By the time Florida had demolished LSU, 51-21, at The Swamp Saturday night, it was safe to say that Charles Scott’s Heisman Trophy hopes had done a Luca Brasi, which is to say they swam with the fishes at the bottom of Lake Alice. That, by the way, is the same place the national media had been storing the hopes of the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Tebow, who, in case you missed it, is right back in the thick of things.
Scott came into the game leading the SEC in rushing (133.8 yards per game) and gaudy comparisons to a couple of similar-sized backs that put up a number or two in their day. Now Charles Scott is good but if Saturday night is your leading Heisman indicator, then it’s a tad early to mention him in the same breath as Herschel or Bo.
After he torched the Florida Gators for 35 (count ‘em) yards — 18 of which came on the final play of the game and well after all those big meanies that had shown him so little respect were on the sidelines — it would take one of those Apollo rockets that send the space shuttle into orbit to re-launch Scott’s Heisman candidacy. LSU fans might have been wondering if they could reserve a space on the next shuttle for Scott, who was a no-show when the Tigers needed him the most.
Funny but they never had to worry about Jacob Hester doing a no-show in a big game. Hester has maybe a tenth of Scott’s talent and runs the 40 at least a couple tenths of a second slower, but Scott has maybe a tenth of Hester’s heart. Hester always showed up for big games. Just ask the Florida Gators, who discovered that Hester will fight, squirm, wiggle and claw his way for that extra inch his team needs in last year’s epic SEC battle at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.
When the Tigers were in desperate need of a tourniquet in the second quarter when their hopes of leaving Gainesville with their dignity intact were bleeding like a stuck pig, Scott applied a near lethal dose of blood thinner when he fumbled away an exchange with quarterback Andrew Hatch. That effectively snuffed the life out of the first drive the Tigers had mustered to that point. It was still 17-0 when Scott played dropsies and it was devastating.
That’s not the way to win a Heisman, but more importantly, it’s not the way to keep your team in a game they’re going to need to win to make it to the Southeastern Conference championship game in Atlanta. With teams like South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama still on the schedule there is very little wiggle room and the season is only half over.
And this brings us to the aforementioned Mr. Tebow. He didn’t put up Star Wars numbers like he did so often last year when he became the first sophomore in history to win the Heisman Trophy, but his numbers were very, very good — 14-21 passing for 210 yards and two touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and a Tebow moment on a third and three on Florida’s first possession of the third quarter.
We first became acquainted with Tebow moments in Knoxville back in the 2006 season. On a fourth and one when all 107,000 fans sardined into Neyland Stadium and a few million watching on CBS knew he was going to get the ball and ram straight ahead, Tebow blasted through the Tennessee line for a critical first down to help the Gators slip out of town with a 21-20 victory.
There have been a few more Tebow moments since then and one noticeable non-Tebow moment earlier this season. When he came up short on a fourth and one against Ole Miss that had Tebow moment written all over it, you would have needed scuba gear to find Tebow’s Heisman Trophy chances because they were down at the bottom of Lake Alice.
Tebow’s Heisman chances bubbled back up to the surface Saturday night on the big stage with everybody in the nation looking on. Those weren’t last year’s beyond belief numbers that he put up but Tebow didn’t have to do a Clark Kent on LSU. What he had to do was make the kind of plays and decisions it takes to win against a highly ranked opponent.
Everybody makes a big deal that Tebow has never led a fourth quarter comeback, but until Saturday night he had never engineered a win over a top five ranked opponent. And this wasn’t just any top five opponent. This was LSU, last year’s national champion and the team that dealt Tebow as painful a loss as he’s ever had last year at Tiger Stadium.
For three quarters last year, Tebow had that win over a top five team well within his grasp and in the final minute, he had a chance to rally the Gators to a come from behind win. He went 0-2 that night so you can understand why that loss was so painful.
Saturday night, LSU came prepared for the Tim Tebow that felt he had to do it all but what they got instead was the Tim Tebow that was content to make plays when he had to and distribute the ball so his buddies could do a rather nifty slice and dice. It was pure shock and awe. Five other backs carried the football. Six receivers made at least one reception.
When the Gators needed Tebow to have a Tebow moment, he came through. The way he slammed through the LSU line on that third and three on Florida’s first third quarter possession was a true Tebow moment. Everybody in the whole joint knew he was going to run it up the middle but nobody could do anything about it. He roared through the crease between Maurkice Pouncey and Carl Johnson and got his pads under LSU’s strong safety, who had a disk herniating experience. Tebow got the first down. Florida drove on down the field to score and the rout was on.
Tebow got the win he needed over a highly ranked team, kept the Gators in control of their SEC destiny and vaulted the Gators back into the national championship picture. They were ranked 12th nationally Saturday morning. Sunday morning they were fifth.
For LSU, the loss wasn’t the end of the world — they still have only one SEC loss and last year they won the national championship with two L’s on the resume — but when you get your doors blown off by 30 points and your show horse (Scott) shows up with a swayback, the road back to respect could be painful. The Tigers can still beat South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama and if Scott shows up big, he could resurrect his Heisman hopes. For Scott to get in the race, he has to put up huge numbers.
For Tebow to move off the rail to the lead at the top of the Heisman stretch all he has to do is the same thing he did Saturday night — make plays when he has to, let his buddies get in on the action and win big games like the ones coming up with Kentucky, Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Florida State. It’s unlikely that he’ll put up numbers anything close to what he did last year, but last year he set all those records and lost four games.
If he runs the table in the W column and gets the Gators to Atlanta, the numbers will take care of themselves. The one number that would impress the Heisman voters would be 11 as in 11 wins. Eleven wins is no guarantee of a Heisman Trophy — for example, if Colt McCoy keeps on at his present pace and leads Texas unbeaten into the Big 12 championship game he would be formidable — but 11 wins is a guarantee that Tim Tebow will be playing for a championship.
That’s also missing on his resume. He’ll gladly take a championship over a second Heisman any day of the week but a championship Tebow could be a repeat Heisman Tebow.
As Al Davis said, back in the days when he had regular dates with sanity and people took him seriously, “Just win, Baby!”