Tebow KO'd in Gators' victory

— With one scary hit on Tim Tebow, No. 1 Florida's season may have changed.

The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback was knocked out of Florida's 41-7 victory against Kentucky after a hard shot to the head in the third quarter and taken by ambulance to a hospital.

"I don't know, I think it's a concussion," Florida Coach Urban Meyer said. "I think he'll be all right. He took a pretty good shot."

The Gators were leading 31-7 and driving deep in Kentucky territory when Tebow was sacked by Kentucky defensive end Taylor Wyndham on a vicious but clean hit. As he fell back with Wyndham on top of him, Tebow's head struck teammate Marcus Gilbert's leg, violently bending his neck forward.

Tebow, a tank of a quarterback at 245 pounds, lay motionless for several minutes while Commonwealth Stadium fell silent. He sat up with some help, then slowly made his way off the field to a loud ovation. He was eventually carted off the field with concussion-like symptoms, vomiting several times.

He was taken to a hospital for tests and was scheduled to stay overnight, Florida spokesman Steve McClain said.

Meyer said Tebow had one question after the hit.

"He asked me, 'Did I holdonto the ball?' " Meyer said. "I told him he did and he winked at me and said, 'It's great to be a Gator.' "

Still, the image of their leader laying helpless proved unsettling for the defending national champions.

"He was a little fuzzy coming off the field," backup quarterback John Brantley said. "He was looking around, I guess making sure he was in Kentucky."'

The victory extended Florida's winning streak to 14 games, tops in the nation as the Gators (4-0, 2-0 SEC) continued their mastery over the Wildcats (2-1, 0-1).

Florida has won 23 consecutive in the series, the second-longest active winning streak by one team over another in the country.

Yet the outcome becamea mere footnote after Tebow went down.

The injury put a stop to another vintage performance by Tebow, whose status appeared to be in doubt in the hours before the game. Tebow was one of several Gators who took a separate plane to Lexington because of respiratory and congestion issues, leading to speculation the Heisman Trophy winner wouldn't play.

If Tebow wasn't feeling well, it didn't show. He walked off the field following pregame warmups trading head slaps with teammate Brandon Spikes and nearly sprinted into the huddle on Florida's first possession.

He ran for 29 yards on the third play of the game, breaking a tackle at the line of scrimmage and bolting through the secondary before getting shoved out of bounds.

The drive ended in a field goal, but he was just getting started. Tebow put the Gators up 10-0 on a 3-yard touchdown run, silencing a crowd in the process.

The Wildcats couldn't get out of their own way. An illegal motion penalty on a punt forced them to re-kick, and the Gators took advantage when Chris Rainey blocked it and then fell on the ball in the end zone to make it 17-0 Florida.

The Gators had it back five plays later and Tebow led them on a 58-yard drive that included a pair of impressive Tebow runs. First he shook Kentucky cornerback Cartier Rice with some nifty footwork, then spun forward for an extra yard to get the ball to the Kentucky 2.

On the next play Tebow turned to hand the ball off to running back Jeff Demps, but Demps had run the other way. So, Tebow tucked the ball, stepped through a tackle and walked into the end zone for his 48th career rushing touchdown, leaving him one shy of Herschel Walker's SEC record.

He later added a 44-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Hernandez on the last play of the first quarter, ending a 31-point deluge that left the Wildcats stunned.

Sports, Pages 35 on 09/27/2009

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