arguably the most expectations any Florida team has ever had.

AN `ENERGY' BOOST

``I'd rather not do that,'' Meyer said. ``Our receiver position, we've got to get some energy.''

Then again, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world that Florida recognizes it's flawed at this point in the season. Maybe then every game won't feel like a major disappointment if the Gators don't win by four touchdowns. Meyer already admitted that Saturday's game, which the Gators were expected to dominate because of a talent mismatch and the Kiffin drama, was unnecessarily heavy for his student-athletes.

``There was so much pressure on this team to perform perfectly,'' Meyer said.

This team is far from perfect. It might even be too much for the perfect quarterback to carry for an entire season.

Thanks to a loud-mouth coach and his group of Volunteers, we've all just realized that.

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