Urban Meyer feels Tim Tebow was the best college football player ever.
There’s no denying what Tim Tebow did during his time starring for Florida football.
The Florida Gators starting quarterback won the 2007 Heisman Trophy as a sophomore and a pair of national championships as a freshman in 2006 and as a junior in 2008. He was the greatest player to play for former Florida head football coach Urban Meyer. Though it’s been a decade since either starred in Gainesville, Meyer still has strong praise for his greatest player ever.
In a conversation with CBS Sports’ Jamie Erdahl, Meyer, Tebow and current Florida head coach/former offensive coordinator under Meyer in Dan Mullen answered the easiest question: “One game. One QB. Everything on the line. Who ya got?” Though he was on the Zoom call, there were no other choice but Tebow. Here is what Meyer had to say about his former star quarterback.
“It actually happened,” said Meyer. “In 2008, Ahmad Black made a great interception against Oklahoma and we’re up by three points against Sam Bradford and arguably one of the greatest offenses of all-time.”
“And I called everybody up, and there was seven minutes and 40 seconds, whatever it was, left on the clock… I had my arm around Tim [Tebow] and I said ‘Guys, turn around and look at the clock.’ And we all turned around together, and I said ‘If we can somehow control this clock and go down and score, you’re the champions of college football.”
“And at that moment, Meyer continued, “who else would you want? I’m very biased and I know he’s on the call but he’s the best college football player of all time.”
Urban Meyer believes Tim Tebow is the best college football player ever.
Tebow is undoubtedly in rarefied air. He is by far and away the best quarterback in SEC history. Sorry Tennessee and LSU football fans, but Tebow was more accomplished than Peyton Manning and had a greater SEC career than Joe Burrow. Regardless, those are three of the four players on the Mount Rushmore of SEC quarterbacking.
As for the entire SEC, Tebow is one of the three players who would be unanimous inclusions on the conference’s all-time Mount Rushmore with a pair of Heisman Trophy-winning running backs in Bo Jackson of the Auburn Tigers and Herschel Walker of the Georgia Bulldogs. As with the quarterbacking Mount Rushmore, the last spot is up for debate, but those three names are not.
If you want to take it outside of the SEC, players like Barry Sanders of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, Roger Staubach of the Navy Midshipmen and Jim Brown of the former Syracuse Orangemen would have to be in that discussion as well, among others. Tebow is undoubtedly a top-10 player in the 150-plus history of college football, so Meyer is not wrong in his judgement.
Though Tebow’s highly publicized NFL career had its moments with the Denver Broncos, nothing he could have realistically accomplished at the professional level would have measured up to his four years playing for the Gators in Gainesville. For a school that’s had three Heisman Trophy winners, there is a reason Tebow is viewed as the greatest player in the program’s history.
Meyer should believe Tebow is the greatest college football player of all time.
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