Florida’s Tebow injures non-throwing shoulder

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, a left-hander, won’t have any contact in practice this week in Gainesville after bruising his right shoulder in the second half of Florida’s 45-37 victory at Kentucky on Saturday.

“We have to be careful,” Florida Coach Urban Meyer said Sunday. “We’ve got to continue to coach him up to manage the game. He’s had so much success [running]. He’s the kind of persona that takes it. That’s a concern.”

Meyer said there were several plays Saturday in which Tebow could have thrown the ball to an open receiver for short yardage but instead tucked it and ran, taking the safer option but also taking unnecessary hits.

The Gators have tried to limit Tebow’s touches, especially after he ran 27 times for a career-high 166 yards at Mississippi last month. But Tebow has carried 19, 16 and 20 times in the three games since. He finished with 78 yards in 20 carries against the Wildcats.

“He’s getting about 20 carries a game, but a lot of those are him all of a sudden making a play,” Meyer said. “When you take that away from Tim Tebow -- not that he’s a normal quarterback -- but he’s not what Tim Tebow is to our offense.

“The thing we all have to understand is we can’t get him hurt.”

Florida safety Major Wright (broken thumb) and offensive tackle Carlton Medder (heel injury) also were banged up in Saturday’s game.

Damion Fletcher ran for 152 yards and three touchdowns to lead Southern Mississippi to a 33-24 victory over Marshall at Huntington, W.Va. Southern Mississippi (4-3, 3-1 Conference USA) jumped ahead 20-0 and withstood a second-half rally by Marshall (0-7, 0-3) to move into a tie for first place with East Carolina in the East Division.