I'm surprised at you, E-: while I feel your pain and frustration, I also think you're going WAY over to the "other side" here in reacting to a young player in the wrong system (you know it) with the wrong team (a TERRIBLE team, you know THIS too!) with the wrong game plan (read your own posts HERE over the last few weeks!) from EXACTLY the wrong coach and GM etc., etc., etc.
OK, there ARE valid points you've made, both in his preparation and his execution, but "not trying"?!! If anything, I believe he is "trying" too HARD! That in itself, trying to do everything and BE everything to everyone all the time out there is a mistake in itself, an exercise in futility, as he will learn. What's more, in terms of "auditioning for his next job" (which you know I agree he is doing--but I wonder sometimes if HE knows it, is thinking ahead in this way--it may not be in him), he would be better served in every way (and his CURRENT team and its fans would be as well) if he just threw out the "playbook" sometimes (like almost every play, once the protection breaks down and the "hot" receiver runs the wrong route or gives up entirely again) and really WAS "Tim being Tim".
In the end, though, I am afraid "Tebow being Tebow" also means he will continue trying to be "the good soldier", doing all he can to do what he's told and follow the instructions of his coaches (he's never HAD an adversarial relationship with "the powers that be" before, I don't believe) and keep trying to win over them and the players, show them all that he is worthy of their trust and support. He needs (and WE need!) "Bad Tebow" (remember?)--the one who gets mad at anything less than full effort and won't take sh*t from ANYONE. I'm afraid that "Humble Timmy" has taken hold in this situation for good, though (it sure has so far), and if he doesn't wake up, he WILL be out of "the League" before he ever got or gave himself a real chance.
(One more thing, E-, and please don't take this wrong: Are you sure you are not letting your wider, deeper "Gator Angst", the funk we're ALL in right now", affect your reaction to seeing Tebow in the process of being "set up to fail"--especially the point (as I hope I made above) that he may be SETTING HIMSELF UP to do so? You aren't alone in this, if so. I mean, in a sense, that is also what the whole TEAM appears to be doing, as this season wears on. I know you realize how different the two situations are--but it's easy to let what's been happening in G-ville affect all our thinking (I am probably the WORST offender in this regard)...if Tebow fails, he fails...we just want him to get a fair shot at showing what he can do, but football is a TEAM sport like no other, and he needs at the very least the basic tools and protection, at even mediocre level, to show ANYTHING. HE has the heart, though; a certain amount of the burden IS on him to go out there and do it his own way, that I'll agree with. The GATORS, on the other hand, have shown that they have neither heart nor on-field leadership. After the Tebow years, that is so unacceptable to be almost sickening at times. We ALL have to remember to separate the two sets of emotions here. Tebow has some control over his own destiny...we have NONE. In a year of abject frustration, that is particularly galling and painful.)