University of Florida linebacker Ryan Stamper has seen plenty of football players get concussions during his five-year collegiate career. Nothing in his lengthy Rolodex of personal experience prepared him for what he saw Saturday night in Kentucky.

When Florida’s Tim Tebow went down with 3:57 left in the third quarter, Stamper said his “heart just dropped.” So, too, did the collective heart of Gator Nation.
On Sunday, coaches, players and fans of the No. 1 team in the country did not celebrate the 41-7 victory against Kentucky. Instead, they were left to worry about the health of their beloved senior quarterback and about how his possible absence from the starting lineup might affect the rest of the season.
Sunday was the beginning of a bye week for the Gators. Florida (4-0) plays at No. 4 Louisiana State (4-0) in two weeks. Gators coach Urban Meyer is 0-2 at LSU, and Florida lost 28-24 in Baton Rouge, La., in 2007, Tebow’s sophomore season.
Tebow sustained a concussion Saturday when he was sacked by Kentucky defensive end Taylor Wyndham.
The quarterback’s head absorbed two vicious hits on the play. The first occurred when Wyndham’s helmet slammed into Tebow’s facemask just below the All-American’s chin. The collision forced Tebow’s helmet to move violently to the right and sent him falling to the ground.
On the way down, the back of Tebow’s helmet collided with the knee of teammate Marcus Gilbert, the Gators’ right tackle, who played high school football at Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas. Tebow’s collision with Gilbert violently pushed the quarterback’s head and neck forward in a whiplash motion.
Tebow fell on his back and remained there, motionless, for at least two minutes until he first wiggled his toes and then sat up. He walked off the field with the help of trainers.
The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner was taken to the emergency room of nearby University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center during the fourth quarter, and remained at the hospital overnight. Tebow underwent tests that confirmed his concussion. He was released Sunday morning and flew back to Gainesville on the University Athletic Association’s private jet.
“Tim is doing fine this morning,” Meyer said in a statement Sunday. “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.”
Florida associate athletic director Steve McClain wrote Sunday in a text message to The Miami Herald that Tebow’s concussion was the first of his collegiate career. A medical history of more than one concussion requires more recovery time, according to the American Academy of Neurology. McClain also wrote that he did not know if Tebow ever got a concussion while playing high school football at Ponte Vedra (Fla.) Beach Nease.
As of Sunday night, McClain, the team’s official spokesman, said he did not know the severity of Tebow’s concussion.
“I don’t have (a) grade at this time,” McClain wrote.
Doctors diagnose concussions differently, but most specialists classify the severity of a concussion with three grades: I, II and III. According to the American Academy of Neurology, a Grade III concussion — or the most severe — is the diagnosis for any concussion when an individual loses consciousness.
According to Stamper, Tebow lost consciousness Saturday. The UF team, including Stamper, walked onto Commonwealth Stadium’s C.M. Newton Field and observed Tebow from a few yards away shortly after he went down. The prescribed recovery time for a Grade III concussion is at least one week.
“A lot of guys get concussions or knocked out but kind of get up and just don’t know where they were at,” Stamper said. “(Tebow) was just knocked out cold — wasn’t moving or anything. I’ve never really seen nothing like that before, especially from him.
“It was kind of shocking.”