Saturday, while the sun was still shining on Florida Field, we caught a glimpse of tomorrow, and it looked pretty promising. Yesterday’s memories were not tucked away in a scrapbook, however, because the rest of the story has not yet been written.
The landscape of Florida football will be forever changed after next Saturday’s goodbye against Florida State, with Tim Tebow and his classmates departing perhaps as the winninginest in SEC history. The good news for Gator fans, however, is that the quarterback cupboard runneth over.
If there were some people on the brink of tears about Tebow’s next-to-last home game in Florida’s 62-3 smash of Florida International, there was an equal number of smiling faces inspired by the impressive passing performance of Johnny Brantley.
You could see from the poise exhibited by the red-shirt sophomore Brantley as he took the field halfway through the third quarter and rang up three touchdown passes. He looked off safeties. He released the ball in a timely fashion, checking down progressions to find a variety of receivers, hitting them in the right spots. He tucked it and ran when he needed to do so. He released lasers over the middle. And he feathered a beautiful 31-yard, fourth-down pass over the defensive back and into the arms of Frankie Hammond.
As sweet at those passes may have looked, however, what Brantley has to offer is a compete game.
“I thought he did really well,” said Urban Meyer. “He had a good game and not just throwing the ball … he managed everything very well.”
Nobody is in a hurry to see No. 15 out the door, least of all Urban, but there are already some giddy Gator coaches who can’t wait to see Brantley at full throttle next season. But hold on — not so fast my friend.
“I’m not ready to run our current guy out of town yet,” said Meyer.
Brantley has been stashed in mothballs since the second game of the season, used only in token mop-up roles. He has patiently awaited his turn. Reporters tried to goad him into talking out it becoming “your team” pretty soon. But he didn’t bite. He brought it back to here and now, Florida State next, and took the high road, saying it had been a “blessing to play behind one of the greatest players in the history of college football.”
The torch is about to be lit and passed in a few weeks, but some traditions will leave with Tebow. Apparently one of them is the quarterback’s victory lap which Tebow initiated as a starter in 2007.
“I tried to get Brantley to go with me,” said Tebow, “but he wouldn’t do it.”
(P. S. Brantley might want to reconsider, given that Tebow has posted a record of 33-5 since he started the tradition.)
I asked Brantley which of the Tebow traits he learned to appreciate and respect the most.
“His leadership,” said Brantley. “He’s a heck of a leader. Everybody respects him. He always goes hard. He talks to people. He coaches other people what to do, off the field and in the weight room. Everyone listens to him and everyone will hear him out.”
Brantley touched on the key intangible that not only puts Tebow in an elite status, but holds the secret to the success of this 21-game winning streak. I fear it is also the least appreciated part of Tebow’s game and one seemingly lost one the national pundits who seem to be suffering a “Tebow hangover.”
Consider the power of “The Promise” if Florida wins out this season and the Gators never lose another game after that loss to Ole Miss and now-legendary speech.
The national pundits are not even putting Tebow in the conversation for the Heisman Trophy anymore. The ESPN Game Day crew Saturday mentioned Colt McCoy, Toby Gerhart, Mark Ingram and C.J. Spiller — but not Tebow.
In fact, the ESPN Poll looked this way earlier in the week: No. 1 Ingram, No. 2 Gerhart and No. 3 Spiller. Next came Tebow, so at least he did get a mention. Oddly enough, it was ahead of McCoy.
This time of year Heisman voters are fickle. I know, because I am one. And if I were to make a choice based simply in the player most worthy of my vote, I couldn’t pull the trigger yet, although I still lean toward the two quarterbacks of the unbeaten teams, Tebow and McCoy, with an eye also cast toward Tuscaloosa.
What happens these next two weeks will determine who gets my vote — most likely after the SEC Championship, unless Gerhart goes wild or McCoy throws for five touchdowns in the Big 12 title game.
So much of who gets the hardware has to do with durability. It is sort of a Last Man Standing award, with the body of work for the season being paramount — statistics and the record of the team also weighing heavily. I cannot overlook the lifetime achievement aspect of the Heisman, however, although it only applies where the body of work is impossible to overlook. How can you not factor in Tebow’s career numbers?
You just can’t ignore these: 54 and 11,078.
The first represents the most touchdowns ever scored in the SEC. The second representing his career yardage, which is third best all-time in a league that prides itself on defense.
On Saturday, Tebow played two and a half quarters and rang up 102 yards rushing, plus another TD on the ground, and 215 passing with two more scores in the air. That 317 yards gives him a career total of 11,078, which moves him up to No. 3 all-time on the SEC yardage list, ahead of Peyton Manning, leaving him needing just 253 to Georgia’s David Greene at No. 2 and only 303 to surpass his former teammate, Chris Leak, as No. 1.
Nobody in league history has ever rushed for 54 touchdowns and accounted for 134 running and passing. That doesn’t earn you a trip to New York by itself?
Some will point to Tebow’s season stats as average — but only average in comparison to the staggering ones he posted as a sophomore. He is just shy of 2,000 yards passing this year with 14 TD passes and just over 700 rushing with 11 scores on the ground. I’d say 25 touchdowns and 2,700 total yards are nothing to scoff at for a quarterback with a 21-game winning streak.
Somehow, though, Tebow seems to be getting penalized because he can’t better his own numbers and is now the quarterback of a low-risk offense that relies on field position created by defense and special teams.
This is the kind of disrespect that riles up Superman.
As others have learned in the past, it’s not nice to diss No. 15. Ask Geno Hayes of FSU, who threatened to knock Tebow out and nearly got knocked out himself.
Look at the tapes of the 2008 SEC championship game vs. Alabama and national championship vs. Oklahoma after Heisman voters disrespected him. Tebow took the Tide and Sooner defenses apart in the fourth quarter and made them pay. And oh yes, who was it that won the 2008 Heisman Trophy despite Tebow getting the most first-place votes? The guy playing for the losing team in the BCS title game, Sam Bradford. Funny thing was Tebow didn’t even finish second – he was third behind Colt McCoy of Texas.
“I’ve got another chance, right?” Tebow said last year after learning he had finished third.
Now somebody is going to have to pay again. Maybe FSU and Alabama and Texas — maybe all three.
We may even have a head-to-head competition to settle this. Tebow gets a showdown with Ingram in Atlanta on Dec. 5, and winner probably takes all.
And even if he wins the game but not the Heisman, and it goes to McCoy, there could be more motivation for him if Florida plays Texas in Pasadena — although it would be hard to see how he could have more.
I asked him how much it bothered him that he was not even in some of the conversations about the Heisman and he admitted that as a competitor he was challenged, but said he refuses to listen to the idle chatter on the subject and “I just change the channel.”
Not that he’d ever admit it, but the competitive fires are raging. Which can never be a good thing for the guys lining up across from arguably the greatest player in SEC history, who writes a new chapter with a new standard almost every time he steps on the field. Maybe that’s not good enough to win a Heisman, but it’s sure a remarkable legacy.
Johnny Brantley got it right. Playing behind one of the game’s legends is hardly anything to be ashamed of. And once Brantley has his hands on that torch, he will know exactly what to do with it, as he showed on Saturday.