Oh boy, I knew it was gonna happen. Theyve awakened the sleeping giant again. From the Gainesville Sun:
Tebow’s snub adds BCS motivation
The Associated Press
Published: Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 11:48 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 11:48 p.m.
NEW YORK — Good news out of the Big Apple Saturday night.
Bradford takes Heisman
Tim Tebow didn’t win the Heisman.
Whaatt?!?
Yep, I’m saying it was good news.
Not for Tebow or his family. Back-to-back would have been unbelievable.
But for Florida’s chances of winning the BCS National Championship Game next month.
Sam Bradford will be the guy eating rubber chicken and posing for pictures and shaking thousands of sweaty palms over the next week. Bradford will be the guy being pounded with questions about the Heisman jinx. Four of the last five winners have lost their bowl games.
Gator fans wouldn’t mind if it became five of six.
Because for the second time ever, Heisman winners will face off and do it in Dolphins Stadium. OK, it was Pro Player Stadium when Jason White and Matt Leinart went head-to-head four years ago, but you get the drift. It’s kind of amazing that Heisman winners had never gone against each other and now will do it twice in five seasons.
So here’s what we got Saturday night.
1. The big game was injected with more juice because Bradford won the award.
2. Tebow was injected with an extra dose of motivation, like he needed it. He had that look. He doesn’t like losing at anything.
“Why get over it? Use it,” Tebow said. “I’ll be motivated enough. I think it’s more motivating for my teammates. They’re a little bit excited. I’ve already got a lot of text messages. I can’t share them but there were some good ones.”
Probably along the lines of, “We’ll show that guy who should have won the Heisman.”
We all remember what happened the last time Florida faced a Heisman Trophy winner.
3. More voters thought Tebow deserved to win the Heisman than any of the other quarterbacks. He received the most first-place votes. Must feel a little like Al Gore in 2000.
I asked Tebow if he took any solace in that.
“Not really,” he said. “If you lose, you lose.”
Let’s face it, folks, you don’t lose the Heisman Trophy. You just don’t win it. At least not this time.
But the good news I’m talking about is that Tebow is taking this like a loss. Maybe not in an Ole Miss way, but it’s there.
Just finishing third in a close vote was a pat-on-the-back achievement considering the way his numbers were dwarfed by the Big 12 quarterbacks. And the reason he didn’t win was that there were 154 voters who left him off the ballot.
Like I wrote Saturday, there was no wrong ballot, even if you left any of the three off because Graham Harrell was deserving as well. But the fact that there were 154 semi-educated voters who left Tebow off their ballots and 120 who dissed McCoy and 93 who snubbed Bradford tells you they must not get cable in a lot of places.
“They either love us or they hate it,” Tebow said. “That’s the Gator Nation. They didn’t think I was worthy, but I get one more chance.”
And then he blamed Steve Spurrier for costing him the Heisman.
Not really.
But what he did say is that love 'em or hate 'em mentality started with “Spurrier’s swagger.” And that’s when I told Tebow the headline in our paper would read, “Tebow blames Spurrier for Heisman loss.”
“Only if you write it,” he said laughing.
Maybe the most alarming information we received in frigid New York Saturday night was that 127 ballots were received before the last weekend of the season. Tebow was well back in third place after those ballots came in. Then he went out and led Florida past No. 1 Alabama. Among the 777 ballots that were received after that game, Tebow was ahead of Colt McCoy and just a few points behind Bradford.
You vote before the season is over, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
And if that’s not enough to drive you Tebow fans crazy, how about this — 41 different players received third-place votes and 20 received second-place votes. That means there were a bunch of people wasting their votes to make a statement.
All that said, a lot of good can come from this. Maybe it's the spark that keeps Tebow at Florida for another year. Maybe it's enough to cause issues in the Bradford brain. Maybe it’s enough to motivate Florida over Oklahoma.
I leave you with this, something Tebow said Saturday night.
“Don’t rattle the fence.”
The fence has been rattled.
Told you there was good news.
Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or
dooleyp@gvillesun.com.
Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 12:08 pm
