The last 48 hours have been fairly busy. We had a progressive holiday party in the neighborhood on Saturday night (where I may or may not have participated in a little Karaoke). And then decorated for Christmas all day yesterday (in the 70-degree weather!!).
We stayed behind at the appetizer house on Saturday night to catch the official announcement of Tim Tebow, Heisman Award Winner! The first sophomore ever to win it! Herschel didn't do it. Bo knows nothing like this. Pat Sullivan? Nope. Barry Sanders? Negatory.
The numbers speak for themselves. In his first year as a starter, Tebow threw for 3132 yards and 29 TDs (with only 6 INTs). He also ran for 838 yards and 22 TDs. For you Athens grads/fans, that's a total of 51 TDs. The first player in D1 to ever run and throw for 20 TDs in a season. I suspect he'll be a 30-20 guy after the bowl game against Michigan. He's thrown at least 1 TD and ran for at least 1 in every game this year. He played the 8th toughest schedule in the country (compared to Hawaii's 117th toughest schedule -- can't wait to see June Jones in Gainesville on August 30th so he can observe Tebow run Meyer's "system" all over his Rainbow Warrior Princesses!). His 22 TDs this season are the most ever by an SEC player. More than Herschel, Bo, Shaun Alexander, Billy Cannon or Lars Tate! More than anyone who's ever toted the rock in the SEC.
But beyond all the stats, Tebow is a great guy. He has a strong relationship with the Lord. He was born in the Philippines when his parents were missionaries. He regularly visits the Philippines in the summer to preach at his father's mission. When his family was planning the trip to NYC for Saturday night, they were not expecting one of his sisters to come. She and her husband are missionaries in Bangladesh. Tebow received a call on Thursday night while he was at another award show (Where he won the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's top quarterback and the Maxwell Award as the nation's top player. Ho hum.). It was his sister on the line. They were going to be able to fly from Bangladesh for the presentaton. Who cares about some trophy at that point? It would be the first time the whole family would be together since last Christmas. They planned to throw a party to celebrate that -- regardless what happened on the stage that night. 
But of course, we all know how things worked out on Saturday night. It is rather amazing that a kid who came in with such hype has actually lived up to it -- if not surpassed it. Freshman year? National title. Sophomore year? Heisman. Junior year? SEC title? Another national title? At this point, can we really doubt that he won't deliver?
So UF now has three Heisman winners. Three QBs. Spurrier, Wuerffel, Tebow. All three have one thing in common. They are all PKs -- Preacher's Kids. But even there Tebow is a little different. He's also an MK -- a Missionary Kid.
Here is a video including all 51 of Tebow's TDs.
20 comments:
I was waiting for a Tebow tribute. I had no idea he was a Christian. That is really awesome. Oh-- and not like I matter even a teensy bit, but he totally deserved to win.
He is almost as good as Peyton, that's good!
Mel -- you matter much more than a teensy bit.
Kooky -- he is much better than Peyton at this stage. Peyton never won a Heisman or a national title. At this point, the only thing similar between Tebow and Peyton is that neither of them have ever beaten the Gators!
Hey Bill, Here is my reply:
http://georgiasports.blogspot.com
/2007/12/heisman-fark.html
JM --
Jean shorts. Original.
No excuses for the loss in Jax, but in terms of his performance that game, he was hurt. I do hope that he is 100% next year for that game. It should be a good one -- if y'all don't slip up against the Ole Ball Coach again!
But would he do a United Way spoof on SNL? My vote goes to Peyton.
Okay I'll be fair. I think the guy is gifted, and he has broken/set some incredible records this year, as a sophomore, and he is going to be dangerous down the stretch, the next few years. Great speech too. I couldn't believe my ears. I mean the guy is humble, and obviously knows/loves the Lord, no denying that. However, I am tired of hearing from Gator fans that he was hurt during the Cocktail party, and hence the loss. Can no credit be given to the Dawgs D? We pretty much shut him down, from the first play of the game where they sacked him, it didn't really matter if he was hurt or not. I suspected last year when he couldn't rush for much yardage as a part time QB, he would have trouble against us holding the reigns of a starter. That was by far his worst game of the year (everyone talks about the LSU game, but he pretty much dominated that game, and you should have won that) and the reason it was his worst game of the year, was not his bruised (non throwing) shoulder, but because UGA came to play. With that logic wouldn't he have done worse with a broken non throwing hand against FSU? I think the Dawgs deserve just a tad more credit. But yeah we will see ya when he is all better next year, and the excuses can't be found.
Welcome to the club. You sound like I did when the dog fans were crying about Shockley missing the game a few years ago and Tereshinski had to play instead. "If we'd a had Shock blah blah blah."
Last year, he only came in to run. When you know what the guy's going to do, you should be able to stop him . . . unless you're the Falcons apparently. This year, his non-throwing shoulder was hurt. The non-throwing shoulder is typically what he leads with when he runs. Shoulders are key to a runner. Not the non-throwing hand. The shoulders absorb the blows when a runner lowers to deliver a hit. When a runner knows his shoulder won't hold up, he's done.
What you saw in Jax was a guy who didn't have the college-level experience doing the traditional drop-back passer aspects of QB-ing. He was as successful as he was because he is a legit dual-threat -- when healthy enough to do both things well. Take one away, and he's mortal. It's his kryptonite. What I would love to see Meyer do in spring ball is force Tebow to play only as a drop-back passer so he develops those aspects better. Because it's likely that he'll get hurt again if he continues to run like this. And if he wants a shot to be a QB on Sundays, he's going to have to be a better pure passer. He has the arm-strength for the NFL, but there's more to playing on Sundays than having a strong arm (see Jeff George and Ryan Leaf and Jim Druckenmiller).
Still can't give the Dawgs any credit for that game? Maybe we can earn it next year.
Well, I said "no excuses for the loss in Jax." That's sort of like credit to y'all.
Moreno was a beast that day. Great game. The celebration in the end zone was bush league, but we've already killed that horse. Stafford playd well picking apart our freshmen corners.
Enough credit? That's all I got.
Good work. I just wanted to make sure you were thinking logically. The FL loss wasn't just b/c of a hurt shoulder.
Anyway moving on, I think next years game is going to be SICK! There is a good chance we could both come into that game undefeated. Im sure college game day will be there, and the nation will be watching. Maybe we should watch it together?
I'll join the FL-GA watching party. That will be an awesome game.
On another note: thanks for the help with adding up the touchdowns, Bill. As far as I know, UGA's "stupid" legacy has gone way down in the past 10 years and UF isn't exactly a national powerhouse of smarts.
You must've taken the Abacus 101 course when you were in school.
STK --
The list of top 5 universities with National Merit Scholars (freshman enrollees in the 2004-2005 class alone):
Harvard University -- 312
University of Florida -- 259
University of Texas -- 242
Yale University -- 224
Stanford University -- 217
THE top public university. Don't see UGA anywhere in that list.
Here's the public university list for 2005-2006 (again no UGA):
1 262 University of Texas, Austin
2 230 University of Florida
3 156 Arizona State University
4 146 University of Oklahoma
5 138 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
6 136 Texas A&M University
7 113 University of California, Los Angeles
8 110 Brigham Young University
9 103 University of Arizona
10 100 Georgia Tech
For a direct head-to-head for the 2006-2007 year:
257 University of Florida
58 University of Georgia
Should I continue this statistical onslaught?
Just let me know.
No. I am enlightened. Had no idea EVER that UF is such an academic mecca.
It's true, I've heard people who are brilliant say, "I'm applying to Harvard." Ivy League. But of course.
I have never heard those same people say, "I'm applying to UF." Maybe it's just not what I expect.
Thanks for showing me something I had no clue about.
And Tebow is quite the man. And a Christian one, at that.
Great that he is a Christian so I can tackle him when I get to heaven.
15 of his TD runs are 5 yds. or less. I'm just saying.
The Dawgs would have beat UF this year with a healthy Tebow. He didn't play defense. If you say UF would have scored more points with Tebow in the game, OK. But that would have given us the ball back more to score ourselves.
The main point of your stat is 15 TDs. How many other teams were at the 5 or closer all season? How many TDs did those QBs score? Or RBs for that matter?
A healthy Tebow means a more potent offense which likely means more points for UF. It may or may not have given our defense more rest because we tended to score quickly and not go on time-consuming drives. I do think the outcome would've been different even though you were dialed in that day and abusing our defense. (I gotta believe, right?!)
As long as everyone is healthy next year, that game should be incredible.
I wanna be there when you try to tackle him in heaven. You better hope his celestial body is lighter and slower.
How do you have time to do any lawyerin'?
Thank you, Bill. You are a very nice boy.
all this fighting makes me nervous. i can't even read the comments. my palms start to sweat.
well pinto, i caved. you and anonymous did me in. you win.
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