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What motivates Tim Tebow? What drives him to grind out snap after snap in humidity so thick you could market the whole city of Gainesville as a giant Russian bath house?
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It's certainly not the incoherent mumblings of Bobby Bowden. College football's most doddering octogenarian said recently that Tebow not only was not the best college football player ever, he wasn't even in a league with former Florida State QB Charlie Ward.
Charlie Ward! Are you kidding?
Granted, Ward has a Heisman Trophy and one national championship ring, but no serious football follower mentions him in the "greatest of all time" conversation. Tebow's Gators are the most emphatic pre-season No. 1 in recent memory. Their quarterback won a Heisman as a sophomore, has two national titles, and, if expectations hold and UF wins it all again, Tebow could become the first quarterback to win two Heismans and take snaps for three national championship teams.
Thankfully, Bowden's nonsense doesn't faze Tebow. He's swatted bigger gnats in the Philippines while reading the Apostle Paul's lessons on the sin of hubris. Besides, the 'Noles haven't beaten the Gators since Tebow was a home-schooled 16-year-old, and Florida has outscored FSU 111-41 since Tebow donned the orange and blue.
But if a drive-by swipe by the likes of Bowden doesn't drive Tebow, what does? What puts the fire in those eyes?
Fame means little to him. He's a lot more interested in preaching the Gospel than starring in Gatorade ads. And the prospect of an eight-figure NFL check seems to make him uncomfortable — something about a rich man and a camel passing through the eye of a needle, but you'll have to ask him.
So, what's driving Tim Tebow?
The answer is simple. More than anything, the best player in college football wants the one thing he does not have: an undefeated season.
You need look no further than "the promise," the words Tebow spoke after the Gators' lone loss to Ole Miss last year. With a voice filled with pain and resolve, he said, among other things, "To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I'm sorry ... I promise you ... you will never see any player play as hard as I will play ... You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push ... You will never see a team play harder than we will."
Those words took on legendary status after the Gators won out, coming from behind to beat Alabama in the SEC championship game and then thumping Oklahoma in the BCS title game. Now Tebow's words hang on the wall outside the Florida football complex, carved in gray stone like tablets from the mount.
Tebow's numbers will always be questioned, but that's just crazy. He's completed just under 66 percent of his passes as a starter, three points better than Charlie Ward's career numbers, and 16 percent more than Nebraska's Tommie Frazier, the last QB to win back-to-back national titles and the guy Tebow enjoys being compared to.
Lookin' good
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"I was a big Tommie Frazier fan growing up,'' Tebow said. "I loved the way he played. I wanted to be just like him. I loved all the Nebraska quarterbacks. I loved how they played the game, with their toughness, their leadership. Tommie was the best one of them all. He was a great runner, he could throw the ball. He was gifted athletically, tough, great leader. He played the game the way I wanted to play it."
There's another reason Tebow looks up to Frazier. The Nebraska QB has Tebow's Holy Grail: an undefeated season. If the Gators go 14-0, Tebow will end his career 49-6, with his worst season coming the year he won the Heisman. If that doesn't put him in the category of "Best Player Ever," somebody is rigging the conversation.
Yes, NFL scouts are going to question his arm. And, yes, a lot of Heisman voters will pass him by to give Colt McCoy his due. But Tebow is not looking to others for affirmation. His goals are internal. They require no lobbying efforts, marketing blitzes, or shirtless GQ covers. An undefeated season, and Tebow will know his place in history.
For a guy like that, knowing is enough.
