ATLANTA, GA — No offense Colt McCoy and no offense Sam Bradford. No doubt about it, you’ve lit it up this year against those matadors that masquerade as defenses in the Big 12 Conference. You guys definitely deserve to stand on the podium in New York next Saturday night but the best player in the country — the one that deserves to win the Heisman Trophy — is the tough guy that led Florida to the Southeastern Conference championship Saturday night. After the way he willed the Gators to a fourth quarter comeback victory over formerly unbeaten and number one ranked Alabama, the case for anyone but Tim Tebow suddenly pales in comparison.
On the biggest stage in all of college football on the last Saturday before the bowl season, Tebow led the second-ranked Gators (12-1) to a 31-20 come from behind win over Alabama (12-1), a win that will almost certainly propel Florida into the BCS National Championship Game in Miami on January 8. This was Florida’s second SEC title in three years and the eighth SEC title in Florida history, all of them since 1991.
It was a championship performance by Tebow, and yes, a Heisman-worthy performance. Maybe the stats weren’t Big 12 worthy, but they were certainly extraordinary considering the caliber of the opposition.
“No disrespect at all because I think the Big 12 quarterbacks — all three of them — are tremendous players but I have a responsibility and my quarterback, I think is the best in college football,” said Florida coach Urban Meyer, who led the Gators to the SEC and national championships in 2006. “I think he’s the best football player in America. Once again, not any disrespect to those other players — I think they’re terrific as well — but at the end of the day when you evaluate what player means, not just how many yards and statistics because we’ve seen what he can do statistically but to manage a game against the defenses he’s faced in the last two months …”
Tebow’s stats might not have that Star Wars quality like those of Bradford (Oklahoma), McCoy (Texas) or Graham Harrell (Texas Tech), but he has 2,515 passing yards for 28 touchdowns (only two interceptions) and 564 yards rushing (12 more touchdowns) against defenses ranked third (Alabama), fourth (Tennessee), 11th (South Carolina), 16th (Ole Miss), 24th (Miami), 27th (Georgia), 29th (Vanderbilt), 37th (LSU) and 39th (Kentucky). Most of those teams were ranked in the top 15 defensively when Tebow and the Gators dismantled them.
Saturday night Tim Tebow’s numbers — 14-22 passing for 216 yards and three touchdowns; 17 rushing attempts for 57 yards rushing — were about a good half for one of the top three quarterbacks in the Big 12, but Tebow accomplished his stats against the third best defense in the country. And when it counted the most, Tebow’s numbers were sensational.
In the fourth quarter, going against a defense that is about as physical as there is in the country, Tebow threw five laser beams to four different receivers for 72 yards including a five-yard slant to Riley Cooper with 2:50 remaining in the game to seal the win.
That game-winning drive was eight plays for 65 yards, three of them passes. Tebow went deep to Louis Murphy down the south sideline, hitting his senior wide receiver in stride for 33 yards after he froze the corner with a play fake. He threw a high hard one that sure handed Aaron Hernandez brought down for a 15-yard gain to the six on the next play, then after side judge Chris Conley called the bonehead penalty of the year for all of college football (a five-yard sideline interference call) that turned second and an inch away for a touchdown into a precarious second and goal just outside the five, Tebow threw a low fast ball that Cooper cradled in for the score.
That was the drive that sealed the win but the drive that made the win possible began with the first snap of the fourth quarter. After a third quarter of body shots that had the Gators hanging onto the ropes and ready to fall, their knees wobbly and their noses bloodied by both the Alabama offense, which turned a 17-10 halftime deficit into a 20-17 lead, and the Crimson Tide defense, which held the Gators to 10 plays and 4:27 of possession time.
Alabama drove the ball down the Gators throats (91 yards on 15 plays) for the touchdown that tied the game at 17-17 and followed that up with a 10-play, 65-yard drive for the go-ahead field goal, a 27-yarder by Leigh Tiffin with eight seconds left in the third quarter.
“I thought we took some body blows as well but I have great confidence in our team,” said Meyer, who said that Florida’s answering drive that began the fourth quarter “might be the drive of the year.”
It was an 11-play, 62-yard answer, the kind of drives that tough guys lead, the kind that tough teams make. Florida ran the ball nine times against a Bama defense that gave up yards grudgingly. They got a break when Jeff Demps came up a yard short on third and four at the Florida 46 because Alabama linebacker Don’t’a Hightower was flagged for a face mask penalty.
Tebow’s major contributions to this drive were a 14-yard strike to David Nelson that gave the Gators a first down on the Alabama 14 and a six-yard shovel pass to Hernandez that turned third and five at the Bama nine to first and goal at the three. After Tebow softened things up with a battering ram carry to the one, Demps took an option pitch in for the go-ahead touchdown with 9:21 remaining in the game.
Those two drives were the kind of drives that tough teams make and this Florida team is indeed tough and Tebow is the toughest of them all. In the fourth quarter he not only made all the right throws but he managed the game perfectly.
“That fourth quarter was vintage Tim Tebow,” said Meyer. “I don’t know the entire history of the University of Florida, but I can imagine that drive and that fourth quarter will go down as one of the greatest ever at the University of Florida.”
The fourth quarter wasn’t the onl time that Tebow took the Gators on his shoulder Saturday night. He led the Gators to 10 unanswered second quarter points to erase a 10-7 first quarter lead by Alabama, throwing a five-yard touchdown pass to Nelson along the way. He got both those drives at a time when Alabama was threatening to take the game over.
When Bama threatened, however, Tebow answered and in doing so he raised the level of play of all his teammates.
“There’s a special something inside of him and I’m not talking about throwing,” said Meyer. “I’m not talking about running. I’m talking about the ability to make the level of play of everyone else around him better.”
He took his share of hits in this game but he never lost his poise and always seemed to have just the right play at just the right time. He was special. He was also the toughest player on the field.
“We’ve got a lot of tough players,” said Florida center Maurkice Pouncey, “but Tebow is as tough as there is. He’s so tough that we just follow him. We’ll follow him anywhere.”
The Gators are following him all the way to the national championship game. If there is a better quarterback in the country, you better show me. I don’t think he exists.