GAINESVILLE, Fla. —Tim Tebow stood at the podium with his arms folded, took several deep breaths and then did something he's never done before, something he's never had to do.
He apologized after a football game. For his poor passes. For his costly fumble. For his failed fourth-down run. He took all the blame for this one — even though Jevan Snead and Mississippi deserved plenty of credit.
Snead threw two touchdown passes, ran for another score and led the Rebels to a 31-30 upset of No. 4 Florida on Saturday. It gave coach Houston Nutt a signature win in his fourth game at Ole Miss and put Florida in a hole with several tough Southeastern Conference games remaining.
The Gators (3-1, 1-1 SEC) turned the ball over three times, gave up a long pass play late and had some questionable play-calling throughout. But Tebow put it all on his shoulders.
"I'm sorry. I'm extremely sorry," he said. "We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida's never done here. But I promise you one thing: a lot of good will come out of this.
"You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season."
Tebow fumbled on Florida's second possession of the third quarter. He was sacked three times, all the result of holding the ball too long in the pocket. He also overthrew four receivers deep, including two on consecutive plays on the final drive.
Maybe even more glaring was his final run.
Trailing 31-30 with about 40 seconds to play and facing fourth down and about 2 feet at the Ole Miss 32, the Gators called on Tebow to pick up the first down. Just about everyone at The Swamp — all 90,106 in attendance — knew Tebow was getting the ball. It was exactly what he wanted, too.
But he got hit in the backfield and never even got back to the line of scrimmage.
"I thought we'd get it," Tebow said. "I thought I'd will myself to the first down. We just didn't do it."
"It's awful. Bad, bad stuff," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "We'll find out what kind of team we are."