The Future's Bright...But not Orange

Tim Tebow, perhaps the greatest college quarterback ever, will not be playing college football in two months. For three years Tebow has been the face of the SEC. The most talked about, most competitive, most challenging division in all of college football has been encapsulated in this one young man. It has not just been his record setting on the field play, it has also been the immeasurable intangibles that Tebow possesses that has set him apart. He is everything and more a team wants out of it’s leader, throughout his collegiate career everything involving the University of Florida had been about Tebow. A quick review of the aforementioned numbers shows what an incredible player Tim has been; 8,335 career passing yards, 81 passing touchdowns, 2,743 career rushing yards and 54 rushing touchdowns. Despite those outlandish numbers Tebow is so much more than an outstanding football player. He is an outstanding person, both in and out of school. His missionary trips in the summer and spring breaks just go to show what a good person he continues to be, despite his growing public profile. He is academically outstanding. There is no doubt about that, he has been voted to the Academic All-American Team for the second consecutive season. He has an outstanding GPA of 3.66 in Family, Youth and Communications Studies which is the kind of example that Freshmen need to see. Last year was also the season that Tebow cemented his legacy, the was “The Promise” (in case you missed it You Tube ‘Tim Tebow Speech’) perhaps more impressive than the speech itself was the fact Tebow followed through on it. Then there was the scene in the National Championship, Tim charging down the sideline into a Florida defensive huddle. There wasn’t any other moment filled with more raw passion in the whole of college football. But by January 8th at the latest there will be no more Tim Tebow in the Southeastern Conference. This will leave a faceless conference, an SEC without a center piece. So who can fill this vacuum? Nobody will be able to supply the intangibles that Tebow has shown over the past 4 years; that’s just who Tim is. But someone needs to stand up as a good person, a good player and a good student.

It’s going to be easier carrying out this role if your playing on a winning team, that’s how you get national coverage, just ask Case Keenum. So immediately if you play for the University of Alabama there’s an immediate advantage. And there are two straight forward choices; Greg McElroy and Mark Ingram. If these two young men were combined into one then you have the perfect Tebow replacement, but their not and both have great merits of their own. McElroy is possibly the academic equal of Tebow, and this year statistically the equal but does he have the leadership skills? Maybe, they haven’t really been tested this year yet. Going toe to toe with Tebow in Atlanta in 10 days might answer these questions, but until then we can’t really know. Ingram is a little different to McElroy. He doesn’t have the outstanding academics and is to all intents and purposes purely a football player. This would make him a less obvious Tebow replacement, but maybe would put him ahead of McElroy for face of the SEC. It is after all a football conference. McElroy is unlikely to be in the Heisman competition next year, which will be his last year of eligibility. Ingram will very probably be in the conversation for the next 2 years, that could be 3,000 more yards and 30 more TD’s.
How about if another team starts wining? The most primed seems to be Ole Miss. Next year the team will be all Jevan Snead’s. This is either a really good thing, or a really bad thing. Snead showed earlier this year that, when he is surrounded by expectations, he struggles. He has excelled the last two years after Ole Miss has fallen out of contention, but he has at least excelled. He already has a certain amount of exposure and seems to have the same drive to succeed that Tebow possesses, does this mean he could become the face of the conference? Well, yeah if he can have a good year. Say Mississippi goes 11-1 regular season next year losing the SEC west by 1 game and goes to a BCS bowl, what’s to say that Snead won’t be the outstanding figure in the SEC.

The most ready to light up the record books like Tim Tebow has done looks like Ryan Mallett at Arkansas. He’s already profiled his physical gifts and has two potential years of eligibility left. If he was to lead Arkansas to any kind of success then he could gain the kind of cult status as Tebow has in Florida. He is also one of the higher profile players in the SEC, all it takes is for a good Arkansas season to gain Mallett a national stage. In Bobby Petrino, Mallett has a coach that can build a system to best use the young man’s skill set. He does need to grow into an out and out leader of this young Arkansas team, which would set him apart. He has the opportunity to do this in the next couple of years, if he stays. And that’s potentially the only thing that stands between Mallett being the next face of the SEC and someone else doing it; his leadership.

Whoever takes over Tebow’s crown as Prince of the Southeastern Conference they will be very different to the Florida quarterback. He is a once in a generation player, much like Herschel Walker and Peyton Manning. Much like those when those two individuals left whoever takes up the mantle left by Tim Tebow, the SEC will continue as the premier conference in America and that is a certainty.