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3 Reasons For Tim Tebow To Be Happy in 2010

The Allstate Sugar Bowl transpired on New Year’s Day without anything surprising happening, but I think in the blowout of Cincinnati the Gators hid a little treasure for all of us to enjoy and speculate on for months to come (until April to be precise.)  Urban Meyer was coaching his last game before a leave of absence and, at the same time, he was ending the Tim Tebow era.  I want to explore the era, the treasure and April 2010 in determining why Florida beating down Cincinnati 51-24 is about more than Tim Tebow winning his last game…much more.

Was the “Tim Tebow Era” what ushered in the “Urban Meyer Era”?

Let’s think about this for just a moment.  Tim Tebow comes to Florida in Meyer’s 2nd season and plays backup Quarterback to (then the starter) Chris Leak and the Gators triumphed over Ohio State (after being the dramatic underdogs) to win the BCS National Championship.  Not only did they win that game against the Buckeyes, but they won that game resoundingly.  However, for every good play that was made by Chris Leak there was this CONSTANT discussion going on about this Tebow kid.  At that point he was just a prized recruit who was getting ready to take Leak’s place after Leak’s graduation.  He was also the prized recruit who was waiting to take Leak’s place who was taking snaps in key situations in an effort to confuse opposing defenses.  His freshman year Tim Tebow was the “unknown X factor” that everyone feared and had to prepare for even though he never started a game.  His pure athletic ability alone was the kind of thing that made people think he was going to be a white Michael Vick who, when he came into the game, was going to run designed QB draws and running plays to confuse the opposing defense.

Not only was he running, but he was throwing a little and he was playing what I would consider to be an early version of the “wildcat” offense we see today in the NFL.  The big athletic guy who wasn’t the QB was going to get the ball on a direct snap and make you think that at any minute he was going to take it to the house.

Urban Meyer’s first season in Gainesville resulted in a 9-3 record and a bowl victory but nobody thought that Florida football was going to have the renaissance that it did.  No one was standing up to be counted amongst those who thought Meyer would win two national titles in 3 seasons and have a QB who would win the Heisman trophy as a sophomore, go to the ceremony the next year and be so revered the year after that that even though he didn’t deserve to go to the ceremony they let him come anyways.  The only people who even dreamt of this scenario were Florida fans and Meyer himself, but this entire scenario came about because of one player…Tim Tebow.

In his sophomore season Tebow won the Heisman trophy because he compiled the following stats:

234-350 passing for 3286 yards

210 rushes for 895 yards

55 total TD’s

He WAS “The One” (if you like “The Matrix” then you know what I mean) and he won the Heisman in a landslide, but the whole time he was propping up Urban Meyer’s team.  In 2008 when Florida lost to Ole Miss he gave the speech to end all speeches and his Gator team went on a roll that ended in their 2nd national championship in 3 seasons.  The transcript of that speech is immortalized on a wall outside the entrance to the University of Florida’s new football facility at Florida Field.  There is nothing so venerated that came from Urban Meyer’s mouth.  Nothing.  He’s the guy who gets all the credit for coaching the players, but Tim Tebow rallied the entire Gator Nation in about 15 seconds of airtime at what would normally have been a relatively worthless press conference.

Take the 2009 season as an even more extreme example.  Florida was favored all year to win the SEC and make it to the BCS National Championship Game.  Every pundit on Earth said before Florida’s loss to Alabama in the SEC Title Game “If you stop Tim Tebow you stop Florida.”  The Tide stopped Tebow and they won the right to play for the National Championship.  A team game where there are at least 85 players on each team was boiled down to one guy and when that one guy didn’t have a good game his team lost.

Tim Tebow defines the Urban Meyer era currently because he will most likely be the best player Urban Meyer ever coaches.  Urban Meyer said himself that Tim Tebow changed his life.  What more can I say about how the Tim Tebow Era managed to usher in the Urban Meyer Era?

Urban Meyer stored up a treasure for Tim Tebow, and that treasure was his “audition” for the NFL that Meyer orchestrated against the Cincinnati Bearcats.  As I said earlier this game was about more than Florida winning 51-24 because it was also about proving that Tebow can play in the NFL.  Meyer constructed a game plan that allowed Tebow to make every throw possible that was a “NFL-style throw” and for him to amass as much offense with his arm as he could.  We all know that most people in the NFL would draft this guy and make him into a “wildcat” back or some kind of slotback, but this was Meyer’s attempt to show the NFL that Tebow has significant draft value and could be the same kind of QB (a savior, really) that all the pundits expect Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy to be for some lowly NFL teams.

Tebow threw for 482 yards (a BCS record) and 3 TD’s along with running for 51 yards.  He accounted for 533 total offensive yards and 90.4315% of that offense came with the help of his arm.  He even through an 80 yard TD pass of which 55 or so yards were in the air.  He NEVER did that before the Sugar Bowl.  To be sure, he threw passes, but he didn’t throw passes like that!  It was quite an impressive show for someone who won the Heisman Trophy (I think) because of the 895 yards he ran for from the QB position his sophomore year.  For all the “wildcat” talk and all the talk about how his throwing mechanics will have to be changed once he gets to the NFL shouldn’t we be asking ourselves two basic questions?

1.  Don’t you think he could change his throwing mechanics at the drop of a hat?

2.  Wouldn’t you want him leading YOUR team?

Let’s keep it real for a second.  The San Francisco 49ers sank a lot of time and draft value into Alex Smith, but if they were over Alex Smith and Tebow dropped low enough in the draft I would be SHOUTING at the T.V. for the 49ers to draft him and dump Alex Smith.  Why?  Because Tim Tebow is a leader and more and more NFL teams need leaders under Center.  Look at the way Matt Ryan calls plays in Atlanta.  He gets on one knee and every eye in the huddle is on him.  Look at Peyton Manning run the offense in Indy.  They don’t take their eyes off of him, but when they leave that huddle they leave that huddle with a swagger that says “Chief’s got this one and there isn’t anything you can do about it!” That’s how the Gators played for the last 3 years and you saw how successful they were.

I don’t think there’s any question that Tim Tebow could “general” any NFL team to victory given the time it takes to make him NFL-ready (not very long in my opinion.)

Tim Tebow needs to go early on draft day because if he doesn’t someone is going to be regretting it like Portland regrets taking Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan.  Let’s just go through the teams that actually need a Quarterback or could draft him and sit him for a season while their older QB is on the way out.

1.  St. Louis Rams – I’ve been harping for months about the need for the Rams to scrap Marc Bulger and move on.  He simply is NOT productive anymore and now that he seems to be injury-prone it’s even more likely that they need to go in a new direction.  The obvious argument against the Rams drafting Tebow is that they have other problems and they could greatly benefit from drafting a lineman.  However, this team is going to be 1-15 and I don’t see how they could pass up true leadership.  We know that their coach (Steve Spanuolo) is a good coach since he coached the amazing Giant defense that toppled the 18-0 Patriots in the Super Bowl and we know they can run the ball with Steven Jackson.  They have James Laurinaitis and Chris Long on defense.  They have pieces, but imagine if you took those pieces and put them with a leader like Tim Tebow.  The possibilities for success are endless.

2.-6. -  The Lions, Chiefs, Bucs, Redskins, and Browns are all out of the Tebow market because they either are or should be “all in” on the Quarterbacks they have.  This includes Joshes Freeman and Johnson down in Tampa.  They won a Super Bowl with Brad Johnson so I don’t think they’re going all the way on any Quarterback.

7. & 8. -  The Seahawks and the Bills have QB issues.  Buffalo really doesn’t have a standout Quarterback and they could just as easily take Tebow and throw him into the fire in an attempt to remake their offense.  Tebow might be the only person in the world who could play QB with T.O. and not be bothered by T.O. (because I don’t think Tebow is bothered by anything.  Really, I think you could tell him he’s going to grow another penis and he would take it in stride) but Buffalo isn’t a GREAT fit.

Seattle, to me, is a great fit because they have Matt Hasselbeck (who is a pretty good QB who’s been to the Super Bowl and who is on his last legs) to teach Tebow and let Tebow see how you do it in the NFL.  This TOTALLY makes sense because they could slowly mold their offense into Tebow’s image and he would have Walter Jones protecting him his whole career (which is more than enough considering Tebow’s athletic ability.)  Tebow would be in a weak division and they could spend a ton of money for a top-flite OC and all would be well.

9.-11. -  Oakland, Denver and San Francisco are all pretty much “all in” on their QB’s as well.  (I’ll be rooting for the 49ers to take Tebow, but it won’t happen.)  Even though Jamarcus Russell is a bust the Raiders can’t afford to draft another QB in the 1st Round again so soon (although it would be REALLY funny!)

12.-32. -  Everybody from #12 onward is either not in need of a QB or their Seattle’s other 1st Round pick.  If Seattle thinks they could wait for Tebow until #21 then that would work too.  San Francisco also has another pick in here and I’ll be pulling for him to get picked again (even though it won’t happen.)

Everyone else in this group would be drafting him because they want to make him into a slotback or a “wildcat” back.  For those purposes a good fit would be Miami at #15.  Whilst I’m writing this column I’m watching the Dolphins and Steelers duke it out and I’ve already seen Pat White take a VIOLENT hit that left him temporarily motionless.  If we want to talk about performance Pat White still has not completed a pass in the NFL.  Don’t you think that Tim Tebow could A)  complete a pass in the NFL and/or B) challenge Chad Henne for the starting job?  I do!

I’d be stupid not to tie this thing up with a nice little bow. Tim Tebow can provide leadership AND running and passing ability to one of a few NFL teams that could really use it.  He’s got the complete package and we all know it.  I know I sound like a Tebow-jocksniffer but I’ve been critical of him when it was warranted.  He went to the 2009 Heisman ceremony without deserving it and I still don’t think he’s the “Best College Football Player Ever”.  (And I didn’t pick Florida in the SEC Title Game.)  However, he’s proved me wrong enough times to make me say UNCLE!

Lesson learned Timmy.  Lesson learned…

Posted by The General on Jan 3rd, 2010 and filed under American Football - NFL, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site

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