Last season it was a shot to the gut that unintentionally kick-started the Gators' season.

The shocking loss to Ole Miss, followed by an impassioned speech from Tim Tebow, was the turning point -- the reminder to everyone else on the roster that Tebow wasn't solely responsible for the Gators' success.

This year it looks like it will have to be an even more shocking, fairly gruesome blow that awakens this team.

When Tebow's head violently collided with his offensive tackle's knee Saturday night, leaving him motionless for several seconds, the entire college football world took a second to take in the gravity of the moment.

Because for a instant, while the only movement in Tebow was his chest rapidly rising and falling in deep breaths, it appeared as if the face of the sport had been severely injured.

Even if Tebow had not sustained a life-altering type of harm, it remained possible that the player most important to his team than any other in the country, the one so many have deemed indestructible, would be taken away from his team for a significant amount of time.

Not even Sam Bradford's injury in Week 1 caused this much immediate panic.

As it turns out, it's possible that Tebow won't miss a game, which, given his track record, is the most likely scenario.

But there might not have been a more frightening reminder to Tebow's teammates and his coach that they will have to do more if the Gators are to continue on this No. 1 path. This concussion, the one that everyone is insisting is just ``mild,'' didn't come because the Gators were overusing Tebow. It just came at a point when it was blatantly obvious that the Gators had become, since entering Southeastern Conference play, over-reliant on Tebow.

So the idea of playing without him -- or even without him at full capability -- should be a harrowing thought for anyone on this team.

Already, though, the Gators' spin machine appears to be setting up for a Tebow return on Oct. 10, when UF faces its toughest regular-season test: at Louisiana State.

Gators coach Urban Meyer said he wasn't certain if Tebow lost consciousness after Saturday's collision, when anyone who watched on television and saw Tebow's arms remain briefly bent at 90-degree angles knows that the quarterback was unconscious.

And even after the world watched Superman at his most vulnerable, vomiting into a red bag as a golf cart couldn't get him off the field and away from the cameras fast enough, his coach insisted that his quarterback was doing ``just fine'' a day later, doing his best to ease all concerns.

HANDLE WITH CARE

This isn't to suggest the Gators would play Tebow if it was a threat to his health, but it does appear as if those controlling the information are softening the blow so Tebow's return won't be viewed as a hasty, risky decision.

Even if Tebow does appear healthy and capable of returning in two weeks, this shouldn't be handled the same way as it would for any other quarterback who sustains head trauma. Because Tebow isn't any other quarterback.

He not only takes more hits than most because of his penchant for escaping the pocket, but he also delivers just as many because of his punishing style. How many other quarterbacks would square up shoulder-to-shoulder with Tennessee's Eric Berry on purpose?

That's not good for a healthy brain, much less an already-

battered brain.

It's not as if you can ask Tebow to fight his instincts. It's certainly not sensible to throw in more pass plays -- not when the Gators receiving corps has shown so little thus far.

The only way Tebow should play is if he is, without question, capable of returning to play at his normal state of recklessness. That's going to require a cautious approach from team doctors and coaches -- and from Tebow himself, which might prove impossible given that he is unfamiliar with the word ``cautious.''

If any of this scares the daylights out of Gators fans, it shouldn't. LSU is something of a fraud and probably should have lost to Mississippi State on Saturday. That means UF is good enough to beat the Tigers even with John Brantley at quarterback.

SHARE THE LOAD

But this isn't about who takes the snaps against LSU or any other team on the Gators' schedule. It's about teammates coming up big for the player who has guided them to greatness.

Maybe they should each recite Tebow's speech and make it their own: ``You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play.''

It's the only way Tebow or the Gators will truly recover from this world-altering blow to the head.

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