Tebow Wins Heisman Trophy

For Florida Quarterback, It’s a Year of Firsts

By JOSHUA ROBINSON
Published: December 9, 2007

After becoming the first major college quarterback to throw 20 touchdown passes and run for 20 more touchdowns in a season, Florida’s Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night.

Tebow earned 1,957 points and 462 first-place votes. The Arkansas senior running back Darren McFadden was the runner-up for the second year in a row, collecting 1,703 points and 291 first-pace votes, the most first-place votes a runner-up has received.

Hawaii’s senior quarterback Colt Brennan placed third with 632 points, and Missouri’s junior quarterback Chase Daniel was fourth with 425.

With his right hand in a cast, Tebow, 20, accepted the 25-pound bronze trophy and gave an emotional acceptance speech in which he thanked everyone from his strength and conditioning coach to his offensive linemen to Jesus. His nervousness was apparent when three times he repeated, “I love being a Gator, and I love Gator Nation.”

If Tebow had been an upperclassman, the victory might have been a landslide. But his status as a sophomore had many of the traditionalists among the voters wondering if the award should take into account a more complete college career.

“There are a lot of great freshmen and sophomores out there,” Tebow said. “And I’m just glad that I get to be the first one to win this.”

In each of his 12 games this season, Tebow had at least one rushing touchdown. He amassed 838 yards on 194 carries and scored 22 times. But that was only half his game. He also passed for 3,132 yards with 29 touchdowns and completed 68.5 percent of his throws.

Earlier in the week, Tebow won the Davey O’Brien award as the best quarterback in the country and the Maxwell Award, a prize separate from the Heisman for the nation’s best player. In recent years, however, the Maxwell has seemed somewhat ominous for Heisman hopefuls as no player has won both awards in the same season since Ron Dayne in 1999. Instead, Tebow became the second Florida quarterback in the last 11 years to win the Heisman, following Danny Wuerffel, one of Tebow’s childhood heroes.

But Wuerffel did not play in the kind of spread offense that has made 2007 the highest-scoring season in college football history.

The moment that stood out for many voters was Tebow’s 23-yard touchdown run against Florida State when he ducked out of a crunching tackle from a lineman and eluded two more defensive backs as he sprinted to the goal line. That was after he had avoided a sack on third-and-14 and rushed for 16 yards to keep the drive rolling.

Using his legs under pressure may have helped carried him to the Heisman, but it is also what first put him in the spotlight as a freshman. Playing behind Chris Leak, the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Tebow was Florida Coach Urban Meyer’s choice in short-yardage situations. In his first Southeastern Conference game, against Tennessee, Tebow came in on a fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter and pounded his way to a critical first down to set up the go-ahead touchdown in a 21-20 victory.

He finished his freshman season with 469 yards rushing and a team-high 8 touchdown runs on 89 carries. He threw for only 358 yards, but none meant more than the 358th — a 1-yard touchdown pass on third-and-goal in the national championship game victory against Ohio State.

For McFadden, sitting at the ceremony only to hear someone else’s name called was an all-too familiar situation. Last year, he made the trip to New York only to watch Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith claim the trophy by the second-largest margin in history.

McFadden, a two-time SEC offensive player of the year and Walter Camp Player of the Year, made his strongest case for the Heisman with his performance in Arkansas’s 50-48 triple-overtime victory at Louisiana State. He rushed for 206 yards in that game, including a 73-yard touchdown sprint in the third quarter, and threw a 24-yard pass for a touchdown in the fourth.

The final Heisman picture did not come into focus until the last month or so with several other names being mentioned throughout the season. After rushing for a touchdown in each of his first eight games, Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon seemed like a legitimate candidate. But after a knee injury in a loss to Arizona cut his season short, his 20 touchdowns and 2,106 passing yards were not enough to earn him an invitation to New York.

West Virginia quarterback Pat White, who threw for 12 touchdowns and rushed for 14, might also have been considered in the mix as he led the Mountaineers to the brink of the national title game before the Mountaineers lost to Pittsburgh.

It was that same weekend that Brennan played his way into contention. With Hawaii putting the only perfect Football Bowl Subdivision record on the line against Washington last Saturday, he completed 42 of 50 passes to close a 21-point deficit and win the game with a 5-yard slant pass with 44 seconds to play. But Brennan’s critics are quick to point out that he faced a weak schedule this year — Hawaii did not play a team in the top 25 until November.

Two nationally televised games seemed to make and break Daniel’s chances. On Nov. 24, he led Missouri to a memorable 36-28 victory against Kansas, going 40 of 49 with no interceptions. A week later, however, he failed to throw a touchdown pass as Oklahoma trounced Missouri, 38-17.

But Daniel said he was under no illusions. “I’m just glad to be here, everyone knew it was going to Tim,” he said.

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