NEW ORLEANS — Tim Tebow might have saved his best game for the last one of his career.
The senior quarterback spent the night setting records in No. 5 Florida’s 51-24 victory over No. 3 Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl.
For the time being, he also took the attention from all the quesitons surrounding the coach Urban Meyer and the murky future for the program.
Tebow’s 482 passing yards were a new Sugar Bowl record and was the only time he ever threw for more than 400 yards for three touchdowns, easily the best passing game of his career and the best offensive game for the Gators (13-1) this season.
He barely missed his target either only throwing four incompletions all game, finishing 31 of 35.
He also added 51 yards on the ground and another score. The 533 yards were the most by a single player in any BCS game.
“I didn't see this coming as far as that many yards and everything. I knew we had a good game plan. I knew we were going to try to spread it out a little bit,” Tebow said. “We felt like that would be successful. And just coming into the game, we just were hitting and clicking so we kept going with it and ended up obviously throwing for a lot of yards.”
He was especially clicking with junior tight end Aaron Hernandez and senior wide receiver Riley Cooper.
Both receivers went over the century mark receiving — Cooper finished with 181 and Hernandez added 111 — and Hernandez set a new UF record for receptions in a game with nine.
It was the first time since Nov. 3, 2007 against Vanderbilt that two players on Florida finished with more than 100 yards receiving in a game.
UF’s defense wasn’t to be outdone though. After allowing Alabama to rack up 32 points on 490 yards, the defense had a lot to prove heading into the bowl game.
The Gators held the Bearcats, who entered the game averaging 464.2 yards of offense per game, to just 246.
“We just got tired of hearing that (Mark) Ingram got the Heisman off our game,” safety Ahmad Black said. “We just went out there and proved to everybody that that was not our defense that showed up that day.”
