What happened to Tim Tebow?
The Heisman Trophy winner has thrown just eight touchdowns in seven games.
He already has four interceptions, which matches his total from all of 2008, and has thrown multiple touchdown passes in just one game this year. He threw four against Troy.
After seven games, the Gators are ranked No. 80 in the nation in passing offense. And that includes games against Charleston Southern and Troy.
Tebow has accounted for just 14 total touchdowns this year. At this pace it looks unlikely that he'll get anywhere near the 55 scores he had as a sophomore in 2007 or even the 42 he had last year.
Has Florida actually gotten to the point where it is winning in spite of Tebow and not because of him?
Mississippi State's defense focused on Aaron Hernandez and Riley Cooper, leaving David Nelson and Deonte Thompson open on several plays Saturday night.
After a failed third-down play where he was open and didn't get the ball, Thompson was seen making hand gestures at Tebow.
Thompson had just one catch for 19 yards and was visibly frustrated.
"I'll have a little chat with Deonte about that," UF coach Urban Meyer said. "Because we don't need that. We need to go as hard as we can, and that's what we do right now."
Thompson has every right to be upset, though.
Tebow's lack of trust in his receivers has gotten to the point where if Cooper and Hernandez aren't open, that's it. Game over. It's time to tuck the ball and run because he trusts himself more than anyone else.
Tebow opted to run the ball, throw it away and even forced it into double coverage several times against the Bulldogs when he had wide open receivers.
These are the kind of mistakes that he prided himself on not making the past three years. The one thing you could always count on was that Tebow was going to make good decisions. He was going to protect the ball. But so far this season, that hasn't been the case.
So what's the problem? Is Tebow starting to crack under the pressure of expectations?
He came into the season being heralded as possibly the greatest college football player ever. But through seven games, he has only hurt that argument.
"I don't think it's getting to me," Tebow said. "Do I have a lot of pressure on me? Do I put pressure on me? Yeah. I put a lot more pressure than y'all could possibly put on me, so I don't think that's getting to me. I think just wanting to excel, wanting everything to be right. Yeah, that is frustrating not doing it, but I think that would have been every year, not just this year."
Tebow has made no secret about his goal of leading the Gators to their first perfect season in school history. But has the pursuit of perfection taken too great a toll?
Tebow might have finally found the one thing he can't overcome: his own legend.
