FanHouse John Brantley

BATON ROUGE, La. -- He survived a heated pre-game incident at midfield, where Florida players jawed with LSU players in a 100-man staredown that fortunately didn't erupt into a beatdown. He survived screeching crowd noise that must have made his recently concussed head feel like it was inside a margarita shaker. He survived a corner blitz by Patrick Peterson, who drilled him in the midsection with such force that his head bounced off the turf. He survived a nasty face-mask twist that earned Lazarius Levingston a personal foul.

But there was one particular sequence Saturday night that provided assurance that Tim Tebow's tender, vulnerable skull ultimately would be OK ... for a game, anyway. That's when he threw a 24-yard scoring pass to an embarrassingly open Riley Cooper, located the nearest teammate with whom to celebrate and didn't care that it was 6-6, 340-pound left tackle Carl Johnson. With typical boyish exuberance, Tebow rushed over and hurled himself full-frontal into Johnson's meaty body, not caring that such a hit could have done more damage than any other.

BATON ROUGE, La. -- He's quite the drama king, this Tim Tebow lad, always involved in some sort of swirl that prompts debate, wonderment and humor. No one knows if he'll make it in the NFL, despite a career as storied as any in college football history. He's an avowed virgin even as coeds clamor to have his babies, including one who stopped him at Radio Shack, asked him to pose for a picture and lifted her shirt as her proud mother took the shot. While other Florida students go to South Beach or Cancun for spring break, he heads to prisons and speaks to inmates.

Or flies off to a poverty-stricken village in the Phillippines and helps circumsize children.

Florida hasn't hit the field to play LSU, but already the Tigers have Gator quarterback John Brantley's number. His cell phone number, in fact. Yes, those crazy Cajuns have struck again, discovering the phone number of projected Gators starting quarterback John Brantley and doing pesky things with it like you'd expect an amateur fan base to do.

This is sort of old hat for LSU, as its fans also figured out how to reach out and touch opponents such as Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson and Georgia back Knowshon Moreno. They're rumored to have also discovered the numbers for several other Florida players and even coach Urban Meyer. At this rate they're probably not to far from reaching President Barack Obama with a different kind of 3 AM call if his health care push upsets them too much.

Quick, can you name the second-team quarterback at the University of Florida? Texas? USC? Don't worry, it's not a big deal -- unless the starter is forced to exit from the game this season. That's when coaches, fans and mascots will naturally begin to worry. At UF, there's no denying that Tim Tebow will leave an undeniable mark on the program, opponents and college football.

John Brantley certainly won't mind if a little of Tim Tebow rubs off on him, too.

"Tim has taught me how to become a better leader and has helped me with the mental aspects of the game," Brantley, the Gators' second-team quarterback behind you-know-who, told FanHouse Tuesday afternoon. "Absolutely it has been a great learning experience being able to sit back, watch and learn from Tim.

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Incoming Florida Freshman John Brantley attended the Gatorade High School All-American Athlete of the Year Awards this week in Hollywood and sat down with the FanHouse to talk about his future.

Watch the video to find out why Brantley decommitted from the Texas Longhorns, if he plans on red-shirting, whether Tim Tebow's father can be overbearing, what he thinks about Les Miles' comments on the Pac Ten, which team he would not want to play next year and, most important, whether he reads the #1 non-FanHouse Florida Gator blog, Every Day Should Be Saturday.

Kudos to Miss Gossip for the fancy camerawork!

While Hollywood shuts down for the ESPY's tonight at the Kodak Theater, the banquet hall upstairs was set aside this afternoon for the Fifth Annual Gatorade High School All American Luncheon.

Incoming UCLA Freshman Kevin Love beat out Florida's John Brantley (Football), Seton Hall soccer player Brayan Martinez, Detroit Tiger-to-be Rick Porchello and USC Track and Field future star Bryshon Nellum. Connecticut-bound Maya Moore took home the women's honors, making it a basketball sweep.

Hosted by ESPN's Stuart Scott, the Wolfgang Puck-catered luncheon featured a goat-cheese, rocket and watermelon salad, Surf-and-Turf in a red wine reduction on fingerling potatoes with broccoli and a white-and-dark chocolate moose with a Gatorade Logo chocolate emblem and an unidtentified orange fruity thing. Oh, and former winners Lisa Leslie, Vince Carter, Chris Paul and Greg Oden were there, as well, handing out the awards.

Be sure to check back on FanHouse for Miss Gossip and my interviews from the event!