Heisman hopefuls

Sunday we will find out who won the 2008 Heisman Trophy for college’s top player.

Last year I clamored with passion and logic the case for Tebow. This year I don’t care. Neither does Tebow cuz he said so.

There is absolutely no need for me to note that Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford compiled their gaudy stats against sorry defenses, none of them ranked better than 50th nationally. Tebow played against eight defenses in the Top 40 and still managed 28 TD passes with only two interceptions, plus 12 TD runs, certainly Heisman-worthy numbers in a normal year but hey, who said this has been a normal year?

Just to show you how strange it’s been, here’s something taken off an Alabama message board by one of THEIR fans after the SEC championship that elevates Tebow beyond mere stats of the two candidates:

“I saw the third quarter. I saw Tebow get sacked. I saw Florida go three and out. I saw the Tide go 91 yards in workman like fashion. I saw a helpless UF defense. I saw Bama tie the game. I saw UF respond by missing their only FG of the season. I saw Bama march again. I saw a UF team that was beat. I saw a defense with hands on hips gasping for breath getting absolutely trucked. I saw an Alabama team rolling downhill through Gator players. I saw the UF players give all that they had left to keep Bama out of the end zone. I saw the Tide take the lead heading into the 4th quarter.

No way could the UF defense recover from the extended pounding they had just endured. With two DTs out, there was simply no reserve left to call upon to stem the Tide. All that had been claimed pregame by the Crimson and White faithful about how their lines would wear UF down and control the game had come true.

And then things changed. I saw Tebow rally his offensive teammates and take them down the field. Run after run after run, they had Bama on their heels at their own 27. A throw, a run and a throw and Tim has UF on the doorstep. Two more runs and Demps is leaping in the endzone.

But this was not enough. Tebow leads this team, the university, not just its offense. He comes down the sideline toward the end zone where the Gator fans are thickest and exhorts them to cheer, to roar, to believe. He turns and runs to the special team players huddled for the upcoming kick. He slams into their huddle like a bowling ball knocking aside so many pins. He urged them to make the stop, to finish the play. And they did. He turns to the bench and gets in the face of his defensive teammates and makes his will theirs. He inspires them, he challenges them, he leads them. They face the same Bama players who had owned them in the third quarter, who had worn them down and controlled them. They faced those same Bama players and they stuffed them. With the game on the line they had stuffed Bama for a 3 and out.

Then Tim Tebow went out to win himself and the University of Florida a championship. Two runs and it was 3rd and short. Tebow keeps it, meets Mount Cody in the hole and carries all 360 pounds of him for the first down. Tebow throws for 33, Tebow throws for 15, Tebow runs for 5. Bama is done. Tebow throws the last five yards to Riley Cooper on a pass that had no room for imprecision resulting in the TD that made dreams into reality. I have never seen a single player so impose his will on both his teammates, his opponents and the crowd as Tim Tebow did in that fourth quarter. I am in awe.

He’s not Superman. He’s not unbeatable. But he will never give less than everything he has and he will never shy away from a challenge. He is the best team leader I have ever seen in college sports. He willed a victory for UF, not on his own, but by giving his teammates the strength to believe and an example to follow. And that they did.”

That’s from a Bama fan. ‘Nuff said.

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