It may be the final day of summer, but the temperature's rising in Gainesville, and Urban Meyer is already showing the effects.

He's a bit more testy than a guy in his position ought to be. His Florida Gators are No. 1-'till-knocked down, which few dispute. He's got the toughest QB in the nation in Heisman winner Tim Tebow and a schedule that's all but laid out for him to run the table and fly west for a shot at the Gators second consecutive national title.

Yet Meyer appears to be wilting a bit. A day after Florida's 23-13 did-what-we-had-to-do-to win over unranked and un-respected Tennessee, Meyer, who's typically cool on the sideline, tossed a salvo at Lane Kiffin, coach of the vanquished Vols.

He said he sensed "[no] urgency" when the Vols recovered a Tebow fumble at their own 2, trailing 23-6 with 11:37 remaining. Kiffin went conservative, running between the tackles and throwing only low-risk passes.

Apparently, that wasn't good enough for Meyer, who wondered why the Vols (30-point 'dogs, mind you) didn't take some chances.

Meyer wasn't even fazed that the Vols scored on the drive in just under 3 minutes, trimming the lead to 10 points, where it remained until the final gun.

The Gators are clearly the hunted and with other contenders tripping up every Saturday, they're in prime position to reach the SEC title game and more than likely defend their national title Jan. 7 in Pasadena. But if Meyer's already chippy, letting a guy like Kiffin annoy him, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

As it should be.

The Gators face three more real challenges during the regular season, only one of which (at No. 7 LSU in two weeks) is a major challenge. The other two are Georgia (which is still hoping Matt Stafford realized the 'Dawgs are better than the Lions) and Florida State. Meyer's troops won't have to face 'Bama, the SEC's second-best team (for now), until a possible SEC title game.

And yet, after escaping with a clear yet unimpressive win, Meyer acknowledged the building pressure, though using the moment to spew yet another dig at Kiffin. "There's so much pressure on this team to perform perfectly, which is good," Meyer said. "I'd rather be on that end then, 'What a great job, we lost by 10.' I don't want to do that."

Remember when Meyer professed his high annoyance at the cover of Sports Illustrated's college preview issue, which depicted him posed reminiscent of Joel Goodsen, Tom Cruise's character in "Risky Business?" Meyer said he was duped into taking the shot at the end of the photo shoot and was promised the image was for the photographer's personal use only.

Maybe that was the beginning of something we should have seen coming. Who cares about the shot? Was Meyer already getting tight over the challenge before him and his team?

Now, it seems as if the cover may have been dead-on. The Gators' run now seems more risky than reliable, and if Meyers is going to celebrate in January he just might have to embrace a bit of Gooden/Cruise and tell us: Sometimes you just gotta say, "What the ----, make your move."

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 Photos: Reuters, studio, SI