Former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow criticized his alma mater's offense and lack of leadership Tuesday morning.
Tebow won the Heisman at Florida in 2007 and was on teams that won national titles in 2006 and '08; he currently is an analyst for the SEC Network, and it was in that role that he appeared on WJXL-AM in Jacksonville.
"It was tough to watch," he said of Florida's 42-13 loss to Missouri on Saturday. "If you're a Gator fan, it was not easy to watch."
He said Florida "just didn't play with the heart that I'm used to watching Florida Gators play with" and that "one of the biggest problems on the offense is leadership."
But his harshest criticism was about the offense as a whole.
"I don't think that offense has an identity right now, and I don't think that they know what they want their identity to be," he said.
Coach Will Muschamp, who might be on the hottest seat in the nation, is in his fourth season at Florida, and the offenses during his tenure have been no better than mediocre. He is on his third offensive coordinator, and Kurt Roper was brought in from Duke to move the offense to more of a spread attack and become more up-tempo.
That was the case in the first two games, when Florida rolled up 101 points and 1,187 yards in dispatching Eastern Michigan and Kentucky. But starting with a Game 3 blowout loss at Alabama, the Gators have reverted to a meek run-first and run-second offense. Florida has managed just 1,021 yards and 71 points in the past four games.
Coaches can't have much confidence in junior quarterback Jeff Driskel, who is completing 53.0 percent of his passes and has thrown 10 interceptions and six touchdowns. Backup Treon Harris, a true freshman, seems likely to see the bulk of the time at the position going forward, but it also seems likely he will be running a scaled-back version of the offense. Things is, a scaled-back version with Harris likely is better than a full-fledged version of the offense with Driskel at the controls.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
