Urban Meyer made it clear before the game: no pansies allowed.
Asked if he would hold players with the flu out of Saturday's game with Kentucky, he said "absolutely not" and that it would be "one of the major errors in coaching history" if he did so.
It's now looking like one of the season's major blunders to leave an obviously ailing Tim Tebow in the game when the outcome was already decided.
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Not that playing Tebow in the first place was wrong. He clearly wasn't suffering on the field and wanted to play. Tebow wasn't listed among those with swine flu, even though he took the same plane as those with the ailment. Tebow had a "respiratory illness" of undisclosed nature. But Florida took a 31-0 lead in the first quarter, and that should have been enough for Meyer. Especially since backup Johnathan Brantley needs experience for next year, and Meyer had talked about ways to lessen the burden on Tebow. What better way than to let an obviously sick player get some rest after doing his job?
Apparently that isn't in tough-guy Meyer's philosophy any more. "Got to get better and go play," he said about the sick players. "You go as hard as you can."
It's that kind of attitude that has college players dying in fall camp almost every year. The idea that players are slacking and have to be kicked into shape is popular among coaching because, in a lot of cases, it's true. Coaches are there to push players to their maximum performance, and if it happens to be in the heat of summer, how are they to know that it's because of heat stroke? But because they can't know, they shouldn't assume there isn't a real problem.
Meyer's attitude didn't cause Tebow's injury, but it may have blinded him to doing what he should have done: be very conservative with Tebow. Getting him out on the field was the right move, but getting him off the field soon would have been even better; it was well known before the game that Kentucky was an overmatched foe with or without Tebow's presence. Although he could just as easily have been hurt in the first quarter, there was no reason to play him more than was necessary, and 31-0 and a full quarter of playing was the perfect time to pull him.
Now after Tebow suffered a proven concussion and hospital stay, how will Meyer approach his recovery? With the same cavalier attitude he took toward sick players before? Is Tebow expected to "get better and play" and "go as hard as he can" next week against LSU?
For Tebow's sake, let's hope Meyer is listening to the team's doctors and if Tebow needs to sit, he should sit. Florida should be able to beat LSU with its defense alone, and the rest of the offense is no slouch. If they can't, then so be it; even one loss won't prevent Florida from being in the national championship as we saw last year, especially if it comes in a game Tebow doesn't play. But if he's hurt again it could cost the Gators a lot, and perhaps Tebow even more. There's no certain way to avoid injury in football but taking a conservative approach to the health of your players is not the bad thing that Meyer paints it to be.
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