Tim Tebow previews the SEC: High expectations for Florida, love for Mac Jones, uncertainty at LSU

Tim Tebow previews the SEC, including predictions for the championship game and expectations for Kyle Trask, Mac Jones and Myles Brennan at Florida, Alabama and LSU.

The SEC was home to two of the best college football quarterbacks we’ve ever seen with LSU’s Joe Burrow and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa. With Burrow and Tagovailoa off to the NFL as the No. 1 and No. 5 picks, respectively, it’ll be a new era of quarterbacks in the SEC but the mainstay is Florida signal-caller, Kyle Trask.

For the first time since Tim Tebow was in Gainesville, Florida has the First-Team All-SEC quarterback on the preseason squad with Trask earning the honor. It’s the return of Trask to the Gators that has people thinking Florida will win the SEC East and snap Georgia’s three-year reign atop the division.

Tim Tebow makes his SEC predictions and Florida fans are going to love what he has to say about Kyle Trask

And when it comes to Tebow, he’s optimistic Trask can develop into a special player under the tutelage of Dan Mullen, who was Tebow’s offensive coordinator during his college career.

“I think Kyle has a chance to be one of the best players in the SEC and maybe in the country,” Tebow said. “I think Coach Mullen’s going to use them in great ways. I think it helps that he’s got Kyle Pitts, maybe the best tight end in football. He’s got a lot of returning offensive linemen. He’s got good running backs. He’s got some no-name guys right now at receiver, a couple of guys that people know. But there’s going to be a few guys that people are going to find out very fast how good they are.”

With stability at quarterback and a favorable schedule, Tebow thinks the time is now for his alma mater to win the SEC East for the first time since winning back-to-back division titles in 2015-2016 under then-head coach Jim McElwain.

“I think they’re really primed to make a run, and I think what also helps is I think they got an easier schedule than Georgia to get there,” Tebow said. “And because of that, all this talent, I think what Mullen’s been doing, and the schedule, I think things are shaking up very favorably for them to make a run at this thing.”

Tim Tebow loves what Mac Jones brings to Alabama with Tua Tagovaioa gone, but thinks Myles Brennan could have a tougher time succeeding Joe Burrow

Picking the winner in the SEC East is a little more of a challenge than in the West where Alabama is the consensus pick to reclaim their spot at the top after losing to LSU last season. Despite losing Tagovailoa, Tebow thinks Mac Jones is equipped to fill his shoes.

“Well, [Alabama vs. Florida] was my prediction,” Tebow said of his SEC Championship Game participants. I think Tua is so rare. He’s so unique. His ability to just flick it, and it’s a perfect spiral anywhere you want. It’s really one of a kind, but that doesn’t mean that Mac Jones isn’t as super special as well. I love this kid. I think this kid stepped up when Tua got hurt, or when he came in the second half. And even at the end of the year, he played his butt off and he played so well.

“And what I think also helped him is he had to go through adversity too. He threw two bad picks against Auburn and he bounced right back. He came right back and drove his team for a touchdown. I think his mindset, his mentality, plus his skill around him and his offensive line, I think, give him a whole lot of reasons that he has a chance to be successful this season.”

Tebow welcomed Burrow to the Heisman club last year after he threw an FBS-record 60 touchdowns en route to leading LSU to an undefeated national championship season.

However, repeating as national champs is something Tebow knows is difficult, going 0-for-2 in his attempts as a sophomore and a senior at Florida, especially considering the supporting cast Myles Brennan will have with which to work.

“This one is a little bit harder to get a grasp on because I think Tua and Kyle have more surrounding help that we know of is going to come through than LSU,” Tebow said. They have a lot of talent, right? But with a couple of people sitting out and Ja’Marr Chase not being there, losing Justin Jefferson from last year, losing their offensive line, losing Clyde Edwards-Helaire, losing mostly everyone on defense, it’s going to be really hard.”

So while I think they’re going to be super talented and still going to be a really good team, there’s that fine line between really good and winning the SEC, beating Alabama, beating Florida. I think it’s going to be really interesting to see if they’re going to be able to come together because a lot of these players don’t have much experience. So while they’re talented and I think they’re going to be good, they don’t have a couple of warm-up games like they might in a regular season.

They didn’t have spring ball. So I think out of all the teams not having spring and a normal fall camp, I think that hurts LSU more than it hurts most of the other teams because they’re working on continuity when a lot of these other teams we’ve talked about already have it more in place. So that also kind of goes into my predictions of why I felt like Alabama and Florida might be able to handle some of these ‘new normals’ a little bit better.”

The media thinks Tebow’s predictions make a lot of sense as Alabama and Florida received the most votes in the SEC media poll to win their respective divisions. With quarterback continuity at Florida and a talented supporting cast at Alabama for Jones, Tebow’s quarterback insights could prove to be true as well.

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