Tebow to be inducted into Gators’ Ring of Honor today
GAINESVILLE — Tim Tebow has a bronze statue outside Florida Field and his most memorable quote emblazoned on a plaque a few hundred feet away. Hi s All-American brick rests nearby, too.
The Gators will honor their most famous quarterback one more time today.
Florida will induct Tebow into the program’s Ring of Honor, making him the sixth player with his name permanently displayed inside the Swamp.
The 22nd-ranked Gators (4-1, 2-1 SEC) will celebrate Tebow at the end of the fifirst quarter of today ’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, 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 fifield.
The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner and two-time national champion fifinished his college career with 9,285 yards and 88 touchdowns passing to go along with 2,947 yards and an SEC-record 57 TDs rushing.
“He was a guy that you would want to have on your team bec ause he would never let anything slide,” said Florida receiver Josh Hammond, whose older brot her, Frankie, was a fresh man on the 2008 team. “He was a le gend here. That’s a guy we respect much. I think everybody on our team respects him.”
Tebow surely will get lots of love today.
His name will be unveiled on the northend zone facade next to those of the fifive other inductees: linebacker Wilber Marshall, running back Emmitt Smith, defensive end Jack Youngblood and former Heisman winners Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel.
It’s no coincidence Tebow’s ceremony comes during a game against LSU.
Tebow went 3-1 against the Tigers and had some memorable moments along the way.
His fifirst jump pass and his first rocker-step pass came in a 23-10 win against LSU in 2006. The following year, LSU students obtained Tebow’s cellphone number. Tebow received hundreds of calls and threatening messages — so many that after his first touchdown pass, he stared into the LSU crowd and pretended to dial a phone.
The Gators blew a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost 28 -24 in Baton Rouge. They responded with a 30-point victory the following year and eventually won a second national title in three years. They accomplished that despite losing to Mississippi in late September, a setback that prompted Tebow’s famed postgame speech dubbed “The Promise.” The Gators won their next 10, beating top-ranked Oklahoma 24- 14 in the title game.
“There are a lot of great memories, a lot of big games that season,” Mullen said. “Being in those big moments was a lot of fun.”