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Tim Tebow
College	Florida
Conference	SEC
Sport	Football
Position	QB
Jersey #	15
Class	Sophomore
Major	Family, Youth and Community Sciences
Career	2006–present
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight	235 lb (107 kg)
Nationality	USA
Born	(1987-08-14) August 14, 1987 (age 37)  Philippines
High school	Homeschooled, played for Nease High School, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Career highlights
Awards
2007 Heisman Memorial Trophy Award 2007 Maxwell Award 2007 Davey O'Brien Award 2007 AP Player of the Year 2007 College Football All-America Team (AP, FWAA, WCFF, TSN, SI, ESPN, CBS, CFN, Rivals, Scout)
Championships
2002 Florida Class 1A Football 2005 Florida Class 4A Football 2006 SEC Championship 2007 BCS Championship
Bowl games
2007 BCS Championship - Florida 41, OSU 14 2008 Capital One Bowl - Florida 35, Michigan 41

Timothy Richard Tebow (born August 14, 1987) is an American football quarterback for the Florida Gators and winner of the 2007 Heisman Trophy, finishing ahead of Arkansas's Darren McFadden, Hawaii's Colt Brennan, and Missouri's Chase Daniel.

He played quarterback for Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where he became a Division I-A recruit and ranked among the top quarterback prospects in the nation. He chose to attend the University of Florida. A dual-threat quarterback who can run and pass, he was used in his freshman season largely as a change-of-pace to the Gators' more traditional pocket passer, Chris Leak. His contribution as a key reserve helped the Gators win college football's national championship game for the first time since 1996.

A sophomore in 2007, he became the Gators' starting quarterback and has broken Southeastern Conference records for rushing touchdowns and touchdowns accounted for. He also became the first NCAA player to rush and pass for 20 touchdowns in a season. His performance earned him the Maxwell Award as the nation's top player and the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's best quarterback, and made him the first underclassman to win the Heisman Trophy.

Early life

The fifth child of Bob and Pam Tebow, both of whom are University of Florida graduates, Tim was born on August 14 1987 in the Philippines, where his parents were serving as Christian missionaries. Pam suffered infection with a pathogenic amoeba while pregnant with him, and an abortion was recommended by her doctors.

All of the Tebow children were homeschooled by their mother, who worked to instill the family’s deep Christian beliefs along the way. In 1996, legislation was passed in Florida allowing homeschooled students to compete in local high school sporting events. The law specifies that homeschool students may participate on the team of the local school in the county and school district in which they live. The Tebows lived in Duval County and Tim played linebacker and tight end for Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville for one season, but his dream was to play quarterback. Trinity did not pass the ball much and Tim didn’t want to hand it off every play, so he began to explore his options. Nease liked to throw the ball, and Coach Craig Howard was known for his passing offense, so Tim and his mother moved in to an apartment down the street from the Nease High School in St. Johns County so he would be eligible to play there. With the rest of his family living on a farm in Jacksonville, Tim began playing quarterback for Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach. His performance soon began to turn some heads which even led to a minor controversy over him being a homeschooled student.

As a junior, Tebow’s stock rose as he became a high profile, highly recruited major college quarterback prospect. The 6’3”, 225 lb (1.91 m, 102 kg) quarterback continued to impress during his senior season, leading the Nease Panthers to a state title, earning All-State honors, was named Florida's Mr. Football and a Parade All-American. Tebow finished his high school career with 9,810 passing yards, 3,186 rushing yards, 95 passing touchdowns and 62 rushing touchdowns. He played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl Game in San Antonio, Texas which features the top 78 senior high school football players in the nation and is shown nationally on NBC television.

Despite having parental and sibling ties to the University of Florida, he remained open-minded during the recruiting process and became very close to Alabama coach Mike Shula. However, after careful consideration he decided to play for the team he felt best suited his skills and style of play. Tebow chose to play for Urban Meyer's Florida Gators, who employ a similar “spread option” offense that he excelled in at Nease High School.

Tebow was considered one of the nation’s top recruits and was the subject of an ESPN “Faces in Sports” documentary. The segment was titled "Tim Tebow: The Chosen One", and focused on Tim’s homeschool controversy and missionary work in the Philippines, as well as his exploits on the field of play and the college recruiting process. Tim Tebow was also featured in Sports Illustrated on the “Faces in the Crowd” page.

College career

2006

In Florida's 2006 "Orange and Blue" Spring scrimmage, he completed 15 of 21 pass attempts for 197 yards and one touchdown. After the game, some Gator fans suggested that Tebow could be named the starting quarterback over then starter Chris Leak. Coach Urban Meyer later said that despite Tebow's impressive performance, Leak would remain the starting quarterback. Prior to the 2006 season, Tebow was listed by Sports Illustrated as college football's future top mobile quarterback.

Coming off the bench behind senior quarterback Chris Leak, Tebow made his college debut in a goal line situation against Southern Miss and rushed for a touchdown on a designed quarterback scramble. He led the team in rushing in the team's next game, against UCF.

He made his SEC debut against the Tennessee Volunteers on September 16. His performance included a ten-yard run on his first carry and converting a critical fourth down near the end of the game, which led to the Gators' go-ahead touchdown.

Tebow's biggest game in the season came against the LSU Tigers on October 7, where he accounted for all three of the Gators' touchdowns, passing for two and rushing for another. Tebow had a one-yard run on the goal line for his first score, a one-yard "jump pass" to tight end Tate Casey, in which he jumped in the air and double-pumped his arm before releasing the ball, and a 35-yard play-action pass to wide receiver Louis Murphy.

Tebow played a role in the Gators' victory in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game against Ohio State. He threw for one touchdown and rushed for another, finishing with 39 rushing yards.

Despite his limited role, Tebow finished 2006 with the second-most rushing yards on the Gator team.

2007

Tebow was named as one of the "Breakout Players of 2007" for college football by Sporting News, and was named the starter at quarterback for the Florida Gators before the 2007 season. The Gators' offense in 2007 was expected to be similar to what Urban Meyer used at Utah, since Meyer views Tebow as “very similar to Alex Smith.” Smith was quarterback for Meyer's last team at Utah in 2004, which became the first team from outside the BCS conferences to play in and win a BCS bowl game, and went on to be the top overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft.

There were some questions about how he would perform as a full time passer, but he opened the year 13-of-17 for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns in his starting debut against Western Kentucky University. Tebow finished the regular season with 217 completed passes in 317 attempts for 3132 yards gained and 29 touchdowns with six interceptions—giving him the second highest passing efficiency in the nation with 177.8. Additionally, he rushed 194 times for 838 yards and 22 touchdowns on the ground through 11 games. Tebow's 51 touchdowns were more than 87 Division 1-A Teams scored.

In week 4 of the season, when the Gators faced Ole Miss in an SEC match-up, Tebow broke the school record for rushing yards by a quarterback in one game, with 166 yards. On November 3, against Vanderbilt, Tebow rushed for two touchdowns to break the all-time SEC quarterback TD record in a single season.

On November 10, Tebow broke the school record for rushing touchdowns in a season and set a career high with 5 rushing touchdowns in a game versus the South Carolina Gamecocks. This brought his season total to 19 rushing touchdowns, which tied him for the SEC record for any player in a season (shared with Shaun Alexander, Garrison Hearst, and LaBrandon Toefield). He also broke Danny Wuerffel's conference record for touchdowns accounted for in a single season with 42.

After scoring his 20th rushing touchdown against Florida Atlantic on November 17 and setting a new conference record for rushing touchdowns, he also became the only person ever in NCAA history to score 20 touchdowns rushing and 20 touchdowns passing in the same season.

On November 24, against the Florida State Seminoles, Tebow threw for three touchdowns and rushed for two in a 45-12 rout of the Seminoles. It was later revealed that Tebow fractured his right hand during the third quarter but played the rest of the game. He had to wear a cast for the next three weeks.

On December 8 in New York City, Tebow was awarded the Heisman Trophy, given to the most outstanding college football player of the year. He garnered 462 first place votes and 1957 points, 254 points ahead of runner-up Arkansas running back Darren McFadden.

While the Gators finished the season in Orlando, Florida with a 41-35 loss to Michigan in the 2008 Capital One Bowl, Tebow maintained his record for both rushing and passing for at least one touchdown in every game played, and he raised the record for total touchdowns accounted for in a single season to 55. He played with a brace on the hand he broke in his previous game.

2008

Before the 2007 season had even come to a close, Florida coach Urban Meyer admitted that he would likely use 2 quarterbacks during the 2008 season to take some of the workload off of Tebow's shoulders. Because of his hard-nosed style of play, Tebow led the Gators in rushing in 2007 but also had to play through a bruised shoulder and broken non-throwing hand.

Awards

2006 Season

• SEC All-Freshman Team
• SEC Freshman of the Week

2007 Season

• Walter Camp Foundation National Offensive Player of the Week
• Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week, three times
• Davey O'Brien Award winner
• Heisman Trophy winner.
• Maxwell Award winner
• Walter Camp Award finalist
• ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American football team
• Manning Award finalist
• Rivals.com National Offensive Player of the Year
• Rivals.com SEC Offensive Player of the Year
• Rivals.com First Team All-SEC
• First Team All-SEC Coaches Conference football team
• Associated Press SEC Offensive Player of the Year
• Associated Press All-SEC First Team
• Associated Press Player of the Year
• Listed as an All-American by: Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, Walter Camp Football Foundation, Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, CBS Sports, College Football News, Rivals.com, and Scout.com

Heisman Trophy

On December 8, 2007, Tim Tebow was awarded the Heisman Trophy. He is the only underclassman to have ever won the Heisman Trophy. He finished the regular season as the only player to rush and pass for at least 20 touchdowns in both categories in FBS history. He had 29 passing touchdowns, and 22 rushing touchdowns, and Tebow's rushing TD total in the 2007 season is the most recorded in SEC history for any position. Joining Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel, Tim Tebow is the third UF player to have won the Heisman trophy.

Effect on homeschooling movement

On January 7, 2007, Tebow was featured prominently in an ESPN “Outside The Lines” feature on homeschooled athletes seeking equal access to high school athletics in other states. Because a homeschooler's access to public and private school ahletic functions vary by state, Tebow and Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor (who was allowed to play at his local high school in Pennsylvania) argue in favor of extending the right to play for local teams to more states.

Upon becoming the first homeschooled athlete to win the Heisman trophy, Tebow remarked, "That’s really cool. A lot of times people have this stereotype of homeschoolers as not very athletic – it's like, go win a spelling bee or something like that – it’s an honor for me to be the first one to do that."

Tebow's popularity inspired equal access supporters in Alabama to name their bill in the Alabama Legislature "The Tim Tebow Bill". The bill, which is pending in the Alabama Legislature, will allow Alabama home school athletes to play for their local high school teams just as Tebow did in Florida.

References

1. Richardson, Suzy. "Coaching character". Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 2007-11-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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3. Person, Joseph (2007-11-10). "Dual threat". The State (newspaper). Retrieved 2007-11-16. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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7. The 2007 Heisman Trophy presentation ceremony
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9. Johnston, Joey (25 December 2005). "A Cut Above". The Tampa Tribune. Retrieved 2007-09-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
10. Long, Mark (28 September 2006). "Alabama Gets Close-Up Look at Florida's Tebow". The Ledger. Retrieved 2007-11-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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12. Orange and Blue Scrimmage Game
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39. "Rivals.com All-America First Team". Rivals.com. Retrieved 2007-11-30. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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49. "The State of Alabama's "Tim Tebow Bill"". Retrieved 2007-09-17.

External links

• Tebow's Profile on the UF website
• SI Player Card
• Player bio on UF website
• Videos of Tim Tebow on mReplay.com

Template:SEC football quarterbacks

• 1987 births
• Living people
• Heisman Trophy winners
• American expatriates in the Philippines
• People from Florida
• People from Jacksonville, Florida
• American football quarterbacks
• Florida Gators football players