This past weekend in college football, we got a real glimpse at the first set of movers and shakers in the big upset column for the 2008 season.
USC set the tone on Thursday night with a flat and unmotivated performance against an overmatched Oregon State side that was ready to play at home in Corvallis, where they had won the last two meetings on their home turf.
This was the upset of the week and maybe upset of the year for some, but what came as more of a shock to me was Florida—the team that was loaded on both sides of the ball with big name recruits and speed, led by Superman himself, Tim Tebow.
Leading up to the game last weekend, the Gators had been lacking something. It was hard to put your finger on it, but something was just missing.
They weren't coming out guns blazing or running through opponents like Texas, Mizzou, Oklahoma, Alabama, or Penn State. They were merely running their offense and not clicking on all cylinders, still searching for that running game that hasn't been there since Fred Taylor or Emmitt Smith.
- B/R Ticket Guide
It's no surprise to spectators that Tebow's workload has lightened this year, partly because he's an asset to the team who they cannot afford to have injured, and also for his draft stock, because Urban Meyer knows his gimmicky offensive scheme would not translate well for NFL scouts.
Heading into the Ole Miss game last weekend, Florida ranked second to last in the NCAA in plays run, which is shocking because running plays leads to game experience for young players. Tebow had looked to assume the role of "game-manager" and not "game-changer"—which leads me to my point.
I'm not one to throw around the term overrated or hype, especially for someone who won a Heisman trophy (even though he plays the role of a leader, and that leader led his team to three losses and a bowl loss to Michigan in his Heisman winning year—four losses for a Heisman-winning QB?), but in this circumstance I reserve the right to.
Tim Tebow has not been able to win the big game for a while now, even back in high school where I played with him. He never led us to victory over our archrival St. Augustine, not once—it always ended in controversy or was someone else's fault.
Even now, where last year he won the Heisman while leading his team to four losses, or last Saturday where he failed to hit wide-open receivers downfield by overthrowing them, or when he just needed to get one yard doing what he's best at—he lets his team down.
What seals the deal for me is this stat: Tim Tebow has never led the Gators to victory while trailing heading into the fourth quarter!
If that's super, I don't know what is.
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2 months ago
Someone save this article! You are going to look really silly when Tebow's career is over. You certainly won't be getting a job as a talent scout.
You claim Tebow lost four games, yet the team that won the NC lost 2 games themselves and they had an easier scheduel than Florida.
You claim that Tebow didn't deserve the Heisman last year, then who did? Was there a better player on a better team playing the kind of competition Tebow did?
You have to try to understand that the Gators had a lot of injuries before the season started. Their best receiver went down with a season ending injury. Percy Harvin was injured to start the season and was injured all last seaosn. Yet Tebow carried them and their poor defense. And the Gators still have zero running game outside of Tebow.
If anything, Tebow may have a hangover from last season trying to carry that incomplete team to a championship against all the odds.
from 2 months ago
First of all nobody brought up the Gator's NC winning season where Chris Leak was the starting QB and Tebow was a spot play guy, so i don't know where you got that from or why you brought it up.
Secondly yes i do think Darren Mcfadden deserved the Heisman trophy Considering where he brought his team with the lack of talent around him, whereas Tebow was a little more suited to win games with his weapons and his stats were inflated to a "system" quarterbacks numbers b/c there was no running game and the offense all came through him.
So the answer to your question is yes there was a better player on a "worse" team that played against the same talent pool in the SEC. Also Darren Mcfadden's team played the National Champion winning LSU tigers and beat them (the same LSU tigers that Tim Tebow could not manage to beat) while Mcfadden had 206 yards on the ground 3 touchdowns and also threw for one touchdown!! If thats not an Heisman effort i don't know what is. (Considering Tebow only had 225 total yards with 3 touchdowns and an interception/ & Mcfadden had 240 total yards 3 touchdowns and a passing touchdown with no turnovers against LSU.)
Also you can call it a hangover or you can blame it on Cornelius Ingram going down but putting the slogan "Superman" behind a QB who is a junior Heisman winner and through 4 games is running the offense ranking 71st in the country and toting a loss is a bit much.
And thank you for not responding to the stat that Tim Tebow has yet to Bring the gators to victory while trailing into the fourth quarter. That doesn't seem "Heisman" worthy or "Superman" worthy for that matter to me or hopefully anyone.
You tell me i "have to try to understand" you need to stop being so blind and see, i know he is a specimen and a great "College" player but you go ahead and save this article because who knows maybe he will be able to shrug off the Heisman curse or perhaps go undefeated (better luck next year) or maybe even throw for a hundred yards against an awful Tennessee team.
Oh yea and sorry to digress but where you claim that "their best receiver went down with a season ending injury". I'm guessing you mean Cornelius Ingram as there "Best" reciever but CI only caught 34 passes last year to Lewis Murphy's 37 and Percy Harvin's 59 not to mention Andre Caldwell who moved on caught 56, so im not sure again where you conjured up these points you throw out so loosely.
2 months ago
I wasn't talking about the Gators. I was talking about LSU who won the NC last season with 2 losses.
How can you be called a system QB when no one has done what Tebow has done? Tebow is a system unto himself. The is the definition of a one-man-team. More so than any Qb before him. If what Tebow did was so easy then why is his own coaching staff preventing him from doing it again? Why hasn't anyone else done it?
McFadden did not play a schedule anywhere near as tough as Tebow's, and even then McFadden couldn't stay healthy through the season. You claim McFadden's game was so impressive and that Tebow was just doing spot duty on the NC team, yet Tebow did the same thing in the NC run against LSU McFadden did last season. Only Tebow did it to a national championship game and McFadden didn't.
You claim CI isn't their best receiver. The reason CI doesn't have the best stats is the same reason Tebow doesn't have the best stats right now. The primary target is usually the guy the defenses are keying on the most.
You are perfectly free to believe what you want. I am just saying it is suicide to bet against Tebow. He is going to be a legend.. he already is in fact. Frankly I don't see how someone can not see that. You claim stats mean nothing then use a stat like come-from-behind-wins. The lack of come from behind wins probably has a lot to do with the fact that the Gators are a one man team. So teams are able to focus on Tebow, due to this fact, preventing him from carrying the team. This is a problem with Tebow's teammates, not Tebow. It's Tebow's teammates that are so inconsistent and unreliable, not Tebow.
2 months ago
Oh OK now its Tebow's teammates fault, the same 4 and 5 star recruits in Urban Myers top five recruiting classes these past three years either way you wanna look at it man he had a great season last year relax, and yes the stat about him not bringing his team from behind in the fourth quarter is relevant to him and not his teammates it says something within itself. And you calling CI the "primary target" is a joke.....
2 months ago
So it's ok to blame Tebow, who was the ultimate recruit, but not OK to blame the players around Tebow even though they were lesser recruits than Tebow? That makes no sense.
If Tebow's teammates are so talented then why has there been no running game outside of Tebow since he has been there? All the rushing yards his team generates comes from Tebow and the option play, too. CI is the primary option outside of Harvin. And Harvin has been injured, too. And Harvin was injured last season, as well.
Tebow was the entire offense last seaosn and he was beat to hek doing it. If Urabn Meyer didn't need to do that then why would he risk injurying Tebow if that could have cost his team the national championship? wtahc other Qb's that thought wads Tebow did was easy last season. There were several QB's that almost literalyl got killed trying to run like Tebow.
Colt Brennan and Jake Locker got KNOCKED OUT trying to run like Tebow. And they weren't facing defenses even close to SEC defenses. Pat White broke his thumb and couldn't play. Chase Daniel tried to run in 4 "easy" touchdowns from 2 yards out and he blew 3 of them. He lost a big game at the end of the season because he thought is was easy to run like Tebow too. That was the game that lost him the Heisman really. The voters wanted to give it to Chase because he was an upperclassmen.
2 months ago
OK well thank you for correcting yourself by saying CI is the primary target "outside" Harvin and not the main primary target because that was a bit much.
And you called him The "Ultimate" recruit, wow for someone who was the #22 player overall in the player rankings for 2006 and the #3 quarterback on the list below Mitch Mustain and Matt Stafford "Ultimate" to me is sort of an overstatement. haha and you say i make no sense to put more blame on Tebow then these "lesser" recruits then him as you called them. Here's a list of recruits with position and ranking next to them since Tebow's been there, why dont you take a look then retract that last statement.
Deonte Thompson - 4* WR
Chris Rainey - 4* RB
Bo Williams - 4* RB
Emmanuel Moody (transfer from USC) - 4* RB
Carl Moore - 5* WR
Will Hill - 5* ATH
Omar Hines - 4* WR
T.J. Lawrence - 4* WR
Jefferey Demps - 4* WR
Frankie Hammond jr. - 4* WR
Matt Patchan - 5* OL
James Wilson - 5* OL (and personal friend)
The Pouncey Twins - both 4* OL
Carl Johnson - 5* OL
Jim Borrie - 4* OL
Wow i'd say Urban Myer can recruit, and to me that's a plethora of talent and options to look to and if you disagree we just need to stop this now because you need to get a clue.
Nobody said Tebow wasn't good, he's a very good to outstanding college player in the system that urban Myer runs at Florida. And yes it is a system because they used it last year and Tebow dominated (but got 4 losses) but they new that wouldn't transcend to anything in the long run so they backed it down this year and look where it got them. 1 loss overall and there 1st SEC loss to a much lesser opponent.
And for (Brennan, Locker, & Daniel) all 3 are totally diff. QB's then Tebow, had diff. roles to play then tebow and aren't built like a fullback like tebow so where those comparisons lie that you tryed to conjure up I'm still not seeing its probably b/c your counterpoints were all wack. And saying "they tried to run like tebow" gimme a break they all ran/run forms of the spread offense where a mobile QB is a weapon get a grip.
2 months ago
Wow. This is one the most entertaining pissing contests I've seen in a long time.
A few things I'll point out to you though:
"still searching for that running game that hasn't been there since Fred Taylor or Emmitt Smith."
Ciatrick Fason ran for 1,267 yards in 2004, and led the SEC in rushing.
"Urban Meyer knows his gimmicky offensive scheme would not translate well for NFL scouts."
Somehow the gimmicky offense got Alex Smith drafted #1.
"Tim Tebow has not been able to win the big game for a while now, even back in high school where I played with him."
Didn't he win a State Title for Nease?? FHSAA State Championship games are pretty big. They're televised locally. Even the ones in which the starting QB (Tebow) played Nose Tackle on the final defensive drive.
"Tim Tebow has never led the Gators to victory while trailing heading into the fourth quarter!"
No disagreement. But, he has made big plays to help the Gators comeback in the 4th. Both in 2006 - The 4th down at Tennessee, and he scored the winning TD against South Carolina.
And, reading your arguements, the only person who kept Darren McFadden from winning the Heisman was some teammate named Felix Jones or something like that, who only ran for over 2,200 yards in the 2 seasons D-Mac was runner-up.
2 months ago
AHHH yes Alex smith and Ciatrick fason two great players to bring up there considering both amounted to anything worth a damn on sundays.
Alex smith is on the IR either way JT O'sullivan was the guy and Ciatrick Fason is doing god knows what somewhere. So yea that gimmicky offense did get Alex smith somewhere, the bench! and aah yes again with Ciatric he led the SEC in rushing ahead of guys like Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown, And Joseph Addai in 2004 so that helped him a lot considering where he is now, in comparison to where they are.
And you say Ciatric Fason leading the Sec in rushing means that Florida had a running game?? Florida ranked 10th in the SEC the year Ciatric led the SEC so I'm not sure where that's quite relevant to Florida having a running game....?
And ill correct myself Tebow has yet to win a clutch game such as leading his team to victory when down and not against Seffner Armwood in the state title game that had half the talent as we "Nease" did. Not to mention that was in HIGH SCHOOL in a game he was supposed to win anyway, my point was he never won the game that mattered and that was St. Augustine the game that was our test every year and our biggest rival, with kids like Brandon James and Jaques Riqerson they were the only team that could match up with us talent wise every year and Tebow couldnt get a "W" and he had a shot every year. But that was high school that was just a counterpoint not the main point.
Look nobody is disputing Tebow is a great player but hes a lot of hype who hasn't preformed well under circumstances with tremendous upside (such as the 4 losses last year & the loss last weekend) Im no Gator hater and i know it hurts but you cant deny the facts.
about 1 month ago
he didn't look overrated tonight!
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