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Tim Tebow’s struggles throwing the football and reading defenses consistently cost him a career in the NFL and have led him to a career discussing the game he loves.

But even Tebow detractors do not deny his toughness, leadership and will to win – qualities that he used to help the Gators win two national titles and elevate the program to new heights.

Tebow said those qualities are badly missing from coach Will Muschamp’s 2014 Gators, who are taking Florida football in a different direction than he did five years ago.

Duirng a radio interview Tuesday morning on Jacksonville 1010XL, Tebow, now an SEC Network analyst, did not hold back on his beloved Gators.

Tebow said the team’s offense lacks leadership, confidence and an identity. He said the Gators did not play with the heart of former Gators teams.

“They’re hoping that something is going to go well for them instead of believing someone’s going to step up and make the play,” he said. “They have to change that mindset.”

He later said, “The only place that starts is leadership.”

Tebow spread the blame around, calling out the team’s receivers and offensive line rather than placing it all on the shoulders of quarterback Jeff Driskel.

“The thing about football is you have to have all 11 guys working together on every single play,” Tebow said. “On this offense they are not working together. It’s either the left guard, the left tackle, the right tackle, the receiver drops the ball, the quarterback makes a bad read.”

Tebow played on some of the best offenses in school history and is the school’s all-time leader in total offense (12,232) and touchdowns accounted for (145).

Last season, the Gators scored 27 total touchdowns, the fewest at UF since 1988. The Gators (3-3, 2-3) entered the bye week averaging 15,6 during regulation of SEC games.

Tebow said last Saturday’s 42-14 loss was “hard to watch.”

The Gators trailed 42-0 following a fumble and interception by Driskel returned for touchdowns during a 90-second span. The 42-0 deficit was the largest at home in 44 years, according to longtime Gainesville Sun columnist Pat Dooley.

Tebow said everything has snowballed because players have lost belief in the game plan and in each other’s ability to execute.

“They’re not in rhythm, they’re not in timing, they’re not believing their brother next to them is going to do their job,” he said. “And so they’re not going to focus on theirs’ as much and maybe help on the other guy, then everything is getting to be where it is so more chaotic than it should be instead of you going out there, you’re doing your job, you’re trusting the guy next to you and then you’re able to get in a rhythm, you get confidence, and then you’ll get that momentum back.

“And that’s what they have to do.”

It appears to be implausible Muschamp’s team will get it together in time to beat Georgia on Nov. 1 and ultimately save his job.

Tebow, though, said Muschamp’s job security could become a rallying cry for the Gators now that the SEC East title is a longshot at best.

“This is the coach that recruiting them that cares about these guys and they have a close relationship,” Tebow said. “A lot of these kids look at these coaches as father figures. To be able to hear so much outside noise is going to be hard on these kids. But what it also can do sometimes is rally a team together around that coach and say, hey, you know, we’re going to go out and play for this coach now.

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“Maybe they can rally around that whole our-backs-are-against-the-wall, no-one-believes-in-us-mentality to go out and play a game against a team like Georgia or FSU late in the year and look like the Gators of old and look like they team that they could be.”

Email Edgar Thompson at [email protected]. Read the Swamp Things blog at www.orlandosentinel.com/swampthings. Follow our UF coverage on Twitter @osgators.