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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Tim Tebow has a bronze statue outside Florida Field and his most memorable quote emblazoned on a plaque a couple of hundred feet away. His All-American brick rests nearby, too. On Saturday, the Florida Gators will honor their most famous quarterback one more time. Florida will induct Tebow into the program's Ring of Honor, making him the sixth player with his name prominently and permanently displayed inside the Swamp. "It's really exciting, and it's such an honor," Tebow said this week during a phone interview with ESPN. "It's going to mean a lot to me on Saturday, but it's going to mean a lot to me for a long time. Being a Gator was more than just four years. It's been a lifetime experience. "My grandfather's dream was to see Florida win an SEC championship, and he died before he was ever able to see that, and my parents' first date was to the Florida-Georgia game. I remember in 1995, when Florida lost to Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl, and I was crying. And the next year, when we beat Florida State in the Sugar Bowl 52-20, it was one of the greatest things ever. It's so much more to me than where I went to school." The 22nd-ranked Gators (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) will celebrate Tebow at the end of the first quarter of Saturday's game against LSU (5-0, 2-0). At halftime, they will honor the 2008 national championship team that featured Tebow, receiver Percy Harvin, cornerback Joe Haden, linebacker Brandon Spikes and defensive end Carlos Dunlap. "That was a team that had a lot of talent on it," said Florida coach Dan Mullen, who was the team's offensive coordinator a decade ago. "But there's a lot of teams [that] have talent that don't always know how to win. That was a team that started and they really learned how to win, how to play for each other, the intensity they went after winning." Tebow said he doesn't get to see his teammates from the 2008 team as often as he'd like, but he's looking forward to seeing them all again. "It will be really fun to catch up and see guys I haven't seen in a long time and be able to hear about what's going on in their life and be able to relive the old days," Tebow told ESPN. "Gosh, you really feel old when you say that, and laugh about it." Tebow also plans to spend time with the current Gators team pregame, and "there might even be a chance to share with them. We'll see." Tebow, now an analyst for ESPN, a minor league baseball player and on the panel to select the Allstate Good Works Team, was Florida's emotional leader on and off the field. The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner and two-time national champion finished his college career with 9,285 yards and 88 touchdowns passing to go along with 2,947 yards and an SEC-record 57 scores rushing. "He was a guy that you would want to have on your team because he would never let anything slide," said Florida receiver Josh Hammond, whose older brother, Frankie, was a freshman on the 2008 team. "He was a legend here. That's a guy we respect much. I think everybody on our team respects him."  Tebow surely will get lots of love Saturday. His name will be unveiled on the north end zone facade at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, a display about 18 feet wide and 5 feet high that will be next to the five other inductees: linebacker Wilber Marshall, running back Emmitt Smith, 1966 Heisman Trophy winner and former coach Steve Spurrier, 1996 Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel and defensive end Jack Youngblood. "I feel like I bleed Orange and Blue," Tebow told ESPN. "And to one day bring my kids back there, and grandkids hopefully, will be really special. And it will also be special to me that I get to celebrate it with my parents there with me as well." It's no coincidence Tebow's ceremony comes during a game against LSU. Tebow went 3-1 against the Tigers during his four-year college career, and had some memorable moments along the way. His first jump pass and his first rocker-step pass came in a 23-10 win against LSU in 2006. The following year, LSU students got ahold of Tebow's cellphone number. Tebow received hundreds of calls and threatening messages -- so many that after his first touchdown pass he stared into the LSU crowd and pretended to dial a phone. The Gators blew a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost 28-24 in Baton Rouge. They responded with a 30-point victory the following year and eventually won a second national title in three years. They accomplished that despite losing to Mississippi in late September, a setback that prompted Tebow's famed postgame speech dubbed "The Promise." The Gators won their next 10, including beating top-ranked Oklahoma 24-14 in the title game. "There are a lot of great memories, a lot of big games that season," Mullen said. "Being in those big moments was a lot of fun and being in those big games, it's a lot of fun to get to do that, to be a part of that." Mullen and the Gators are trying to get back there. A win against LSU on Saturday -- with Tebow and the rest of the 2008 team watching from the sideline -- would be a huge step in the right direction. "It's our time now," safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson said. "We've got to set our own legacy. ... We got to go out there and produce and have our own legacy out there and just continue to add to the greats like those who were here before." ESPN's Andrea Adelson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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