In case anyone forgot, people in Gainesville love Tim Tebow. How else do you explain the Gainesville Sun’s website devoting an entire section of their Gator football coverage to him?
On Saturday, Gator Nation again showed their love by unveiling three statues honoring the school’s three Heisman Trophy winners – Tebow, Danny Wuerffel and Steve Spurrier – during halftime of the annual spring football game.
Spurrier won the school’s first Heisman in 1966. Thirty years later, he coached Wuerffel to a Heisman and led the Gators to their first national championship. Tebow won the trophy in 2007 and built a legacy as perhaps the most popular player in program history. A pair of national titles, a Heisman and an SEC-record 57 rushing touchdowns will do that.
Fittingly enough, Tebow’s statue is in a running pose, which doesn’t bother him in the least.
“That’s fine,” Tebow said. “You have to change it up. We can’t all be throwing.”
This isn’t the first Tebow-related commemoration at Florida. The school made a plaque immortalizing Tebow’s “promise” after the Gators’ loss to Ole Miss in 2008. And in case you’re wondering, Florida does not have any retired jersey numbers. At one time, Spurrier’s number 11 and linebacker Scot Brantley’s number 55 were retired, but those numbers were re-issued to current players during Spurrier’s coaching tenure.
I smell Tebow making more Florida history here.
By the way, the Blue beat the Orange in the spring game, 13-10.