Tebow, Florida teammates reflect on loss to Ole Miss

Frustration on the field turned into tears in the locker-room and led to the most impassioned speech in school history, maybe even college football lore. The Promise. It’s been seven years since Tim Tebow delivered a heartfelt apology following a 31-30 home loss to Mississippi, a stunning upset that ended Florida’s undefeated season and spearheaded the team’s run to a national championship.

And with the third-ranked Rebels (4-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) returning to Gainesville on Saturday for the first time since that shocker on Sept. 27, 2008, Tebow and several of his former teammates reflected on The Promise and what it meant to the Gators then and still signifies now.

Tebow’s words came long after the final seconds ticked off the clock, but long before the Gators came to grips with the outcome.

Florida looked like it would eke out a victory after trailing twice in the fourth quarter. But Tebow was stopped on a fourth-and-1 run at the Ole Miss 32-yard line with 41 seconds remaining. The Rebels had 10 guys near the line of scrimmage and stuffed the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner in the backfield.

Tebow, the Gators and more than 90,000 fans at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium were in disbelief.

“Agonizing,” Tebow recalled last week.

Tebow admittedly cried after- ward. He eventually collected himself and was about to walk into the post-game news conference.

He stepped to the podium with his eyes watering, his voice cracking and offered “what I felt in my heart.”

“To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I’m sorry,” Tebow said that day. “I’m extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida never has done here. I promise you one thing: A lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push somebody the rest of the season.

“You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless.” After that, Tebow walked away. The Gators responded by winning their final eight regularseason games by a combined 317 points. They beat Alabama in the SEC title game and knocked off Oklahoma in the Bowl Championship Series title game.

Not everyone gave Tebow as much credit as the masses.

“It wasn’t all what it was made out to be,” said receiver Percy Harvin. “It wasn’t anything more than one of the leaders on the team just standing up and saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ But he’s the quarterback and he deserved the credit.”

Florida coach Urban Meyer gave Tebow so much credit, he had the speech engraved on a plaque before the next season.