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Title Game Will Settle The Debate

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By JOE HENDERSON

jhenderson@tampatrib.com

Published: January 8, 2009

MIAMI - As the most-watched, most-quoted, most-photographed person to play quarterback at the University of Florida, Tim Tebow doesn't often have to share the stage. He pretty much owns any room he enters, and it has been that way from the moment he signed his scholarship until now.

But here we are at the BCS Championship Game, and something has changed.

In the battle of quarterbacks Tebow is, in the eyes of some, the opening act in what could be a show for the ages.

Granted it is like (warning: dated reference here) the Stones opening for the Beatles or something like that. But Oklahoma's Sam Bradford not only took Tebow's Heisman this season, but he also took his mantle as the No. 1 college quarterback in the land. He did it by throwing 48 touchdown passes and only six interceptions for the biggest scoring machine in Division I-A college football history.

It creates an irresistible comparison and story line.

"Well, definitely quarterback play is always critical. You know, those guys are handling the football every down. Definitely I think that's a major factor in this game is the quarterback play," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.

Tebow: I Can Learn From Him

Florida fans are well aware of Tebow's contributions. His impassioned speech after the 31-30 loss to Ole Miss, promising such a thing would never happen again, is already the stuff of legends. If his words haven't been transcribed to stone tablets, they should be. You can't find a quarterback who combines his passion, leadership, arm and the willingness - indeed, eagerness - to lower a shoulder and run over a linebacker.

But Bradford can flat out bring it. He passed for more than 300 yards 11 times this season. It won the Heisman Trophy for him and few people could argue.

He has 84 TD passes and only 14 interceptions in two seasons. People might sniff that much of that production came against inferior Big 12 defenses - he faced only one team this season ranked among the top 49 defenses in the country - but Tebow isn't among them.

"There's a lot I can learn from him," Tebow said.

Football is more than just gaudy numbers, of course. Tebow knew coming into this season that he would take a statistical step back from a year ago, when he won the Heisman by accounting for 55 touchdowns (32 passing, 23 running).

Florida had more weapons and a better defense this season, so Tebow didn't have to win games by himself. He didn't have to throw his body around so recklessly.

"My role has changed a lot," he said, but so has Florida's won-loss record. And for all the focus on Oklahoma's pinball-machine offense, the Tebow-led offense still led the SEC with 45 points per game. And since that loss to Ole Miss, Tebow has been a force of will. He led the Gators past Arkansas 38-7 the next week and they only got better after that.

The Gators put up 51 points on LSU, 63 on Kentucky, 49 on Georgia, 45 on FSU.

Back With A Vengeance

Tebow has been in the middle of it all.

"He's as grown up a young player as I've ever been around. I did see an effect of the pressure at one time during the beginning of the season. The weight of the world was on his shoulders, and I thought after that Arkansas game he changed back to being Tim Tebow," Florida coach Urban Meyer said.

"He was someone else there for a minute, but he came back, and he came back with a vengeance."

So we wait and anticipate perhaps the most celebrated quarterback matchup in college football history.

Seriously.

The stage is set. The last two Heisman winners are about to meet in a game to decide the national championship. The opening act doesn't matter. It's the last act that counts.

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