Gator Country

Florida junior quarterback Tim Tebow makes an emotional speech after the Gators' 31-30 loss to the University of Mississippi Rebels on Saturday, September 27, 2008 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. Florida led 17-7 at halftime / TIM CASEY

DESTIN --- The man most responsible for “The Promise” still can’t believe what he heard that day. If you’re a Gator, you’ll never forget Tim Tebow’s teeth clenching, tear-stained promise after Florida did the unthinkable and lost to Ole Miss last September. Houston Nutt coached Ole Miss to the win that day and he can’t get it out of his mind, either.

Tebow’s speech was the turning point of the season for the Gators. That one-point loss to Ole Miss served as the wakeup call for an inner giant that we already suspected slumbered deep within Tebow’s enormous heart. He sat in his locker for almost an hour after the game, tearfully contemplating what’s next before venturing to the press room where he apologized to the Gator Nation for losing that game and promised that nobody would work harder or play more determined football the rest of the season. Something good would come out of this loss he told us.

And something good did come out of the loss. Florida won 10 straight games, derailing previously unbeaten Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game and slowing Oklahoma’s flying circus offense to a crawl for a win in the BCS National Championship Game.

Promise made. Promise kept.

That game wasn’t only a turnaround game for the Gators. It represented a reversal of fortune for Ole Miss, too. Prior to the Florida game, Jevan Snead was all over the place. After the Florida game, he played quarterback better than anyone not named Tebow in the SEC.

“He had the worst game of the season against Vanderbilt the week before,” said Nutt, who was attending the Southeastern Conference Spring Meetings at the Sandestin Hilton Resort. “The Florida game turned his season completely around … turned our season around, too. We became a real football team after winning that game.”

Nutt was back in Oxford when he turned on his television and saw the Tebow speech. It was played over and over again on every news outlet nationally for the next week and every time Nutt heard it, he marveled at the strength and character of the Florida quarterback.

“That was real courage,” Nutt said. “You think about it for a minute. He makes the promise and if he loses, he’s branded a whiner and a crybaby the rest of his life. It took real guts to stand up there and pour his heart out like that. Real guts. But he made the promise and he kept it. That’s the thing that impresses me the most … that he lived it out.”

Talk is cheap. We see athletes vow all sorts of things after a loss. A couple of nights ago Moe Williams of the Cleveland Cavaliers guaranteed the Cavs would win game four of their NBA Playoff series with the Orlando Magic. Cleveland came close but the Magic went on to win game four in overtime.

So much for Moe Williams and his promise.

And so much for so many promises athletes make these days. Most of them are pure emotion more hope than anything else, an attempt to rally the troops and lift up a sagging fan base. But there is not a lot of substance to them.

There was substance to Tebow who spent an hour contemplating his words and praying for the courage to speak his mind before he ever stood up to the media that day. The moment he spoke he knew he had to back up his words with actions on the field. He had to live them 24 hours a day and couldn’t afford to take a day off. If he was going to keep his promise he had to live it out in word and deed so he took every opportunity to push his teammates verbally and then set the example with his performance on the field. Through the Ole Miss game, his stats were rather modest --- 125 yards rushing and two touchdowns; 808 yards passing and six touchdowns. After the Ole Miss game he ran for 548 yards and 10 touchdowns and passed for 1,938 yards and 25 touchdowns.

“He should have won the Heisman Trophy,” Nutt said. “What he did was unbelievable. He was better in 2008 than he was in 2007 when he won it.”

In eight of those games, the Gators spent much of the game on cruise control because they had the game in hand so early, blowout wins orchestrated from the quarterback position. In the Alabama and Oklahoma games, Tebow literally willed the Gators to victory. Watch the fourth quarter of those two games and you see how one player can impose his will not just on his own team but on the opponent.

That’s where we saw The Promise fulfilled up close and personal.

“I watched it and I was in awe,” Nutt said. “I kept thinking back to Tim standing there and making that promise and I watched him take all the responsibility on his shoulders. You watch those fourth quarters and he’s everywhere … he’s making a play on the field and then you see him sprint 40 yards to get in the face of the guys on the kickoff team. When he had to make a play, he made it, and when he wasn’t making plays he was inspiring his teammates to make plays. He lifted the entire team.  I mean I’ve never seen anything like that. Nothing close to it in all the years I’ve been coaching.

“He would NOT let his team lose. Just wouldn’t.”

Nutt was so impressed with what Florida did the rest of the season and in those two championship games that he has taken the words of The Promise and distributed them to every one of his Ole Miss Rebels to serve as an example of what can happen when there is a refuse to lose attitude. He’s got it on video and the Rebels will be watching that, too.

“I want every player on my team to think about what would happen if we all were that determined … if all of us made a collective decision that we aren’t going to lose and that we’ll do anything … whatever it takes to win,” Nutt said. “I still get inspired by what Tim Tebow did that day. He made a promise for all the world to see and then he went about his business of living up to it.”

Ole Miss made it to the Cotton Bowl last year in Houston Nutt’s first year on the job in Oxford. He’s got one of the most experienced teams in the SEC returning and Snead comes back to trigger the offense. This is a very dangerous team, one very capable of competing for and winning the SEC West.

For Ole Miss to win the SEC West and make a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game would be an historical precedent. The Rebels are the only SEC West team that hasn’t made it to the championship game since its inception in 1992. They’ve never had better personnel or coaching than they have right now which means they are as close as they’ve ever been going into a new season.

Nutt has the personnel and the coaching staff in place to make it all happen. Now all he needs is a leader willing to make a promise and keep it. Better yet, he’d like to see his entire team make that promise and then have the determination to see it through.

“I saw where the’ve put The Promise up on the wall at your stadium,” Nutt said. “That’s where it belongs. It’s part of college football history. It’s inspired me … I hope it will inspire my team this year, too.”

Check the promise video by Brenden Martin below! For those with slower internet speeds click the play button and then pause button and let the progress bar load for a moment before pressing play again.

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