So how far has college football in the state of Florida come of late?  Well, we at Florida, Florida State and Miami are among the elite. We got the University of South Florida advancing fast and the University of Central Florida in Orlando as certain as USF to make it to form the Top Five. No other state, other than Texas, can offer a challenge.

Saturday afternoon Florida at Gainesville pressed once more its No. 1 draw and Saturday night, the advancing USF in Tampa, FSU at Tallahassee and Miami made their cases. Always a great place for college football, this great state in which we live only gets greater.

My gosh, wasn’t it just yesterday — B.S., Before Spurrier — the spring football game at Gainesville, the Orange and Blue game, drew a few thousand and was played with a main purpose of not hurting anybody, not giving anything away to snoops, as it was at our other colleges? Yes, along those lines, it was defensive, unappealing. I know. I was there.

No more.

Check the Gators Saturday. The fact that ESPN covered it live, chose to make it a part of their College GameDay presentation, with their stars of the fall and winter — Lee Corso, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit - to call it, legitimize it.

All made it clear they were there because the Gators have a junior Heisman Trophy winner - the starting quarterback - and are thought to be contenders for the Southeastern Conference, and, even, the national championship. Tim Tebow (above), in an interview said okay, an SEC challenger, yes, but he chose not to confirm the national title hope. No one will, but they are there.

It was a good show for the Gator fans, for college football fans, but, not likely many others. There were 60,000 fans there in the refurbished 90,000 seat Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, with orange the color of the day. Tebow’s blue team won it, four or five touchdowns to a couple. He was sharp, had a couple of picks, but on batted balls.

Impressing here was the fitness of the team. Saw no flabby Gators. Always there have been a couple. None Saturday. And the game was largely passing, as the Gator game in the fall is likely to be. And with that, a show for tests and a long line of wideouts, tight ends (a favorite of Tebow) and backs.  Not so sure any back looked better running the ball than one Emmanuel Moody.

The head coach, Urban Meyer, who seems not too smile a lot, had a busy afternoon, which was a perfect one for the game, a bit beyond hot, which helped, breezy and blue-skied. Meyer was all over, attentive to his work, primarily eying the place-kicking. A kicker is needed.

On one occasion, I noticed a player’s hand on the coach’s shoulder.  The hand belonged to quarterback Tebow. Of course, as he goes, so will go Florida. He was ailing too much of last year, the season after the Gators won it all, hammering Ohio State in the title game. The broadcasting team noted Ohio State was a cinch in the Big Ten and a candidate for it all, like the Gators.

Corso, a former Florida State quarterback, follows the Gators closely. He admires the program a ton. Mentioned on the air the Florida-South Carolina game this year in Gainesville will be pivotal in the SEC. He also admires Tebow. Heck, most do.

Interviewed Saturday, the Tebow parents said they had no hint their son would be so achieving in sports — in the pursuit of Christianity, yes, but not sports.  They both spoke admiringly of his religious convictions and his missions, begun with them in the Philippines. Tim said one day he would like to go on a mission like his parents, internationally, perhaps back to the Philippines.

Most seem to agree that Tebow has handled a wagon-load of trophies, including the wonderful Heisman and the Sullivan, well. He continues to remain modest and low-key, without bravado. Asked about that, he had a nifty answer. He pointed to the previous Heisman winners from the Gators — Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel - and said he only wanted to do as they did.

Individual awards he said mean little in a team sport. It’s the team, he said, and if he had quoted General Douglas MacArthur, he would have paraphrased the general’s reminiscing of West Point, by saying, in his fading years, as he looked back, it was always only, The Corps ... The Corps ... The Corps.

Or, quarterback Tebow might have opted for ... The Team ... The Team ... The Team.