OK, so now that everyone knows that South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was the coach who didn’t put Florida quarterback Tim Tebow on his All-SEC ballot, we can get more into the story that has turned into a major controversy over the past few days.

  Spurrier, who’s a legend in Gainesville,  said the snub was an oversight on his part. He said his director of football operations filled out the All-SEC ballot, but when Spurrier looked it over, he did so quickly and didn’t catch that Tebow had been left off the first team.

  ”I’m embarrassed about what happened, I really am. I’m embarrassed,” Spurrier said. “It shouldn’t have happened. I apologized to Tim and all Gators that it happened. … I have no reason to not say anything or to slight Tim Tebow or the Gators.”

  After all, the Ol’ Ball Coach was a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Florida and then made a name for himself as a coach by leading the Gators to a national championship and plenty of lopsided wins.

  Spurrier said he called SEC official Charles Bloom and asked if he could change his All-SEC selection at quarterback to Tebow. Bloom said that would be OK.

  ”I was able to put Tim Tebow in today, so it’s unanimous,” Spurrier said.

  You would hope that that would have been the end of Tebowgate, but nope. Spurrier was bombarded with several more questions about the whole “scandal.”

  Spurrier admitted that he hasn’t filled out his own preseason ballot over the past 17 years, which raised some eye brows. He said someone on his staff will fill it out and then he’ll look it over. 

  ”I did glance at the (All-SEC ballot) this year, but I didn’t glance very thoroughly. So it was my fault,” Spurrier said. “It was my fault all the way on it.”

  Despite the apology, the issue didn’t go away. Reporters kept hammering him about it.

  ”I was something that just happened. I feel badly about it,” Spurrier said. “In fact, I didn’t sleep worth a dang last night thinking about it. But it’s history. I’m trying to correct it the best I can.”

  Now, can we please move on to the next ridiculous controversy?

How does quarterback Tim Tebow respond to throwing his first interception in 203 attempts?

He completes 4-of-4 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown to lead the Gators to what will likely be the backbreaking score.

Tebow just led the Gators on a six-play, 83-yard stroll through Arkansas’ defense. He complete his first pass for 20 yards, tossed a 16 yard completion, added a 19-yarder, then found Percy Harvin open for a 21-yard score. It has given the Gators a 24-7 lead with roughly 12 minutes remaining.

Arkansas defense has been pretty strong all day, but that was a weak moment.

We’ve kind of let this slide lately, but the pregame Q&A is back for Florida week:

Q: How’s the weather?

A: Well, I wasn’t sure when I heard a loud boom at 7 a.m. But the rain this morning has gone away. It’s still overcast, but great football weather right now. So there’s no excuse for staying home because of the weather.

Q: Are there any lineup changes today?

A: It looks and sounds like there will be. Wendel Davis is out there working with the first-team defense in pregame drills. So is strong safety Dallas Washington. Those two will be replacing Elston Forte (a team captain) and Jerico Nelson, respectively. Oh, and don’t forget: Freshman Zach Stadther is starting in place of Ernest Mitchell, who is out for the next few weeks after undergoing knee surgery.

Q: Is Tim Tebow here?

A: Uh. Yes. And he looks very fired up. I just watched him run an option play during warmups. After handing the ball off, Tebow sprinted down the field, stepped on the goal line, turned and head butted his teammate. I think it’s safe to say the Razorbacks are going to see the Heisman Trophy winner at his best today.

Q: Will Arkansas score in the first quarter?

A: That I cannot answer. But I will say this: The Razorbacks better or else it could be a long, long day.

In case you hadn’t heard, Florida is coming off a disappointing, 31-30 loss to Ole Miss.

There’s no doubt the defeat hit the Gators hard. But the player it may have affected most was quarterback Tim Tebow, who apologized to Gator Nation after the game on Saturday. In fact, he had some pretty strong words to say. And they probably make him even more of a hero to Florida fans.

“I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry,” Tebow said. “We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida’s never done here. But I promise you one thing: a lot of good will come out of this.

“You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you’ll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you’ll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season.”

Yikes.

It sounds as if Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino has already heard Tebow’s apology. He mentioned it in passing when he was talking about the Gators and their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback today. He basically said the Razorbacks better be preparing for Florida at its best.

“We need to get ready for the Florida game,” Petrino said. “We’ve been working hard at that. They’re a good football team as everyone knows. They have a quarterback that can run the ball very physical and throw the ball. He’s a little upset right now. So we have to make sure we do a good job preparing for them.”

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino wrapped up his weekly Monday news conference not too long ago. Here are a few of the highlights from what he and several Arkansas players had to say.

The biggest topic of discussion was by far on how do the Razorbacks rebound after back-to-back blowout losses to No. 2 Alabama and No. 5 Texas. Petrino’s message was simply his players can’t “panic,” there is still a lot of football to be played and Arkansas’ last two opponents were pretty darn good.

Arkansas center Jonathan Luigs and tight end D.J. Williams echoed much of the same sentiment.

Petrino: No need to press just yet

Luigs said he has been forced to be a more vocal leader, even though it goes against his personality. He’d prefer to lead by example and not have to say much, but he admitted that he has had to step up and fill that senior leadership role.

Petrino said wide receiver Lucas Miller (concussion) improved over the weekend, and it appears that he’ll be able to suit up Saturday to face No. 12 Florida. Miller missed last Saturday’s 52-10 loss at Texas while still recovering from a concussion suffered the previous week against Alabama.

Arkansas middle linebacker Jerry Franklin and free safety Elton Ford also said there are things they can take from last week’s poor performance against Texas quarterback Colt McCoy to help them prepare for another dual threat in Florida’s reigning Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.

Well, those are a few of the tidbits from the news conference. But there will be a lot more in Tuesday’s newspaper. So spend the two quarters and buy one.