LEXINGTON, Ky. — Florida Fans worried whether Tim Tebow would sneeze, cough or hack up some phlegm Saturday night.

They didn’t figure on seeing their tenacious quarterback on the ground, motionless, as his teammates huddled around him at Commonwealth Stadium. Nor did they anticipate seeing him vomiting into a plastic bag on the sidelines. Nor getting carted off the field and going to a local hospital.
They were all thinking the same thing:
Please, no.
Not Tebow.
Not now.
With all the worry-warts focused on the flu-bug, a more dastardly foe drilled the Gator Nation right between the facemask Saturday night. “How are we going to win a national championship if the best player in college football is hurt?”
It wasn’t flu symptoms. Taylor Wyndham rocked Tebow on a sack in the third quarter. Tebow’s head smashed into the knee of right tackle Marcus Gilbert. Tebow went down before wobbling off the field. The damage is uncertain, although Tebow was taken to UK Medical Center for precautionary reasons. Tebow was joined by his parents. His symptoms appeared common for someone with a concussion.
“He’s on everybody’s thoughts and minds, including myself,” Florida Coach Urban Meyer said. “We believe it’s a concussion. That’s one tough cat . . . He’ll be fine.”
Hard to say at this point. Good news is that the Gators have a bye week. Bad news is they play LSU on Oct. 10.
If Tebow’s injury is serious, Meyer is going to get second-guessed for leaving his quarterback deep into the third quarter in a blowout game. Yes, it was only the third quarter . . . but . . . Florida was leading, 31-7, at the time. Mathematically, Kentucky was in the game. But the Wildcats never posed a serious threat. And Tebow was dealing with flu symptoms all week. He came to Lexington on a separate plane, along with 11 other Gators. He had to take two IVs before the game, as did several other teammates.
“That was like my son,” Meyer said. “Imagine your son on the ground. My knees were shaking.”
Without Tebow, everything else goes wobbly.
SEC title. First undefeated season in Florida history. Repeating as national champions.
A month into the season, one thing we know: Tebow is not Superman. He fumbled against Tennessee. He came down with nasty flu symptoms. And like all humans, he can’t take every hard shot delivered in this violent game of college football.
Tebow’s status now constitutes real drama for the nation’s No.1 football team. The Gators were looking like they’d have a clear shot to the SEC title game against Alabama in December.
The Gators are sick, but not in that hack, sneeze, cough kind of way.
Now, everything changes.
Opponents hadn’t mattered much in the first month. After rolling over Kentucky, 41-7, the Gators have outscored their opponents, 182-29. Kentucky was outgained, 223 to -1, in the first quarter, which takes the suspense out of any game, unless you have a bookie.
But who’s going to bet on Florida without Tebow?
He’s the one guy who is indispensable. He is the poster child for college football. He engages far more people than those with a fixation for all things orange and blue.
He’s the one who steadied the Gators when things got rocky after a loss to Ole Miss last season. He’s the one who was going to keep the Gators on course this season, in a month devoid of much drama except:
An annoying but entertaining twerp from Tennessee.
Flu bug.
Boredom.
But now, there are elements in the mix:
Panic, perhaps? Concern? Definitely.
If Tebow misses any significant time, he’s going to have to dig up another one of those inspirational speeches.
As a man of faith, Tebow knows this much about a Florida team void of his leadership and athletic ability:
The Gators’ chances of winning the national title without him are a Hail Mary.