Former QB Tebow gets Florida’s top football honor
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tim Tebow has a bronze statue outside Florida Field and his most memorable quote emblazoned on a plaque a couple hundred feet away. His All-American brick rests nearby, too.
On Saturday, the Gators will honor their most famous quarterback one more time.
Florida will induct Tebow into the program’s Ring of Honor, making him the sixth player with his name prominently and permanently displayed inside the Swamp.
The 22nd-ranked Gators (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) will celebrate Tebow at the end of the first quarter of Saturday’s game against LSU (5-0, 2-0) . At halftime, they will honor the 2008 national championship team that featured Tebow, receiver Percy Harvin, cornerback Joe Haden, linebacker Brandon Spikes and defensive end Carlos Dunlap.
“That was a team that had a lot of talent on it,” said Florida coach Dan Mullen, who was the team’s offensive coordinator a decade ago. “But there’s a lot of teams have talent that don’t always know how to win. That was a team that started and they really learned how to win, how to play for each other, the intensity they went after winning.”
Tebow was Florida’s emotional leader, on and off the field.
The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner and two-time national champion finished his college career with 9,285 yards and 88 touchdowns passing to go along with 2,947 yards and an SECrecord 57 scores rushing.
“He was a guy that you would want to have on your team because he would never let anything slide,” said Florida receiver Josh Hammond, whose older brother, Frankie, was a freshman on the 2008 team. “He was a legend here. That’s a guy we respect much. I think everybody on our team respects him.”