Hand Tebow the Hardware

COLUMBIA, SC- Florida has possession of the football just inside the Carolina five yard line. Receiver Louis Murphy is wide left. Jarred Fayson is in the slot. Andre Caldwell lines up wide right with Cornelius Ingram slot right. Running back Kestahn Moore goes in motion and lines up short slot right. Quarterback Tim Tebow finds himself operating with an empty backfield.

Freeze.

If you were to take an informal poll of the crowd gathered at Williams-Brice Stadium, watching from the Gator Landing Restaurant, or from your own living room- who will you say has their number called?

Everybody wearing Orange and Blue knows the answer. The 81, 215 at Williams-Brice Stadium knows the answer. Tribal leaders in remote areas of South Africa have indicated they knew the answer too.

Certainly eleven South Carolina defenders knew the answer. Their defensive coaches had coached them up for it all week. 

Yet nobody could stop him.

Nobody has been able to stop him all season. Sure, he has been slowed at times, but never stopped. So, just hand him the Heisman Trophy- the award which is given annually to the best football player in America. If you watched Tim Tebow tonight, you too saw the greatest player in the land.

Tebow completed 22 of 32 passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for 120 yards on 26 carries and scored five touchdowns. Yes, five rushing touchdowns.  He only lost one yard rushing tonight.

His numbers on the season are just as staggering. The southpaw gunslinger has completed 173 of 255 for 2,532 and 23 touchdowns with just five interceptions. Tebow has 170 attempts for 718 yards and a Southeastern Conference single season record 19 touchdowns.  Furthermore, he leads the nation in passing efficiency, while ranking among the nations leaders in total offense, and points responsible for per game.

The greatest obstacle that Tim Tebow faces is the fact that he is just a sophomore. I remember years ago when a Georgia freshman named Herschel Walker lost the award he so deservedly had earned because according to many he hadn’t paid his dues. Tebow eclipsed Walker’s single season rushing touchdowns in a season.

Just about as amazing is the fact that just 73 days ago members of the media, rival college football fans, and players like South Carolina strong safety Emanuel Cook questioned whether Tebow could even throw a football.  It was that master of the understatement Cook who said after tonight’s game, “He (Tebow) is a pretty good player.”

I’ll bet Cook offers up that only a few turkeys are consumed on Thanksgiving Day as yet another factoid. Tonight, quarterback Tim Tebow carved up the chicken. No other quarterback has carved up the Gamecocks in so many ways in 2007. And it certainly didn’t hurt his chances of securing a valuable piece of hardware in the process.