Tim Tebow: A great career, but best ever? Hardly.

Hey guys! Long time no see. It’s been what, 2 maybe 3 months since our last post. Its not like we missed: the entire NFL and NCAA Football seasons, the beginning of the NBA and NHL seasons, and the now legendary Tiger Woods fiasco. So to all of those who used to come here for sports updates and the occasional chuckle we apologies for the long ass delay and general disregard for updates over the past couple months, and if your a first time reader then just be happy that the boys are back! Our excuses are pretty lame: I (KC) was going through the recruiting process at my school to find a job (thanks for the economy Greenspan), TM was writing his LSAT’s, and RM… well I’m not sure but I’m sure it was important. But have no fear BWB followers, the boys are back in town and we aren’t going anywhere, I hope.

Anyways, back to the reason for this article, Tim Tebow and his extremely over hyped career, a fact that was made completely clear this past weekend thanks to my boy Ronaldo McClain and the Tide (me and Ronaldo are far from boys, but a boy can dream). Entering the season, and the SEC title for that matter, Tebow was being proclaimed the best player of all time, a once in a lifetime kind of talent. I’ll be the first to admit that despite my complete and utter hatred for Tim Tebow, which strangely stemmed from my admiration for Chris Leak, that he is an extremely gifted player. Tebow was the first player to ever both pass and rush for 20 touchdowns in one season on his way to a Heisman trophy in just his sophomore season, the first player to do that as well. I mean the fucking guy changed the way people viewed the spread option and epitimized a do it all, grind it out, do anything for a win kind of leader, and I can respect that. But despite the rumors Superman does NOT wear Tim Tebow pajamas. He actually wears Adrian Peterson PJs but that’s another discussion entirely. The point being that Tim Tebow was the face of college football for the past 3 years, he was featured in every Heisman update, praised in every pregame show, and easily the most talked about player in the nation, evident by the spike in Google searches for whatever bible verse he decided to wear on gameday. Tim Tebow was the King of college football, but in the end was his run really that impressive? He was definitely great, but was he the BEST?

Looking back over the last three years here is a list of Tim Tebow’s accomplisments:

• 1 Heisman Trophy, 1 Davey O’Brien Trophy, and 2 Maxwell Trophies
• 2-time All American (likely 3 after this year’s is released)
• 1 National Title (his “first” he was the backup)
• Passing: 8,457 yards, 84 touchdowns, and 15 ints
• Rushing: 2,833 yards and 56 touchdowns (SEC record)
• 34-6 as a starter

First I feel like I need validate some of these “stats”. So Tebow actually won 2 National Titles, but his first was while riding the pine and contributing a few times a game as a one dimentional running option. I mean if we count that title towards Tebow’s list of accomplishments then Matt Cassel (back up at USC in 2004) should be considered a “good” college quarterback. So essential Tebow only won 1 National Title. Secondly, Tebow will NOT win the Heisman this year, the fact that he was even invited is a slap in the face for players like Case Keenum, Kellen Moore, Jimmy Clausen, and probably several other quarterbacks that deserved an invitation over him, not to mention a number of non-quaterbacks (CJ Spiller, Ryan Matthews, Jordan Shipley). This year it is easy to see that the media has a massive hard on for Tim Tebow, despite a relatively mild statistical season he was invited to New York when a number of other worthy players were ignored. And don’t give me the “but he willed his team to victory” bullshit, so did Greg McElroy (you know, the kid who beat Tebow and Florida in the SEC Title game), yeah he was better statistically and played for the better team. So other than the fact that the media loves Tim Tebow there is no logical explination for his inclution in this years finalists.

Back to the actual arguement.

So, yes Tim Tebow’s career was impressive. He has a Heisman and a National Title, which is enough on it’s own to cement his place in history, but he also has a number of SEC records, a shelf filled with trophies, and won 34 games in 3 years as a starter (over 11 per season). However, when compared to even just the two best quarterbacks of this decade he doesn’t stand head an shoulders above the them:

Matt Leinart

• 1 Heisman Trophy, 1 Manning Award, and 2 Archie Griffin Awards
• 3-time All American
• 1 National Title (his “first” was an AP title, and who the fuck cares about that)
• Passing: 10,693 yards, 99 touchdowns, 23 ints
• 37-2 as a starter

Vince Young

• 1 Manning Award, 1 Archie Griffin Award, 1 Davey O’Brien Award, 1 Maxwell Award (should have won the ‘05 Heisman)
• 1-time All American
• 1 National Title
• Passing: 6,040 yards, 44 touchdowns, 28 ints
• Rushing: 3,127 yards, 37 touchdowns
• 839 total yards and 8 total touchdowns in 2 Rose Bowls (bowl stats aren’t included in career stats)
• 30-2 as a starter

In order to be considered amongst the best of all time you have to at least be better than everyone that played in your decade. I know that Florida fans that read this will find all the stats that point to Tebow being better (total touchdowns) but all things considered I would say that Vince Young and Matt Leinart had equally, if not more, impressive college careers.

My last, and possibly most important, point that I want to make is the level at which Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy made Tim Tebow a MUCH better player while they were there. In the first season that Tebow had Murphy and Harvin he won the Heisman and in the second the Gators won the National Title against Oklahoma on the strength of of a big performance from Harvin, 171 total yards and a TD. The difference with and without the two talented wideouts was a drop off in passing by 333 yards and 12 touchdowns from his junior year, no Heisman, and no National Title. Percy Harvin accumulated 3,781 total yards and 32 total touchdowns in his three years at Florida and Louis Murphy had 1,203 receiving yards and 12 receiving touchdowns in his final 2 years, a lot to lose for a quarterback. Now the two of them are lighting it up in the NFL with legit quarterbacks throwing them the ball, well Gradkowski is actually pretty terrible, but the point is that both are excelling in the pros while Tebow had his worst statistical season of his career. So is all the credit Harvin’s and Murphy’s? No, but a big chunk of it should be. Percy Harvin, in my opinion, was one of the best players in college football in his three years and was easily the most exciting. I understand that the Heisman is essentially a quarterback/running back’s award but Harvin should have been in the discussion. In 2007, the year Tebow won the Heisman, Harvin had 1,622 total yards and 10 total touchdowns (and a large number of passes to within the 5 which Tebow would convert) while averaging a ridiculous 11.5 yards per touch. You can’t tell me that those aren’t Heisman type numbers and quite possibly the reason that Tim Tebow was so good. In fact I’m certain that if Percy Harvin wasn’t on Tim Tebow’s team he would have received alot more attention.

The point of this post was not to say that Tim Tebow wasn’t a great college quarterback, he was. Tim Tebow will be remembered forever by everyone who had the good fortune of watching him play and he will most certainly be invited to the college football Hall of Fame. My point is that he wasn’t the best ever, and I think that point should be pretty obvious now to anyone that took the time to read this whole post. There are a number of players in recent memory that were just as impressive and countless that I never watched, being as I wasn’t born yet. So in conclusion: Great college quarterback? Yes! Best Ever? Not quite.

- KC Roberts