Florida football: 15 greatest quarterbacks in Gators history

Tim Tebow is right up there as one of the greatest college football players of all time. The Jacksonville native would first come to Florida in 2006 as a highly touted recruit. He was the ideal dual-threat playmaker that head coach Urban Meyer wanted to build his offense around. In four years at Florida, Tebow absolutely flourished.

As a true freshman in 2006, he backed up Chris Leak on a team that won the national title over the Ohio State Buckeyes. Tebow challenged Leak for playing time, but saw his role expand astronomically as a true sophomore in 2007. He became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy in the award’s history.

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Tebow completed 66.9 percent of his passes for 3,286 yards, 32 touchdowns and six interceptions. As a runner, he had 210 carries for 895 yards and 23 touchdowns.

Despite winning seemingly every major award, Tebow was unable to carry the Gators to back-to-back national titles during his Heisman campaign. That being said, he’d return the favor in 2008 as a true junior.

Though his statistics weren’t as jaw-dropping in 2008 and he didn’t repeat as a Heisman winner, Florida got it done in the national title bout.

Tebow and Florida defeated 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and the Oklahoma Sooners to win the Gators’ second national championship of the Meyer era and the third in school history.

Tebow and the Gators would be in the mix for another national championship in 2009, but fell to Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship. It would become a change of guard in the SEC, as Alabama became the preeminent program, while Tebow would go on to be a first-round pick by the Denver Broncos in the 2010 NFL Draft.

As a second-year player in the NFL, he led the Broncos to an improbable AFC West division crown. Denver ended up defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers on an 80-yard bomb to Demaryius Thomas in overtime in the divisional round before his NFL career largely unraveled due to his inaccuracy as a passer.

Today, Tebow is in the midst of making it to the big leagues as an outfield prospect in the New York Mets organization. During football season, he is a college analyst for ESPN. In four years at Florida, Tebow completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 9, 285 yards, 88 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. As a runner, he had 692 carries for 2,947 yards and 57 rushing touchdowns. Tebow is a lock for the College Football Hall of Fame if there ever was one, the greatest player in Florida history.