Loading ...Tim Tebow: The Best In College Football History
The greatest college football player to ever put on a uniform walked off the field in New Orleans on Friday night as a winner. He wasn’t the greatest winner, although a 35-6 record as a starter is not too shabby. He wasn’t the greatest speaker, although just minutes before taking a final stroll out of the stadium he thanked his savior, his football family, his coaches, and the fans that had adopted him as one of their own. He wasn’t the greatest passer; NFL scouts have been telling him that indirectly since he became a college superstar.
Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer became fixtures in the national spotlight over the last four years in Gainesville. |
For those keeping count, he wasn’t the fastest. Defenders often caught him from behind, but very few took him down when he was steamrolling down the field at full speed. He wasn’t the tallest, quickest, funniest, or best at reading a defense either.
What Tim Tebow was was pretty incredible though.
What Tebow accomplished at Florida is hard to put into words. The Heisman Trophy season in 2007 will go down in college football history as one of the most remarkable feats ever accomplished. His two national championships will never be forgotten as fans reminisce about a man that once vowed that his team wouldn’t lose again.
And they didn’t lose again, at least not until 23 games later.
Think about all the ways we will remember Tebow. Where do you begin?
Oh, this man and his football tricks. This is a man that jump-passed himself onto the national spotlight as a freshman and had his own word bank of phrases known at Tebowisms.
When Urban Meyer needed a first down during his first national championship season, he didn’t look on the sideline to find a big fullback or a trusty senior wide receiver. Instead Meyer pointed to his freshman quarterback from Nease High School and trusted him to get the first down.
Later that season against Ohio State in the national championship game, Florida was considered a very large underdog. Make no mistake, Chris Leak was the offensive leader of that team, but Tim Tebow delivered with two touchdowns and a huge performance on the national stage.
The next offseason all of the talk in the college football world seemed to circle around Tebow. There was no way a kid that ran that hard could throw anywhere near effective enough to be the starting quarterback of a potential juggernaut like Florida. Tebow responded to the comments by pouring in touchdowns as if he was stealing candy from a baby. His 55 touchdowns led to him being awarded the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore, the first underclassmen ever to win the award.
During the next offseason, talk changed. Tebow was now known as college football’s top quarterback and his focus (as always) was on a perfect season. Mississippi went into the The Swamp and ruined those dreams on a day that ironically will go down in Gator-lore forever. A blocked Gators extra point had left Florida down by one at home to Houston Nutt’s Rebels that day. What many will forget is that Tebow overthrew two open receivers on passes that could’ve won the game for Florida before finally coming up short on a run on 4th & 2.
That single one point loss changed the national landscape for the next two seasons. Tebow, never a man that took losing as a brush on the shoulder, walked into the post game press conference and spoke triumphantly. He didn’t shout, but he did speak with power when he claimed that “you will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season.”
Twenty two games and a second national championship later, Tebow’s words still rang true. He’d led the team back against Alabama after trailing after three quarters in the SEC Championship game. Somehow, he’d overcome two first half interceptions against Oklahoma and had helped Florida seize the national title with a jump pass.
Just days after beating the Sooners, Tebow stood in front of a huge crowd at The Swamp. Would the junior with too many accolades to count go to the NFL? As he finished a speech thanking the Gator fans for their support he screamed, “And let’s do it again! I’m coming back!” After that short eight word phrase everyone and their brother had Florida winning the national championship this season. Things got off to a great start, especially after surviving loudmouth Lane Kiffin in the Gators third game of the year.
Yet, right in the midst of Florida’s huge winning streak, everything almost came to an abrupt end. Against Kentucky during a 41-7 blowout victory, Tebow suffered a concussion and had to be carted off the field and rushed to the emergency room. It seemed as if Tebow had finally shown that he was human.
The only circled game on the Gators schedule was next: LSU. The Tigers simply don’t lose home, night games at Death Valley. With each Les Miles interview it seemed as if LSU’s confidence grew while Florida’s uncertainty became more and more magnified.
Over those next two weeks between the Kentucky and LSU games, Tebow mania hit a new high. Would the Florida quarterback play? As the Gators took the field against LSU, nobody knew if Tebow was going to start.
This concussion added to Tebow’s legacy after he was able to return and be effective against LSU. |
Seconds before kickoff, Urban Meyer told the world that Tebow would indeed start the game. Many still expected to see a lot of backup QB John Brantley, but the backup QB never stepped onto the field. Instead, the Gators protected Tebow in the first quarter by not playing their normal style of offense. By the time the second quarter came around, it was very clear: If Tebow was Tebow, Florida had to open up its offense and play or their national championship hopes were gone.
It turned out that Tebow was good enough to win that night. Aside from a touchdown pass to Riley Cooper, Tebow was more of a game manager but still got the job done. Without Tebow, many will tell you Florida’s run at perfection would’ve ended that night.
Sure, there were other great moments in his historic career like the final two drives to help Florida escape Arkansas this year or the Gators romp of Georgia in the revenge game to the “Gator Stomp” affair of 2007. This season didn’t end in a national championship for Tebow and his Gator teammates, but it did end in a BCS bowl against an undefeated team.
In a sense his final game emulated what he was to his football team. He racked up 533 yards and scored four touchdowns while putting his mark in the college football record books one final time. He completed almost every pass, made nearly zero mistakes, and made the game we’ve come to love to watch him play look extremely simple one final time.
There were questions about his coach coming in. The quarterback had showed support for a man he sometimes referred to as a second father all week long, while also trying to answer questions about a pro career that many are calling over before it begins. After a 51-24 win on Friday night, Urban Meyer bypassed questions about his own future and declared his quarterback the best college football player ever.
Many will question whether we will ever see Tebow shine again, or if his outstanding college career was the end of his great playing days on the gridiron. Tebow doesn’t know the answer to those questions, but in his closing speech to Gator nation he declared that the last four years were the “greatest of his life”.
With that the greatest player in college football history stepped off the podium, walked across the field, and took one final stroll off of college football’s big stage. He ran for more touchdowns than Herschel Walker. In his final game, he totaled more yards than anyone in BCS history. But to Tebow, numbers are just numbers. All he wanted to be remembered was his heart and what he stood for.
Tebow wasn’t a lot of things, but he was a champion in every sense of the word. He represented Christian values, teamwork, passion, and desire. He may not have been the best at everything, but when it’s all said and done he might just end up being declared the best.
He didn’t play for himself. No, the greatest college football player in history played for his teammates and for his fans.
What a joy it was to watch.
Tim Tebow = Tyler Hansbrough. Neither is the G.O.A.T.