GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tim Tebow’s pursuit of perfection might be causing him to play a little tight.Florida coach Urban Meyer said Monday his star quarterback could be putting so much pressure on himself that it’s causing the top-ranked Gators to bog down on offense, especially inside the 20-yard line.”I would say that there’s a chance that’s true,” Meyer said. “That’s a fault of Tim that he sometimes wants to. … I do believe that’s an issue. But is it that a great issue? Now you’ve got to be able to coach through that and work through that.”Tebow already has more turnovers (eight) through seven games than he did in all of 2007 (six) or 2008 (six), and he’s been sacked 15 times. He was sacked just 13 times in 2007 and 15 times in 14 games last season. His most glaring struggles are in the red zone.In Southeastern Conference play, Florida (7-0, 5-0 SEC) has just seven touchdowns in 25 trips inside the 20-yard line — a 28-percent rate that is alarming. The Gators scored TDs on 27 of 37 trips (73 percent) last year and 30 of 44 trips (68 percent) in 2007.There have been fumbles, interceptions, missed field goals, penalties and sacks. Meyer even said Monday the team made a mistake by going off the play-calling sheet in Saturday’s 29-19 win at Mississippi State.Tebow doesn’t have any answers. He is clearly getting disheartened with his team’s offensive woes. He blew off his postgame interview session for the first time in three years in Starkville, Miss.”It’s kind of new and it is frustrating,” Tebow said Monday. “I’m not going to lie to you and say it’s not frustrating because obviously we want to score [touchdowns] every time we get in the red zone, and the turnovers are frustrating, just things that we’re not used to doing.”It could possibly be a good thing because that could give us a little bit of edge of, ‘Hey, we haven’t arrived and we’ve still got a lot of work to do.’ That’s something to really motivate us because that’s not us, that’s not the way we’ve always played and it’s just frustrating.”Tebow apologized for missing the interview session, saying he wanted to spend time with family members and his former position coach, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen. Tebow said Mullen told him to, “Just go win another title. Everything’s in front of you.”—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s sports staff at [email protected]
Football: Tebow struggling to find groove in senior season
October 25, 2009