Well, maybe we can forgive June Jones’ one-man crusade for his quarterback’s Heisman chances. But, really, did he need to knock Tim Tebow as a “systems” quarterback in order to elevate the profile of Colt Brennan?
Funny, I thought just about every quarterback in college was a “systems” quarterback. And last time I looked, NFL potential had zero to do with whether a player should be voted the Heisman Trophy.
This isn’t dirty politics, but it is a little low-rent for a college coach to cast aspersions on another player’s abilities just to promote his own. If it were dirty politics, Florida folks would have whipped out Brennan’s conviction in Colorado in retaliation (second-degree burglary and first-degree trespassing for which he served seven days in jail and is still on probation). But I, along with most of you, believe people deserve second chances and Brennan’s body of work as a Warrior was impressive. However, Jones stepped on part of his own anatomy here.
Suffice to say that if Tebow’s merits don’t warrant awarding him with college football’s highest honor Saturday in New York, then may the better man win — and in a classy manner. If nothing else, Tebow taught Jones a little about that class when he was asked about Brennan and responded that he (Colt) was a “good quarterback” and benefiting from “a good system.” Touché Timmy T!
The Heisman madness doesn’t end there. Over the last few days, when not glued to the TV, I took a trip around several of the message boards in The Nether World, away from the friendly orange and blue confines of Gator Country. And what struck me about all the conversation regarding Tebow was the bad intel — some of it even emanating from my friends in the industry.
Did Michael Wilbon of Pardon The Interruption actually say that Tebow’s best game came against some non-descript, put-of-conference opponent? Where was he for the rest of those 51 touchdowns, 38 of which were scored against SEC competition or Florida State?
Did I really read somebody’s post on a national site suggesting that Tebow was nothing more than a short-yardage specialist, a quarterback in a linebacker’s body? Yeah, and Nicole Kidman is just some tall actress babe.
Let’s not even get into the age bias, him not winning it because he’s “only a sophomore” –– even the harshest Tebow critics are growing weary of that paper-thin argument. There’s no rule that says if a player isn’t old enough to drink –– not that Tebow would –– that he should be ineligible for the Heisman.
And who was it that said Tebow’s passing style was like a funny-looking jump shot? Did they watch a constant Groundhog Day loop of his jump pass against LSU in 2006 as the highlight reel? Or did they see that touch pass on the corner route to Louis Murphy for the TD against FSU?
I worry about how many of my Heisman-voting media brethren and sisters might be helping perpetuate some of those myths.
After watching every game in person as Florida’s sophomore quarterback took more than 700 of those 782 snaps this season, my eyes and binoculars must have deceived me. The Tim Tebow I saw was not only a bruising runner and a deft passer –– he was the best-looking quarterback I’ve ever seen at the University of Florida. Ever.
And that includes the two former Heisman winners. He may turn out to be the best football player ever at Florida, too –– but let’s not jinx him.
I received several e-mails asking that I reveal the results of my Heisman ballot –– some from people I didn’t know –– but this year I decided not to reveal it my order of finish, as the Heisman Committee has asked us to do.
I will say that one of my late entries among the three on my card was Brennan of Hawaii, simply because his body of work was so impressive, even against lighter weight competition. But that’s also because Missouri’s Chase Daniel bombed out in his big showdown with Oklahoma.
My criteria were simple: Who was the most outstanding player this season in college football this season? I waited until the very last play, past 3 a.m. Sunday, to view the Hawaii game and Brennan before casting my vote. Then I went online and voted my conscience electronically, fairly confident that I had cast my No. 1 ballot for the winner.
Now that the regular season is over, raise your hand or honk your horn if you thought Tim Tebow was going to be this good. (Liar!) It was a remarkable season for him in a butt ugly-but-bombastic year for the game. And it ended how it started.
Ah, what a weekend! It was, to say the least, an exhausting day of watching college football.
The conclusion of the 2007 season, in keeping with the theme of the bizarre, would defy logic. We just didn’t realize it would play out like a Stephen King novel. The final act, the final weekend was, at least in the eyes of some, a horror show. In fact, the outcome left us with more questions than answers.
Depending on one’s view, the gate-crashers either spoiled the party or lit it up. Conversely, this also brought out the enchantment of college football’s unpredictability and delightful insanity. It was beautifully imperfect, but diabolical. Most everybody professed to hated it, except, of course, the fans of Ohio State and LSU.
Who would have ever thought the season would end with Ron Zook and Illinois going to a BCS bowl over Florida, and that Steve Spurrier, after a 6-1 start, would be home for the holidays? And with the No. 1 and 2 teams would both beaten on the final two Saturdays of the regular season?
Perhaps we all should have suspected a weird outcome.
A year that started with tiny Appalachian State whacking Michigan and included 41-point underdog Stanford ambushing Southern Cal would certainly play out in similar wacky fashion, with the Bowl Championship Series system in shambles. But so what? That’s what makes the game so intriguing.
As a result, we have the very last play of the very last game of the season –- Hawaii had to hang on as Washington threw an interception on the final play – deciding what team would be the last chosen for the BCS. And maybe even if Brennan would become a contender for the Heisman that Tebow was believed to already have stashed away.
Just think: Not playing in the SEC Championship game might have helped Tebow’s Heisman chances, given that he suffered a broken hand against FSU.
And pardon me, but I’m not getting into another tirade on the BCS and climbing on a soap box to crusade for a playoff system –– mainly because I haven’t seen or heard anything yet that makes anymore sense than what we have or wouldn’t exclude some good teams. My suggestion is to leave it like it is and have a “plus one” format with one more title game after the bowls.
Besides, I kind of enjoyed he lunacy this season. Elite teams became an endangered species in 2007. The expiration date on schools in upper echelon was 14 minutes, not even enough to land a cameo of fame. Thirteen times during the year, teams ranked in the top five were knocked off by the great unwashed and unranked.
It was a bad year for the Avises: very few No. 2s made it out alive. Second place was no place to be. Just ask West Virginia, Oregon, Boston College, South Florida, California and Southern Cal –– all of whom were ranked there and lost the following week. Counting all the polls, three different teams were No. 1 –– USC, LSU and Ohio State –– the latter two twice. Either LSU or Ohio State will make it for a third time.
Frankly, I was never really a fan of Stephen King or Rod Serling or even most of Alfred Hitchcock’s boogeyman stuff, but somehow I think this year’s house of horrors was downright scary spectacular –– you know, like watching a NASCAR race –– proving once again that college football is the greatest game of all and it ain’t broke. So leave it alone.
Buddy Martin will be in New York this weekend to cover The 2007 Heisman Trophy presentation.