Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer reveal backstory to the infamous jump pass

Florida Gators‘ Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer reminisce on infamous jump pass.

The former head coach and quarterback duo, Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow talked about “the jump pass” Tuesday on FOX College Football. A play Tebow admitted he was anticipating all game after practicing the play and seeing the success the Gators had in short-yard situations that game. “The jump pass” was a goal-line touchdown Tebow threw against the LSU Tigers before halftime on October 7, 2006.

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The jump pass was a play Meyer ran in a triple-overtime game against Air Force back when he coached Utah in 2003. He had his tight end Ben Moa take a directional snap and proceed with a one-yard pass. A play that led to a successful two-point conversion to lead them to a 45-43 win against Air Force. So when Meyer had Tebow as a freshman, he figured with Tebow’s athleticism he could run a similar play behind center but actually jump.

”He steps up, steps back and tosses it,” Tebow said, acknowledging there was no actual jump in Moa’s effort.

So Tebow was determined to leap on his throw.

”So Tim, being the extremest, his feet go about three feet in the air and it looked cool as you know what,” Meyer said of Tebow performing the pass in practice.

During the LSU game when the Gators were at the goal line right before halftime, Meyer called the play under one condition for Tebow.

”Coach grabs me and says ‘whatever you do, don’t come down with it.’ So I don’t get tackled and the clock runs out and we go into halftime,” Tebow said.

On the play, LSU’s then-senior safety Jessie Daniels had Tebow’s target, tight end Tate Casey, jammed at the line of scrimmage. Tebow hesitated for a bit until Casey broke past the line of scrimmage and got open in the back of the end zone to create the iconic play. Tebow spills the beans on what went through his mind on the iconic play.

”When I jumped…their safety had Tate Casey locked up. So you see me pump faking in the air like ‘get him off of you’ so I just lob it and kind of anticipating,” Tebow said. “So everybody is like ‘dude you were you pretending like it was going to be a double dribble or something’ and I just had coach’s words in my head ‘don’t come down with it’ so I was jumping as high as I could with some arc.”

That season, the Gators went on to win the national title with Chris Leak starting and Tebow coming in off the bench for spark plays like “the jump pass.“ The next three seasons Tebow would start and become one of the greatest college football quarterbacks of all-time. He won another BCS National Championship in 2008, the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and the Maxwell Award in both 2007 and 2008, amongst many other highlights and career accolades.

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