“…when we repeat as national champs!”

Tim Tebow’s return to school has folks in Gainesville abuzz.

To top it off, rumors abound that Spikes might contemplate a senior year to stay with Tebow and Co.

Ladies and gentlemen, commence the most exciting/nerve-wracking offseason in school history. On the one hand, Florida has the perfect combination of talent and experience to repeat as national champs. But on the other, the expectations have never been greater.

The Sugar Bowl is not an option. It’s Pasadena or bust now.

Talent-wise, Florida’s biggest concerns are finding a capable wide receiver (or #2 option, if Percy Harvin stays) and replacing half of the offensive line. That’s about it. Even MLB is not *too* big of a problem; redshirt senior Ryan Stamper has experience on all three spots.

In fact, the Gators’ biggest obstacle to repeat may very well be the Heisman Trust. Yes, the Heisman Trust. If Florida makes the BCS Championship Game, Tim Tebow joins Archie Griffin as the only two-time winners in award history, and here’s why:

Buyer’s remorse. We all know what happened to Sam Bradford (and chances are, he takes the money and runs with his draft stock). Colt McCoy and Texas won 24-21 against Ohio State, but it wasn’t convincing, given 41-14, 38-24, 35-3, and 13-6 were all by bigger margins.

As with Griffin, voters will likely give Tebow the award as a celebration of a legendary career. But given the Heisman curse, that isn’t a good sign for a repeat.

Even repeat winners are not immune to postseason woes: On January 1, 1976, Griffin lost, in all places, at the Rose Bowl, the locale of next season’s title game.

But otherwise, nation, we are in the midst of an almost surreal ride. Enjoy it while it lasts.

No pressure whatsoever.

Tim Tebow will return. Told ya so! Check FanHouse for details.

YESSSSS.

Initial thoughts:

1) This means pre-season #1 for Florida.
2) Maybe Spikes will come back?
3) Georgia is down a QB and RB. Guaranteed W next November for Florida, continuing (essentially) the ’streak’.
4) FSU returns Bobby Bowden. Oh, joy.
5) The nucleus of a great offensive line returns.
6) Almost the entire defense returns.
7) At minimum we get Demps, Rainey, Moody, Nelson, Cooper, Thompson, James, and Hernandez back… just an embarrassment of riches on offense.
8) Tell me why we shouldn’t expect to win back-to-back BCS national championships?

To summarize, “HELLLLL YEAH!”

Gator Nation took it somewhat personally when Tebow was snubbed for the second Heisman Trophy he deserved. The full ramifications of how and why Tebow lost weren’t understood until sometime after the presentation, when it was revealed that 194 of the Heisman Trust’s 530 voters left Tebow off their ballots entirely. Words don’t do justice to the sheer disgust felt by many Gator fans. Even Urban Meyer was quoted as saying, “If Tim Tebow was left off of 194 ballots, there are 194 too many ballots out there.” Word, Coach. Even if all of those losers had placed Tebow at 3rd, which is still hard to fathom but at least isn’t entirely out in left field, college football’s greatest player of our era (Blutarsky calls him GPOOE^TM, which I dig) would have become just the second two-time Heisman Trophy winner in history. By leaving him off, they guaranteed that he would not win.

Denied. Robbed. Jobbed. That’s what happened. Call me a sore loser about this — sure. Call me a sore loser anytime the Gators get worked. That is clearly what happened here. Not to take anything away from Sam Bradford, who is a great quarterback and a gracious winner, but the way Tebow lost speaks volumes about how politicized this voting process has really become.

The argument of those who defend this travesty revolves around the notion that Big 12 voters left Tebow off because they had three great Big 12 quarterbacks to place: Bradford, McCoy, and Harrell. Just one problem with that: Harrell appeared on hardly any ballots, in any capacity. So bogus.

And yes, I’m driving at a point here: this team has a rallying cry, a reason to come into the championship game mad and ready show the world that their leader eats Sam Bradfords for lunch. Hell, Tim Tebow could throw Bradford to McCoy. That’s what I think.

A crystal football is worth a dozen Heisman Trophies, if not more. The real prize is earned on the field, which is as it should be. And we will see just how good Bradford is when facing a real, competent defense — something he has not yet done this season.

This has to be a joke.

Yeah, only the greatest college football player of our generation. The guy who won SEC and national championships as a freshman, a Heisman Trophy as a sophomore, and has now led his team to an SEC title and BCS championship berth as a junior. The guy who trucks middle linebackers like they’re tackle dummies. The guy who transformed offense in the SEC. The guy who re-wrote the quarterback position. The Living Legend.

3rd team. That’s freaking hilarious.

I strongly disagree with my esteemed colleague, Keltic Gator, who believes that Bradford and McCoy had more compelling arguments to this year’s Heisman Trophy. I ask a simple question: if you’re building a college football team and can start with any quarterback, who do you take?

No one in their right mind — other than Oklahoma and Texas fans, of course — would take anyone ahead of Tim Tebow.

Tim Tebow should have won this year’s Heisman. He should be first team All-American. There isn’t a better player in college football. There hasn’t been in the last decade. There is only one Tim Tebow.

First team All-Everything.

Thanks to websites like http://www.stiffarmtrophy.com/ there was no surprise when Bradford won the hardware on Saturday night.  What is remarkable is that Tebow went from a secondary candidate (mentioned simply because he was the reigning winner) who might not even get an invite to New York to someone who ended up with the most 1st Place votes.  What he accomplished in his last 6-7 games cannot be ignored. 

Unfortunately, Tim’s sluggish start pushed him too far off the radar early in the season and his statistics weren’t enough to win him a few more second place votes in the final tally.  We could also be looking at a bit of SEC envy in certain regions of the country and Tebow overload in some markets.  Despite that, Tebow is in a position of adding one or even two more national championships to his resume while being a Heisman leader next year.  I say this confident that Tebow will want to return for his senior year and enjoy what could be the best year of his football career before sitting on an NFL bench hoping to be developed as a 3rd or 4th round QB or perhaps learning a new position.

I had wondered if Tebow would be able to win the West and Mid-Atlantic regions which I considered key to his winning the trophy.  He didn’t.  I wondered if former winners would vote for Tebow based on his leadership qualities.  It seems they didn’t, perhaps even not wanting another two time winner (Let’s face it, despite all the great players who won, the most famous winner is still Archie Griffin).  Despite the public vote in Heisman surveys, it seems that voters in the Far West took their queue from the Midwest.  It seems that a number of voters in the midwest left Tebow completely off their ballots (replacing him with either Crabtree or Harrell) and Far Western voters did the same.   Not to say that Tebow would have won if it weren’t for Harrell or Crabtree after losing the Mid-Atlantic region which has a number of “southern” states within it.  Don’t think that the growing anti-SEC hatred in ACC and Big East country didn’t work against Tebow in both this and the Far West (PAC 10, WAC, Mountain West) regions.

While I still believe Colt McCoy was the most worthy candidate (and will likely be one of the leaders next year) I can say that Bradford is deserving of the award.  I personally penalized him for having the best supporting cast (Tebow being the next most penalized of the three) but that’s to take nothing away from his mind boggling season.  I DO think that winning the trophy will hurt Bradford’s preparation for BCS Title game and provide extra motivation to the Gator defense.  What awaits him in Miami will be a pro Florida crowd and an anti-Bradford pass rush.  If OU can’t establish a running game it could be a long night for the Sooners and their QB.  But that is something to discuss later, for right now I congratulate Sam Bradford on a magnificent Heisman worthy season and look forward to seeing a monumental clash of Heisman Trophy quarterbacks in the Championship game.

The Heisman race is still very close. According to Stiffarmtrophy.com, Tebow and Colt McCoy are virtually deadlocked for second, with Sam Bradford enjoying a very slight first-place advantage:

Bradford’s most likely to win tonight, but don’t count Tebow out.

Now that the BCS selections are settled and the right two teams have earned berths to win it all in Miami, it’s time for some Heisman talk.

Up until Florida’s game vs. Florida State — a muddy, grubby wrestling match in the driving rain — I would have taken Colt McCoy hands-down for the Heisman, and would have been very comfortable that I got it right. After all, you can’t ask much more out of a quarterback than what Colt McCoy has given to his Longhorn squad. McCoy is the difference between Texas playing in a BCS bowl and playing in the Alamo Bowl. He’s that good.

But then, the Legend struck again. In a game which can only be described as epic, Tim Tebow conducted a masterful two-minute drive to end the half against the Gators’ most hated rivals in Tallahassee. Urban Meyer said later that during that drive, the rain was so heavy he couldn’t even see the receivers that Tim was passing to downfield. It was one of many Heisman moments during 60 minutes of physical, smashmouth football. And at the end, I knew Tim Tebow was once again the best football player in the country.

But he didn’t stop there. He followed that up with his Saturday night performance, in which he rallied Florida in one of the greatest 4th quarter performances in Florida football history. He brought the Gators back against the No. 1 team in the country in a pressure cooker of a game, the likes of which would blow the PSI gauge off the stove. Words don’t describe our quarterback. Stats don’t describe him. He is a winner. He is special. He is different in ways you can’t even measure. He is the heart and soul of the best team in college football.

One of our commenters — John — summed it up well when he said, this isn’t the MVP award — it’s the Heisman. Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford can make cases for being the Big 12’s MVP. But who is the most outstanding football player in the country?

Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow.

I now believe so strongly that Tebow should win this award that this year’s presentation will nearly be a travesty if he doesn’t get it. McCoy and Bradford are fine players. But they do not coexist in the same legendary air as Tim Tebow. I’m sorry, but they simply don’t.

Tim Tebow is so far beyond the stat line. He’s so much more than a powerful arm and strong body. He’s more than the visceral passion and energy of college football. Tim Tebow is a legend, and legends deserve to be memorialized. And there is no finer tribute than to reward Tebow with another Heisman Trophy. He has earned it.

Crank up the volume.

H/T: EDSBS from 2 years ago.

While the winner of the Heisman Trophy this year is very much in doubt, in my mind the choice could not be clearer.  Colt McCoy is, by far, the most deserving player for the 2008 Heisman.  Some people say Sam Bradford is the Heisman Race leader because of his recent win at Texas Tech and his astronomic numbers. But is there any doubt that if Colt McCoy had the same corps of great receivers as Sam, the same incredible stable of running backs and an offensive line as dominant as the Sooners that he wouldn’t have the same numbers, if not better?  Texas has an offense on par with anyone in the country.  The only difference between the Longhorn offense and the other top offensive squads in the country is that after Colt McCoy . . . Texas just doesn’t have that much talent on that side of the ball.

Colt McCoy is not only one of the most accurate passers in the country, he has taken perhaps the greatest physical abuse of ALL the top quarterbacks and it isn’t even close.  Who could forget Colt and his swollen lip and bloody chinstrap watching in disbelief as Graham Harrell turned a McCoy Heisman moment into his own?  Colt had virtually willed his stumbling Texas squad into the lead only to see a young defense falter at the end.  Colt McCoy leads his team in both rushing and passing, completes 80% of his passes and makes more spontaneous, game changing plays than anyone else in the country.

I myself have watched with amazement as Colt McCoy scrambles for time behind a porous offensive line only to make a huge first down on the ground or last second throw to a receiver for a big play.   If the Trophy were about NFL potential then McCoy might fall behind both Bradford and Graham Harrell.  While Harrell began the season putting up video game type numbers he did so often against questionable competition.  Sam Bradford has also had an amazing season with incredible statistics but anyone who watched OU disassemble Texas Tech couldn’t help but notice the Sooners potent running game, NFL quality wide receivers, and dominating offensive line.

The Texas offense on the other hand has none of those qualities.  McCoy’s offensive line is serviceable but offers no where near the protection Bradford is afforded, the running backs are solid but unable to create plays on their own and the Texas receivers do not have the ability to consistently create space or turn a short gain into a long score on their own.  Quite frankly, the first impression I get when watching the Longhorn offense is . . . . they just aren’t that good.  But what they do have, what make the Texas offense go is a quarterback who manufactures yards through sheer will and effort.  Whether buying time in the pocked to hit the big pass or scrambling forward for a vital 3rd down conversion, McCoy can do it all.  If you were faced with a crucial drive late in the game there is no one in the country more likely to come through.

Quarterback play is about efficiency (McCoy leads the country in by the way).  Bradford and Harrell have proven they can put up incredible numbers when things are going their way.  In the Texas game Bradford was unable to convert on several series when it mattered.  Against Oklahoma Harrell couldn’t keep his offense on the field or score much needed points when needed.  In the Longhorns only loss Colt McCoy did everything imaginable to bring his team back to victory - only to have it snatched away in the final seconds by an incredible catch by Michael Crabtree.  No quarterback has as much improvisational ability than McCoy and no quarterback comes through in the crunch like the Texas quarterback does.  The Heisman shouldn’t be based on numbers or wins but ability and accomplishments.  Like the James Bond song of years ago, while it sometimes may be ugly and heart stopping, “Nobody does it Better” than Colt.

Though the season is barely underway, Heisman talk is already in full gear.  Much like the polls, being a Heisman contender is as much about being in the early conversation (aka rankings) and holding that lead.  But just like the polls it doesn’t mean you will hold onto a lead if you don’t perform, but it does get your name out to the populace.  The Heisman race is usually a two year event.  The first year involves getting your name out there and the second year (once you are known) is about making your case for the award itself.

Last year Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman trophy in the history of the award.  None of which would have been possible if it weren’t for his high visibility on ESPN and other media outlets as a true freshman during Florida’s Championship run.  By the time he was a sophomore he was already a well known and established commodity in the race.  Despite winning the year before Tebow entered this year as a co-favorite with Ohio State Buckeye Chris “Beanie” Wells who seemed to have a ton of support going into the season as a top Heisman candidate.  So what has Beanie’s injury done to the current race?

Since it is still early there are a dozen or more candidates based on performance.  Still you can eliminate some of the pretenders early even if they have legitimate claims.

THE PRETENDERS

Javon Ringer, Michigan State  -  Unfortunately for Javon he is an unknown.  Not many people outside of East Lansing had ever heard of him prior to this season.  That means this will be the year he puts his name into public ears.  Unless he comes up with some staggering statistics, it will be another year before he is a legitimate Heisman contender.

Pat White, WVU  -  Pat has been mentioned with the Heisman for several years now.  In his favor are some of the unbelievable things he can do on the football field.  Going against him is his dissapearing in big game (already against ECU this season) and his inability to stay healthy.  The Pirate performance looks to eliminate him early.

Knowshon Moreno, Georgia  -  Perhaps the best back in the country and the guy I think will do the best at the next level.  Unfortunately he won’t put up the kind of numbers he’ll need due to his slow start (mainly being pulled against lesser competition) and against SEC caliber defenses.  Another problem he has is the fact that he plays with “superstar” QB Matt Stafford.  Some voters will unfairly penalize him for having the number one draft pick on the field with him drawing the defense’s attention (not saying that’s a legitimate excuse but we will see it). (more…)