This seems to be the theme of the Tebow naysayers. Yeah, he’s good but he’s had such a disappointing year. Not sure how 11-0 in the SEC can be considered a disappointment, but I understand that his numbers haven’t been as “out of this world” as they have been in previous seasons. You know what? It was planned this way from the beginning of the season and the Gators may be a better TEAM than they were last year.
Florida lost their two leading receivers from last year and both are now playing on Sundays. I’m not sure you can overemphasize how big a loss Percy Harvin was. He was a once in a decade skill player, which is being demonstrated by the fact that he’s the current favorite to win the NFL Rookie of the Year award. Carl Moore and Andre Debose were lost before the season ever started. Deonte Thompson has a ton of raw skill, but has not developed into a “go to” guy yet. That basically left Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez and some very young and very raw receivers to try to fill out Florida’s four and five receivers sets. Step into Urban Meyer’s shoes…you have ridiculous skill and speed, but not much experience on the outside. What do you do? You focus on your option offense and lean on your senior quarterback. The result? Florida has the ninth ranked rushing offense in the country…ahead of Alabama.
What do you want from your quarterback in this different system?
You want him to be a team player and not be disappointed that his stats may not be comparable to previous years. Check.
You want him to efficiently distribute the ball. 13 players have run the ball for Florida this year. The team averages over 5.4 yards per carry. The three main ball carriers after Tebow all average over 6.0 YPC.
You want him to win. 11-0 so far says it all.
You want him to be efficient when you pass the ball. To determine that, let’s compare Tebow to the only other quarterback who is still considered a candidate for the trophy, Colt McCoy.
Tebow has a better passer rating, more yards per attempt and a virtually identical yards per play average. He has a significantly higher touchdown percentage, a lower interception percentage and more total touchdowns. He also did it against much better pass defenses.
Oh, and he’s also run for over 700 yards this season.
What a disappointment.
Love the Heismanpundit. Great site and he’s usually dead on. His predictions today make me a little ill. He seems to feel the award is Ingram’s to win or will fall back to McCoy. They’re both great players and I buy Ingram (for the most part). But McCoy will be another disaster of a winner just like Bradford was last year. Do these voters actually pay attention to the season or just look at stats lines or (worse yet) just watch the Bristol network for their opinions. Understand this…Big 12 pass defenses suck. They’re not just mediocre. They suck.
Didn’t we learn anything last year? Bradford and McCoy and Reesing and Harrell all put up Heisman Trophy-like numbers. Then (some of them) met real defenses in bowl games and got stuffed. Then people realized that, “hey, maybe we should have thought about the odds of four record breaking quarterbacks all playing in the same conference at the same time against good defenses being statistically improbable (more like impossible).”
Colt McCoy’s numbers this year have come against weak defenses. The average pass defense he’s played this year was ranked 79th in the country. Take away the two decent Oklahoma teams and the highest ranked pass defense Texas has played is UCF. By the numbers, he had a great day Saturday – against a mediocre and beaten down Kansas team (59th in total defense, 88th in pass defense and probably losing their coach). AND he stayed in the full game in a 31-point blowout (why does Mack Brown have the rep of being a class act?).
Now we can argue all day whether the stiff arm trophy still has a place as the premiere award in college football. Nonetheless, the voters will elevate some player to the list of college football’s greats. Colt McCoy is a fine player who has won a lot of games, but players with eye-popping statistics from the WAC and other conferences seem to be excluded due to the perception of weaker competition. The average pass defense in the WAC this year is currently ranked 56th nationally. The Big 12′s is 70th (and is ranked the fifth best conference by Sagarin).
Has McCoy done something special? Sure. Has he done it against special competition? I think we all know the answer to that.
(Note: 9 of the top 25 pass defenses in the country are in the SEC.)
Gerhart had a nice day on the ground…136 yards rushing and four touchdowns. In reality, he had a 61 yard dash and averaged less than four yards per rush the rest of the game. He also had a nice 29 yard scamper on Stanford’s final drive. Unfortunately, he was outrushed (and beaten) in the game.
Ingram rushed for 102 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries against FCS Chattanooga.
Think Mack Brown and McCoy were dedicating this to the voters. He played the entire game in a 31 point blowout against the 69th ranked pass defense in FBS. He certainly had amazing stats. 396 yards passing and four touchdowns.
Spiller’s day was disappointing – 58 yards on the ground, 39 yards as a receiver. How is he a serious candidate?
Tebow played through two possessions in the third quarter. 218 yards through the air…102 yards on the ground…3 touchdowns.
The day appears to be a draw between Tebow and McCoy. 396 yards of offense from McCoy for the game…320 yards of offense from Tebow in 2 1/2 quarters.
This award is in danger of becoming the Sportscenter highlight award. Players have appeared and vanished off the watch lists because of one good or bad game. How many of these voters are actually watching these games?
Case Keenum’s candidacy was never built on wins or strength of schedule…it was built on gaudy numbers. Then they lose to UCF (their second loss of the season to a team they should have beaten) and it’s over. Have his stats somehow disappeared?
Toby Gerhart gets SportsCenter cred when Stanford beats down a very mediocre USC (whose defense is currently ranked 20 spots lower than Temple’s) and he’s a leader?
CJ Spiller averages 88 yards rushing per game and has broken 100 yards rushing exactly three times this season. But someone sees him tear up Florida State (and their stellar 105th ranked rush defense) and he’s a top candidate?
