Five Reasons Why Tim Tebow Shouldn't Win The Heisman

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

BROOKLYN -- Tim Tebow is a great quarterback and I feel lucky that I'll be able to tell my step-grandchildren someday that I watched the greatest college football player in the history of the sport.

Sure I held it slightly against him that he played at Florida, which beat up my beloved Buckeyes in the 2006 national championship game, but I don't care so deeply about sports that I end up hating the rivals who triumph over my favorites.

Tebow is regarded by many, including this prestigious Web site, to be the best college football player ever. But despite his stellar four years leading the Gators, Tebow should not win the Heisman Trophy because of the following five reasons:

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MORE TEBOW CONTENT

+ Archbishop Tebow Is Right Man For Notre Dame Job
+ Despite Injury, UC's Pike Has Better Numbers Than Tebow
+ Kentucky Coach Compares Tebow To A Baker
+ Who Do You Hate More: Tebow Or Laettner?
+ Examining The Tim Tebow Non-Troversy

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1) The Heisman is not a lifetime achievement award. If there was an honor given out to four-year players for their entire bodies of work, by all means, give it to No. 15 and begin calling it the Tebow Award next year.

2) The Heisman goes to the most outstanding player in college football each season. There are several players who had better individual seasons, three or four or maybe five who meant more to their teams than Tebow meant to his.

3) Ndamukong Suh. Um, was any one player more singularly dominant than the Nebraska defensive lineman? The short answer is no. So is the long answer. This should be a lock. Suh's defensive dominance this season was similar to how prolific of an offensive season Troy Smith had in 2006 and Reggie Bush a year earlier.

4) Toby Gerhart. Gerhart was a dominant offensive player for Stanford this season, bulldozing his way to 1,736 yards and shattering by 600 yards exactly his own single-season rushing record at the school. He also scored 26 touchdowns, many of them of the knee-or-shoulder-to-the-opponent's-face variety. The highlight reels showed many bruising runs by Gerhart, but the kid had decent wheels this season as well.

5) Colt McCoy. I bet he actually wins the dang thing, but he doesn't deserve it. That Big 12 Championship Game was a Heisman Final, of sorts, and we all know who got the best of whom in front of a national audience Saturday night. But if a quarterback gets it, it should be McCoy comfortably ahead of Tebow.

Archbishop Tebow Is Right Man For Notre Dame Job

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

CLEVELAND -- Some think Tim Tebow won't amount to much in the NFL, so I offer him this advice:

Send in your resume, No. 15. You're a lock to be the next coach at Notre Dame.

You're winding down the greatest individual college football career of all time. The vacancy is at the most storied college football program of all time.

You embody all that a college football player should be. In the (Irish) eyes of many, nowhere else would be more appropriate for such a man than South Bend.

You've performed surgery on impoverished children in the Philippines. You'd only be asked to resuscitate a once-elite-but-still-proud football program.

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YOUR THOUGHTS: Who's Got The Best Job In Sports?

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You handled rather easily a reporter's awkward inquiry about your faith and your purity. You'll be the most hounded college sports figure in the Hoosier state since Bob Knight.

Your ability to inspire and lead other young men is well documented. That's been lacking for nearly two decades for the Golden Domers.

Your devotion to your religion also is well documented. You'd get along nicely with Touchdown Jesus.

The case is overwhelming, Mr. Tebow. It's obvious what you should do after you jump-pass your Gators to victory over Alabama on Saturday: Split your time the next five weeks preparing for the national championship game, all the while assembling a team of assistants who can handle the recruiting load in your absence.

Maybe call your old buddy Chris Leak; he's got some free time.

Despite Injury, Pike's Numbers Better Than Tebow's

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

WASHINGTON, Pa. -- If it were up to Cy Young voters to determine college football's Heisman Trophy winner, you'd probably see Cincinnati's Tony Pike back on the list.

If there could be such a thing as a popular darkhorse, Pike was it by midseason. He was averaging 10 touchdown passes and 4,000 yards a game it seemed, before missing three full games and parts of two others with an injured forearm. Fortunately for the Bearcats, sophomore backup Zach Collaros filled in so splendidly at quarterback that when Pike was rounding back into form, coach Brian Kelly had an embarrassment of riches at the position for still-unbeaten UC.

And while the injury gave fans in Clifton reason to be excited for next season with Collaros at the helm, the missed time cost Pike a chance to become the school's first Heisman winner.

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Baseball writers gave rising superstar Tim Lincecum his second straight Cy Young Award this month, in one of the more intriguing votes in recent history. Lincecum needed only 15 wins to grab the NL honor, while AL stud Zack Greinke won just 16 games en route to becoming the Kansas City Royals' first such honoree.

Obviously, those writers recognized quality over quantity, and while Heisman voters will have a hard time ignoring Texas quarterback Colt McCoy's prolific numbers, Pike boasts the kind of consistent dominance that could possibly earn him at least a few votes if he closes with another stellar effort Saturday in a nationally televised Big East championship game against Pittsburgh. Something to tell the grandchildren.

Despite the limited action, Pike's passing numbers are actually slightly better than those of Florida's Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman in 2007.

Pike:

+ 162-for-249 passing, 2,048 yards and 23 TDs and 3 INTs.
+ Passer rating of 162.22.
+ He's had two games with 30+ completions, and four games with 300+ yards.

Tebow:

+ 162-of-244 passing, 2,166 yards, 17 TDs and 4 INTs.
+ Passer rating of 160.67
+ He hasn't completed more than 17 passes in a game this season, and hasn't thrown for more than 255 yards.

Certainly Tebow is the most dangerous running quarterback in the country, so he's got a large edge over Pike in that category. But Tebow also has one of the nation's top defenses in his own locker room. Pike's defensive mates aren't nearly as dominant, so he's had to earn his unbeaten record this year more than Tebow has earned his.

I'm not saying Pike is a better quarterback or that he deserves first-place Heisman consideration, but it would be nice for his incredible performance this season to be recognized appropriately.

Brandon Spikes "Wired Differently," Florida Asst. Says

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Brandon Spikes is obsessed with being tough.

Those aren't just words inspired by the horrific video replayed over and over on television and YouTube the last few days, showing the menacing Florida linebacker gouging the eyes of a Georgia player.

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YOUR THOUGHTS: Does Spikes' Self-Punishment Make Meyer Look Bad?

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But those are the words of Gators strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti.

I spoke to Marotti on Thursday, two days before Spikes was caught on camera gouging the eyes of a Georgia running back during Saturday's 41-17 thrashing of the Bulldogs.

Coach Urban Meyer had a problem with Spikes' act, so he suspended him. For the first half of the Vandy game this Saturday. That's a pretty weak punishment. If you think there's something wrong, suspend him for a game, not a portion of a game.

Have you ever seen a pitcher accused of throwing at a batter earn a four-inning suspension? Or a basketball player who left the bench during a brawl get docked half a game's pay?

My conversation with Marotti (pictured, right), however, had more to do with who you wouldn't expect to be the weight room demon in Gainesville. Maybe you've heard of this guy.

Tim Tebow is a nice kid and an accomplished young man. Take away his football achievements and his potential to play professionally and earn millions of dollars, and his remains a life worth emulating.

Most college football fans outside Florida hate Tebow, largely because he's so likeable. He's a good kid, he's publicly proclaimed his purity, he's a team leader, gets along with his coaches and teammates, performs the occasional surgery on, yawn, goodwill trips to the Philippines and, ho-hum, pitches his religion to convicted felons when he visits penitentiaries.

I probably don't even know that he donates his time to animal-rescue centers or something like that.

Anyway, such words hardly describe a young athlete who also seems to have a chip on his shoulder and feels the need to prove something every time he competes.

But that's what you get with Tebow, and nothing less, Marotti said.

"Tim's probably the most competitive, determined athlete I've ever worked with," said the coach. "He's a guy that always has something to prove."

Marotti is an old friend of mine, and I was hoping to pick his brain about Spikes, figuring the 6-foot-4, 260-pound giant ruled the weight room. Not that Spikes isn't a gym rat -- and we'll get to him and others in a minute -- but Marotti couldn't help but pour the praise on the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner.

"No matter how miniscule a drill might be, everyone will work hard, but Tim takes it to another level," Marotti says. "Like running the stadium steps. Some guys will go hard and try to push the group. Tim just takes off and wants to finish first."

It seems that No. 15 is out to prove that nice guys can finish first, even on game day.

"When he's carrying the ball, getting close to the sideline, why not just go out of bounds?" Marotti asked. "He wants to run people over and prove he's tougher than the other guy. It's almost like he's not real. He's the toughest guy I've been around."

If you were to meet Tebow in a dark alley, or shoot, at the bingo parlor, you better hope he doesn't have Spikes with him. In pads and out on the field, Spikes is a man among Lilliputians. His presence is just as noteworthy in the weight room.

"These days we look at people as energy givers and energy takers," Marotti said. "Brandon's an energy giver. He's very influential. He's got a lot of juice going, a lot of excitement and passion."

Despite Spikes' size, he covers the field with great athleticism. Many expect him to be the first inside linebacker taken in next spring's NFL draft.

"Brandon's a big dude," Marotti said. "He's pretty athletic, and he's got great feet. He's also very confident and passionate about the game of football. He loves practice, he loves the smell of the grass. He loves his cleats. He loves everything about the game."

Marotti worked the same gig at Cincinnati and Notre Dame prior to Florida. He said linebacker Nate Dingle was probably his toughest baller at UC and center Jeff Faine, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, would "fight guys in practice every day" when Marotti worked at Notre Dame.

"(Tough guys) are all the same in that they're all different," Marotti said. "They're workout freaks, they're wired differently and they obsess about training and preparing. They're obsessed with getting better. And about being tough."

Gameday Gallery: Florida at LSU

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

BATON ROUGE, La. -- I'd say I've now been to the two biggest games of the college football season so far. In Week Two, the One Great Season tour was in Columbus for the huge USC-Ohio State tilt, and just last night, I took in the biggest game on the SEC schedule to date this year.

No. 1 Florida brought its groggy quarterback and a nasty defense to Tiger Stadium for what promised to be a hard-hitting heavyweight bout with fourth-ranked LSU.

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The forecast called for heavy rain, but other than a couple of brief drizzly periods, the weather was perfect for an old-fashioned SEC donnybrook. The visitors came away with the 13-3 win, leaving folks wondering who will be able to beat the Gators, and leaving me wondering that while Tim Tebow may go down as the best college football player ever, could Florida also boast the best defense of all time?

Not only was the atmosphere electric inside the stadium, but hours before kickoff, the tailgate scene was pretty intense as well. Click here to take a look at some of what I saw in my first-ever gameday experience at Death Valley.

LSU's Les Miles Wishes Tebow Well

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

BATON ROUGE, La. -- In most cases, a coach of one team heaping praise on the backup quarterback of another team is merely an exercise in gamesmanship.

But at the LSU football weekly media luncheon Monday, you knew coach Les Miles was sincere in his flattery of No. 1 Florida's John Brantley, who would start in Saturday's heavyweight bout at No. 4 LSU if Tim Tebow can't answer the bell.

Below is a quick soundbite from Miles about how comfortable he thinks Florida is at the quarterback position, and in the video clip below that, the coach says he hopes Tiger Stadium will prove to be Death Valley for Florida, as it did the last time the Gators visited in 2007.

Don't Blame Meyer For His Kentucky Fried Quarterback

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- If your team is ahead, 31-7 with less than five minutes left in the third quarter, is the game in hand?

Most likely.

But is it such a blowout that all your top players should be on the sideline safe and warm so the backups can get some mop-up duty?

Hardly.

YOUR THOUGHTS: Should Tebow Have Still Been In The Game?

Urban Meyer should not be blamed for Tim Tebow's concussion. Injuries come from hard hits, and hard hits are a staple of the game of football.

But in our culture, even without talk radio and the blogosphere -- but far moreso with those faceless forums -- we always need to find fault with a choice that somebody made. We love to assess blame and pile on and criticize long after decisions are made. I've long been a big fan of the sport, and I think I'm pretty knowledgeable, but one thing I've never understood is the venom that infects the opinions and the methods with which college football fans express those opinions.

In the sport of college football, coaches leave their top players in for a number of reasons.

+ They want to step on the jugular of the other team. If they don't, they get criticized for not closing out an opponent.

+ They might want to stretch the margin of victory by just one more touchdown, hoping the larger blowout might be worth another AP vote or, come mid-season, three tenths of a BCS percentage point.

+ They might want to help a Heisman Trophy candidate add a couple more completions or yards to the stat line.

Again, the game was in hand, but a 24-point deficit with 20 minutes to left is hardly insurmountable. Florida itself scored those first 31 points in just the first quarter.

So quit with the blame game. It's unfortunate that a great player and a great kid suffered such a hard hit, but he'll recover and Florida will be a great team again, Meyer will be a great coach again and all will return to normal in the world of college football.

Kentucky Coach Compares Tebow To A Baker

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- What's funny about Tim Tebow is that so many people want to drop the "best-ever" hyperbole on him, but almost all do it in such a way that describes the Florida senior as one of the best-ever players in college football history, never one of the best-ever quarterbacks, the position he's played for the Gators for going on four years now.

The coach of Florida's next opponent, Kentucky's Rich Brooks, added his name to the list of those who need to categorize everyone and everything at UK's weekly media luncheon at the ole Wildcat Den Monday. In heaping praise on the Gators' Heisman Tropy-winning QB, Brooks made sure to emphasize the word "player," implying that maybe Tebow's quarterbacking skills alone might not be deserving of such recognition.

Brooks compared Tebow to Terry Baker. Ah, yes, Terry Baker. Who doesn't think of Terry Baker while watching Tebow bull his way through the line on 3rd-and-goal?

Actually, this is high praise indeed. Baker won the Heisman Trophy when he and Brooks were teammates at Oregon State in 1962. And to glorify Tebow or any player for his complete body of work -- saying he's greater than the sum of his parts, essentially -- is a stronger compliment than just saying he's a great position player. If I recall, God created the football player on the sixth day -- those are the words of Ampipe senior cornerback Stefen Djordjevic, not mine -- and he must have looked like Florida's No. 15.

Anyway, here's Brooks' take on Tebow, whose Gators pay a visit to Lexington's Commonwealth Stadium Saturday for a 6 p.m. kickoff:

Who Do You Hate More: Tebow or Laettner?

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

EDISON, N.J. -- First off, I don't hate Tim Tebow or Christian Laettner, but I know many of you do. Laettner was one of the best college basketball players of all time. And Tebow has a chance to be the best college football player ever.

Because of his individual greatness, Laettner helped Duke win back-to-back national championships. And Tebow's greatness has earned him a Heisman Trophy, as well as a chance to help his team win its third national championship in this senior year of his that begins in just a few weeks.

Yet Laettner and Tebow are hated in so many places.

It's funny how common the outcry is when we read about coddled, trouble-making athletes. The word "thug" often gets tossed around when talking about people like Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress and most of the Portland Trail Blazers of the last 10 or 12 years. We say we want our heroes to be good people away from the playing field, and you get far more than that with Tebow. His mission trips are well documented. But still so many people north and west of Gainesville hate him so much. Why is that?

And why did so many people hate Laettner two decades ago? Don't tell me it was because he stomped that Timberlake kid from Kentucky (watch the video) in the greatest college basketball game ever played. That was at the end of Laettner's senior year; he'd been hated long before then.

I have my reasons for why I think Laettner was hated so badly, but I don't know why Tebow is. And I want you to tell me why he's hated, and which of the two you hate more and why.

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Tim Tebow Non-troversy

By John P. Wise
One Great Season

NEW YORK -- Tim Tebow is a virgin. Steve Spurrier didn't vote for him. In other news, Tebow plays quarterback for the University of Florida, and they seem to have a pretty good football team this year.

Don't be fooled by what you read on the blogs today. There is no controversy coming from SEC Media Days in Birmingham this week. Well, maybe, if you consider Bobby Petrino staying with Arkansas now for going on 19 or 20 months. There's certainly something to be said for that guy's loyalty, eh?

It's time for those who wonder why such a big deal is made out of Tebow to start making a big deal out of Tebow. But for the right reasons.

Tebow has a chance to win a third SEC championship ring, a third national championship ring and perhaps even a second Heisman trophy. Such a trifecta will no doubt be difficult, but it's within reach, and even if he achieves none of the above, he still has a chance to go down as the best college football player ever. Those are the optics through which I'll be viewing the upcoming season.

I don't care if Tim Tebow is sleeping with cheerleaders, sleeping with Bea Arthur or sleeping with nobody. The blogger who asked Tebow if he's preserving his purity until marriage should not have asked it. No way.

+ YOUR THOUGHTS: Is Tebow's virginity relevant?
+ ALSO: SEC Preview

I have a couple of Louisville friends up here this weekend, and they're pretty big college football fans. Hard not to be when the Cardinals have enjoyed great success in recent years. And as savvy observers of the sport, they shared their takes on the Tebow non-troversy:

Pat: "If Tim Tebow is professing his faith to God on TV like he does, then I think questions about his morality become fair game."

Tim: "I think it depends on the venue. If it's a one-on-one, private sit-down interview, then maybe that's OK. But in a packed press room like Thursday, I thought it was inappropriate."

What isn't inappropriate is the guess that LSU fans are already yanking their dirty sheets off their twin beds to paint some degrading messages about Tebow's virginity, as well as the South Carolina poets presumably putting pen to paper in preparation for some obnoxious chants when the Gators visit Columbia in November.

Speaking of South Carolina, head Gamecock Steve Spurrier admitted he was the voter who snubbed Tebow on the league's all-preseason team, giving top honors to Ole Miss' Jevan Snead.

In an overstated mea culpa that was perhaps overdone by ESPN, Spurrier said he quickly signed off on a ballot filled out by an assistant. The coach heaped all-world praise on Tebow, saying he's not just the best quarteback in the league, but the best player in the country.