So, the GPOOE™ has decided to answer the curtain call and return to Florida for his senior year. A few thoughts:
- As someone who was devastated by Herschel’s decision to take the Donald’s money and run, I’m a little jealous. Gator fans, trust me, you’re a lucky bunch.
- That being said, I’m more than a little curious to know exactly what the NFL had to say about his draft chances. This article makes no sense to me; nobody with that many question marks goes mid-first round. Can he play QB on Sundays or not?
- I don’t see Meyer rejiggering his offense to get Tebow ready for the next level. First off, who puts the needs of one player in front of an entire program? The kid is the perfect quarterback for the offense that Meyer runs and it makes no sense to mess with that. Besides, where has Meyer shown any indication that he can run a pro-style offense at the same level of success that he’s run his version of the spread option?
- The other good thing about the decision: while guys like Stafford will be honing their passing skills in preparation for the draft, the GPOOE™ will have the opportunity to do the same with his circumcision skills. Thom Brennaman swoons just thinking about that.
- The down side to this, it seems to me, comes if Florida makes a couple of missteps and doesn’t stay in the MNC hunt and that in turn costs Tebow a shot at a second Heisman Trophy award. How do you stay motivated when all your goals disappear?
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UPDATE: Chris Brown adds some more thoughts here. I hadn’t thought about this one in particular:
… Finally, one factor plays a part with Tebow that normally wouldn’t with other quarterbacks, but often does with runningbacks: hits and shelf life. NFL runningbacks have a limited shelf-life, before their skills and ability quickly diminish. The common wisdom is that this is a factor of the hits and punishment their bodies take. Tebow, unlike most future pro quarterbacks, takes many hits like a runningback; indeed, he often delivers them. It’s a crude measure, but compare the total carries by Tebow to Texas Tech’s quarterback, Graham Harrell, over the last two seasons. (In college “carries” includes sacks.) In 2007 and 2008, Harrell had 79 total “carries.” Tebow? 386. Adding another 200 carries, sacks, and other hits might just start to wear on his body. And we all know NFL guys will be trying to hit him hard and often when he gets there, so body preservation might be reason alone.
Get The Picture 
I imagine Jesus won’t allow him to lose his motivation.
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I think squarebush is exactly right. I enjoy reading jabs at Tebow as much as (or more than) the next guy, but for good or ill, the guy is a self- (or divinely inspired) motivator.
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You kinda have to wonder how much the Alex Smith project is playing into the opinions of the draft “experts”. Not that they’re basing their analysis off of another players performance but I would think there’s some hesitation because of it.
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Vince Young probably is a factor, too.
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Smart move by Tebow, seeing how the Arena League is taking next year off.
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Heresy, Senator. Heresy. He won’t lose motivation. Motivation will cease to exist because he deigns it so.
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Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m glad he’s back. Want one more shot at him, and God willing, a decent pass rush to do so with.
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Nothing would warm my heart more than for the Dawgs to return the favor next fall and make him wish he never came back for a senior year.
He’s a helluva football player, but he’s so smug and self-promoting that he and the UF Athletics Department (and especially Meyer) deserve each other. One day, soon, I hope UF will return to their rightful place in the SEC.
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And by rightful place, I mean where they were before the arrival of Spurrier, of course.
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I’m just sitting here waiting for the Matt Leinart syndrome to kick in. Win the title, return for more, then fall short of your goals on national television. I just hope the Dawgs are the ones to crush his dreams…..
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Ben,
You nailed it. He and UF are a perfect fit. I don’t have to try too hard to imagine Tebow on the beach with jorts, hair gel, a mesh jersey, and basketball shoes. He is everything I despise about Florida through and through.
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1. Florida just hired Lloyd Carr’s old quarterback coach, Scott Loeffler. Loeffler was one of the few good coaches on Carr’s staff and is credited for Michigan’s pipeline of QBs to the NFL. He’s a very good teacher of pro QB techniques.
2. Tebow’s heir apparent is John Brantley, who is more of a thrower and less of a runner.
3. Meyer’s ability to continue to sign five-star QB recruits depends (at least in small part) on his ability to get QBs to the NFL.
Put 1, 2, and 3 together and I think you’ll see Meyer’s offense becoming a little more pass-heavy. It will still use the shotgun (although I wouldn’t be shocked to see Tebow under center on a few snaps next year just so he can show that ability) and it will still use zone-read and option plays, but I bet they throw the ball more. With UF having solved their tailback issues, they don’t need the QB to be such a big part of the running game.
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Michael, I’m aware of your points 1 and 2, but I’m not convinced that either would lead to wholesale changes in Florida’s offensive schemes. Will there be more effort made to throw the ball next year? Maybe, but that’s still not going to change the fact that what Tebow runs in Gainesville isn’t going to be similar to what he’d have to do at the next level if he wants to be a quarterback. For example, I just don’t see the Gators suddenly lining up in the I a bunch and letting Tebow do what Stafford did for the past three years.
But, hell, maybe Loeffler can make that big a difference, even though the schemes he’s working with in Florida and worked with in Michigan are vastly different. If he can help Tebow speed up his release, that would be a big plus for the kid.
As for your third point, there are always going to be 5-star recruits at the QB position who are more runner than thrower, and who are going to be far more likely to excel as a college QB than in the pros at QB. Meyer doesn’t have to recruit the top rated 6’5″ pocket passer with a gun for an arm to succeed in recruiting. He just has to out-recruit every program chasing dual threat QBs. He can do that without breaking a sweat, I’m afraid.
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“I’m just going to use all of their talk about having nothing to motivate me to motivate me and my team to do better. Even though the national championship and Heisman are out of reach now, I promise that you’ll never see anyone work harder to get their team to the Capital One Bowl than me.”
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Will Q — That speech before or after he cries?
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Tebow’s position in the draft (in 2010 I guess) will depend upon his willingness to change position. Nobody is going to draft a QB project higher than the 3rd round. If Tebow states that he’s willing to change positions, then I can see him in the 2nd round, or even creeping up into the 1st.
But Alex Smith’s and Vince Young’s ghosts will haunt Tebow as a QB prospect. Smith had much better passing numbers and Young was much more athletic. Maybe Tebow is a better compromise of intelligence/running/passing than the other two, but the NFL just places so little value on running for the QB that I can’t see him climbing high when it’s his main strength.
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Senator, we know how lucky we are–believe me.
And to all those Dawgs wanting “another shot at him” — dream on. And don’t forget to keep believing that the refs cost you the game last year. And that our defense couldn’t possibly be any better than it was in 2007. And that your offense would be much better than it was in 2007. Et cetera, et cetera.
BTW, I’m sure that our defense will take a giant step backwards next year. Even though we will return everyone but Spikes (and even Spikes is rumored to be thinking about coming back), I’m sure post-MNC complacency will result in us returning to 2007 levels of defensive incompetency.
Not.
AG
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Ace, no doubt you guys will be loaded for bear next year.
But the same thing could be said about Southern Cal for the last three seasons – and was said. We see how that worked out.
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Senator that’s a good point, and I’m glad you brought it up. One of the things that no one really talks about with regard to why Urban is so successful is that he makes a point of developing the *mental* toughness of his players. He and his staff constantly are working on developing not just physical toughness, but mental toughness.
I have a lot of regard for CMR, but I think that’s one of the reasons we do so well against you guys–my sense is (admittedly based on virtually no actual knowledge) that you guys are not as mentally tough as we are. You have a tendency to self-destruct when things start going badly. Meyer-coached teams do not.
And I would like to think (again with no actual knowledge) that USC falls into that same category. Supreme athletic skills, but not as tough mentally as they could be. So hopefully we don’t fall prey to the same letdowns that have plagued USC during the last couple of years. I guess we’ll see!
AG
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Ace, in the case of USC, I wonder how much of it’s “mental toughness” and how much of it is the softness of the Pac-10 schedule (and granted, Carroll does a good job of playing credible OOC schedules, so that’s not a knock on the program). But it’s got to be hard to convince your troops to get up for every game every year when they know there’s a sizeable gap in talent week after week.
That’s actually a plus for Meyer, as there is always going to be one or two tough opponents on Florida’s regular season slate, plus the SECCG.
However, if the hype over the Gators is big enough going into next season, and the opposition in the conference is painted weakly enough, who knows?
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AG,
GFY.
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“I have a lot of regard for CMR, but I think that’s one of the reasons we do so well against you guys–my sense is (admittedly based on virtually no actual knowledge) that you guys are not as mentally tough as we are. You have a tendency to self-destruct when things start going badly. Meyer-coached teams do not.”
Then how do you explain your 4 losses last season? You certainly didn’t suffer the 20+ season ending injuries we did, yet you still managed to lose (and badly often) in 4 games where many pundits said you shouldn’t have. Where was the mental toughness in last year’s WLOCP? Or in the loss to Michigan? Was Tebow really mentally tough? He certainly didn’t lead you back to a win in any of those games – once you started losing you couldn’t fight your way back to a win. Georgia most definitely did that – against Va Tech in the Peach-fil-A for instance or against Michigan State in this year’s bowl as well.
Not only did it take some mental toughness to go through the gauntlet of a schedule we had with the record number of injuries we suffered, but it took a hell of a lot of toughness to escape with only 3 losses on the year. Something in which you CANNOT say a/b your precious gayturds I’m afraid.
Let me know if you need more examples, I’ll be happy to provide them 😉
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Ally,
Don’t waste your time trying to use logic. This is the same fan base that thinks:
1) Playing their biggest conference rival 70 miles from their campus every year is OMG NO ADVANTAGE WHAT SO EVA!!!
2) There’s no advantage to playing 8 or 9 games in their home state every year
3) Having a bye week before your biggest conference rival for the better part of 20 years is no big advantage
4) Orange and blue look good together.
If the NCAA and ESPN got together tomorrow and declared that UF automatically had to be in the National Championship game every year, they’d still act like it’s no big advantage.
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“Dream On” … Really? Gators aren’t as unbeatable as you think they are — especially considering you’ve never had an unbeaten season. A good pass rush makes Timmy cry.
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If Tom Brady and Chad Penne have good things to say about Scott Loeffler coaching them as QB’s, Tebow’s passing should certainly improve and so should his draft standing. With UF’s cream-puff schedule next year, Tebow will have plenty of time to get better as a passer.
Penne torched the UF secondary in the 2008 Cap One Bowl following the 2007 season and Meyer remembers that fun afternoon.
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Ally–the answer is real simple:
“babies on defense”
In 2008 they grew up. And look where it got us.
In 2009 they’ll be even more grown up.
AG
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the tri guy:
“gfy”
Very articulate. I assume you graduated from UGA?
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And Ally, one more thing:
We weren’t picked #1 in the nation last year. The pollsters knew we would be very young on D.
I seem to remember a different situation for you.
Back atcha. 🙂
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So because you weren’t picked #1 in the nation & you lost 4 games means you have more mental toughness than UGA???
That doesn’t make an ounce of sense. I assume then you graduated from UF.
Your argument doesn’t hold water. Nice try though, lol.
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Yes, I did graduate from UGA. That’s why I’m on a UGA blog. You know, one that talks UGA football. I assume you graduated from UF and come to other school’s blogs to do what?–talk about how OMG awesome UF is? Tell you what-next time you find me on a Florida blog talking trash, you can tell me to GFY.
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This must be the same mental toughness that scheduled perennial powerhouses Charleston Southern, Troy, and Florida International for 2009. Obviously, there is a MENSA membership in the pipeline for CUM.
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Ally:
Actually, my logic is fine. You asked why we lost 4 games in 2007–I explained because of youth. Toughness doesn’t trump inexperience.
Go ahead and keep congratulating yourself on losing “only” 3 games in 2008. Then think back to how you lost those games. Does the term “lack of mental toughness” come to mind? It should, since I’ve seen the same observation here from Dawg fans.
AG
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Ace, it’s never that easy to all explain. Vandy returns a lot of players every year…they’re just usually bad players. Some teams just click. That’s it. Florida will be loaded next year, and will seem destined for another title, but those things go up in smoke when your starting left tackle goes down the 2nd day of practice or your best DL goes down 5 minutes into the season opener or a pass bounces off the shoulder pads of your best receiver for a key INT in a huge early season conference game. It’s football, and stuff happens.
UGA is much like Florida ’07. We had an undisciplined defense. That was the main part. Florida became more disciplined. The same could happen for UGA in ’09. Or not?
There are so many variables to a championship. And the Gators having all the talent in the world won’t guarantee anything until they play the games.
Congrats to the Gators. They were fantastic in ’08. But don’t think that Joe Cox and his band of angry red-headed Dawgs are going to be scared when we roll down to Jax at the end of October.
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This has been great! I have been a UGA fan since I was a kid, 1975 to be exact. When I got older I ended up at UF and I love my school, but I root for the dawgs every game but one a year.
Here is the deal, Stafford was a conceited ahole, using UGA as a stepping stone to the pros. Imagine if he had the same heart as David Green? UGA would have won a NC for sure. I would have been happy, really.
That being said, UGA has had an overblown reality of how good they are, on a national level, for the last 20 years or so. They are a regional power for sure, but that is it. They do not always get the 5 start athletes and they promote from within too much to kick the asses that they should.
When coach Richt got fired up last year, the team got fired up. He is too laid back to kick peoples asses all the time. When he won his SEC championships, they were during Ron Zook’s tenure and the first year Urban was in the house and had to get his ball rolling.
I grew up a hardcore fan of the Dawgs, Herschel was my hero and Vince Dooley and Erk Russell could do no wrong. But they have hired a bunch of terrible coaches, until Richt, and the fans and Alums have had to pay the price.
USC, by the way, is in the middle of LA where as UF is in the middle of nowhere and the team stays focused and plays its ass off in the best league in the nation. USC beats a bunch of candy asses up and they become so complacent that they lose a game and bitch when they do not play for the goods. WAAAAH. They lose their entire defense this year and don’t think their qb, Vince from Entourage (Mark Douchez), will come back. Good riddance.
Since 1990, the Gators have the best winning % of any team in the country. Period. We also have 3 national championships and have won 8 SEC championships in that time.
So, I can honestly tell you from experience how this will play out on the UF side and the UGA side as I have been in it with both for a long time. Even when Timmy leaves and whoever they plug in, they will dominate as that is the way we roll. Mark my words, as long as Meyer is at Florida, which will be at least until his kids all graduate from high school … six years, they will be loaded with talent and compete for the NC each year.
Some day down the road, we may end up with a douchetard coach like Ray Goff or Ron Zook again and want to shoot ourselves. But until then, Go Gators.
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You guys want to know something … we too lost 20 guys this year to injury so stop using that excuse, you should have had the trophy, but you didn’t because Matt Stafford is a douche bag. i threw my tv out the window every time i saw hum half ass it with an INT or a half cocked play and then just shrug it off and walk back to the bench. You gys should be so pissed, i know I am.
Be realistic about your team next year. You will be 10-2 and play in the Capital One Bowl or whatever they call it. Joe Cox and his red headed dawgs may not be scared, but they will get their asses handed to them, period.
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… you should have had the trophy, but you didn’t because Matt Stafford is a douche bag. i threw my tv out the window every time i saw hum half ass it with an INT or a half cocked play and then just shrug it off and walk back to the bench. You gys should be so pissed, i know I am.
Sorry, but I find that an unfair characterization of the kid.
Given your loyalties, I presume you watched the game in J’ville this year. Matt’s problem in that game wasn’t that he was phoning it in, it was the opposite.
I’m not saying there weren’t chemistry problems or leadership issues on the team this year. Given the amount of talent in Athens, that’s a likely explanation for at least some of the results on the field we saw. I’m just not buying your diagnosis here.
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I think both Stafford and Moreno are good kids–my comment to my wife after we played against Stafford in 2006 was: “He’s going to be a major problem for us down the road.”
I’m glad he’s going to be gone next year and wish him well in the pros. And I’m glad Tim T will be back!
This is the fun part of college football, and SEC football specifically: we trash talk each other here, but root like heck for each other if we’re playing non-SEC opponents. That’s the difference to me between UGA and FSU. I *never* want FSU to win. I always want UGA to win if they’re playing outside the conference.
AG
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Senator,
I guess I am just expressing my frustrations about him, not his character per say. I just wish he had the heart of Eric Zier or David Green, that’s all.
I root for the Dawgs to win outside of the Florida/Georgia game, but I be no means hope we destroy UGA or anything.
How did you like the Mark Douchez comment?
Touche Ace!
Aligator
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Anyone heard if Harvin or Spikes are making the jump to the NFL? I personally think Harvin is a bigger factor on the Gators offense more than anyone, in my opinion he was more of reason why the gators won the BCS on offense than Tebow. I mean don`t get me wrong Timmy did his little jump pass and ran a couple of times but Harvin is a gamer and was over shadowed by the jean shorts jesus.
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Ally:
Actually, my logic is fine. You asked why we lost 4 games in 2007–I explained because of youth. Toughness doesn’t trump inexperience.
Go ahead and keep congratulating yourself on losing “only” 3 games in 2008. Then think back to how you lost those games. Does the term “lack of mental toughness” come to mind? It should, since I’ve seen the same observation here from Dawg fans.
AG
gayturd:
You’re “logic” if you can call it that is so seriously flawed its laughable! You cannot state that one team lost 3 games because they aren’t as mentally tough as you, yet when you lose 4 games & NEVER showed the ability to fight back once you were losing (ie no comeback wins for teblow) yours is simply due to youth. No doubt you had some young players, but newsflash – every team does. The bottom line is, if you were as mentally tough as you brag, you wouldn’t have crapped the bed in such dramatic fashion to lesser teams FOUR TIMES last season. And I do believe one of those times was in the capital one bowl….to godawful michigan…. who lost at home to App State!
I realize you’re a floriduh fan, but honestly, this isn’t rocket science.
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Aligator,
I think your characterization of UGA’s program is a little dated. 10 years ago, the points you make were probably true. But Evans is bringing a new attitude and vision, and I think one of his main objectives is to shake the “regional” tag.
That’s why we’re playing teams like ASU, OSU, Colorado, Oregon in the near future. UGA doesn’t have the built-in PR advantages that UF does(no one else does either, maybe USC or Texas), so we’re going to have to be aggressive in scheduling and marketing to get there. I also think he realizes the farce that is playing our biggest conference rival in their backyard every year, and I’ll be surprised if that doesn’t change too.
As for Stafford, I don’t know him, so I can’t say if he’s an ahole or not. Some people you just know (Grossman, Spurrier, the Clausans, Saban), but I don’t get the impression of Stafford. If anything, I think he was just an NFL QB in college and couldn’t shake that mentality. He wasn’t rah-rah. He wasn’t going to yell ridiculously at his middle linebacker to show his “leadership”. I think he is just more like the Mannings and would expect him to have more success on the NFL level than he did in college. With Tebow, I think it will clearly be the other way.
Richt has won 2 SEC titles, finished #2 and #3. Essentially he was a Jon Naverre interception and a Kentucky blocked FG from having a opportunity to play for two NC’s. Maybe he’ll get one, maybe he won’t. But he’s not going to roll over and play dead just b/c UF and the media tells everyone that we have no shot at knocking them off.
Like I said earlier this morning on another post, the EXACT same things were said about UF’s program in 1996. After that, Spurrier won one more SEC title in 5 years and went 2-3 against FSU.
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touche …
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