An excerpt from a report on Tebow at the NFL combines: "Tebow ran an impressive 4.72, the fourth fastest time among the quarterbacks at the Combine. His 38.5-inch vertical jump tied the all-timed Combine record for quarterbacks and was a half-inch better than Michael Vick's in 2000. And his 9'7” broad jump was the second best for the quarterbacks on Sunday." [/b]
The kids a great athlete of that there is no doubt. In the end though it's how much time will he and the team that drafts him spend seeing if he can make the transition from running UF offense to a Pro offense. If it's looking like he'll never be a starter at QB, where do you move him and how long will it take him to learn that position. While no doubt he would never trade his career and accomplishiments as a Gator, you have to wonder how things would have turned out for him had he played for somebody who ran a Pro Style offense and was a good QB coach. Might not have had the college career but I wonder if he would be in position to be drafted high in the 1st round. He's got that John Elway type of body, he has a strong arm, and he is a tough runner. All like Elway. Except Elway was trained to be a Pro his whole career.
I think Tebow defended Meyer's teaching skills quite admirably but in the long run....as a Gator fan....what I want is a Qb that complements Meyer's offensive philosophy more than I want a future NFL Hall of Famer who is average in Meyer's system.
Clearly, as the Gators have never produced an NFL QB of any merit. I would think that would hurt you in recruiting since almost every kid who is a 4* or 5* HS QB wants to make it to the NFL.
There have been many different coaches at Florida with many different styles but UF has had several Qbs with good college success and average NFL success. I don't think Meyer as a coach or Fla as a school can lay specific claim to this phenomenon....it is what it is.
If jumping had any real correlation to QB ability, Carl Lewis would have been in the Football hall of Fame.
On the other hand, the combine does not measure leadership or committment to winning. Tebow has that in spades, more than anyone else there I would guess.
Terry, the Gators are able to get highly rated QB's. John Brantely who will be our starter next year is very much a passer and barring injury will be drafted highly. Rex Grossman was not a success in the NFL. However you might recall that he had two season ending knee injuries in his first two seasons. And he was the starting QB for the Bears when they went to the Super Bowl. I am not ready to buy that Tebow will not play QB in the NFL. That will hinge on his ability to alter his delivery. Lastly I don't think it's the job of a college coach to develop a NFL passer. His job is to win football games. The spread seems to be the best way to do that in college. I predict that Brantley will be an outstanding passer in Meyer's system. George, I think you have it right.
As a college fan I would agree with you Bill, but if you are a kid coming out of HS and have NFL dreams one of the factors (but not the only) will be how a school prepares you for the NFL. As much college success as Texas Tech QB's have had in college they have not done much if anything in the Pro's. One thing though I do think that since so many teams play a form of the spread offense, Pro Style HS QB's really don't have a lot of options. Also if you are hot shot HS QB I do think you consider wining as one of the top factors in where you go, so that I doubt a kid will chose say Vanderbilt if they ran a Pro offense over UF running the spread. What do you expect from Brantley, I can't see Urban going to a Pro Style offense even if that is what suits Brantley? I would imagine that he will mainly eliminate the QB Dive play that Tebow did so well and have Brantley operate more like the passing oriented QB spreads that you see in some places, unless of course Brantley has some wheels like Colt McCoy where he can run the Zone Read.
Yes, but I wonder how many other people remember Chris Leake. He's pretty much a forgotten QB except by Gators.
Point is Terry is that he was a drop back passer in Meyer's system who won a national title and he wasn't even recruited by Meyer. That's what Gator fans ultimately care about. Maybe a budding John Elway would rather play at Notre Dame under Kelly but I think Meyer will get what he needs to win at the position.
Most colleges are in the spread more than under center these days. What I expect from Brantley is that he will play mostly in the spread, like McCoy and Bradford, and complete a ton of passes. That the Gators will win a lot of games with him at QB and that baring injury he will likely be drafted very high. As to Leak, the fact that nobody much remembers his college career doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he won the Championship game trophy. College football history is filled with players who came out of high school highly rated, had good college careers, and never succeeded in the pros. Leak didn't have the size and arm strength to make it in the pros but he was a good QB at Florida. What I am interested in mostly in my favorite team, the Gators, is that they play good college football. When we do that we will put plenty of players in the pros, just watch the NFL draft this year and how many juniors the Gators will get drafted. We will get QB's that fit our system and continue winning as long as Meyer is our coach. If he leaves we will hire another coach that will do the same, win a lot of games. I don't buy that a QB in the spread can't play NFL football, that's just a tatic that people use to try to get the good QB's. It won't keep the Gators from being competitive for the best QB's coming out of high school.
I think eventually that will be true as more and more colleges go to some variation of the Spread the Pro's will have no choice. Most likely what will happen is that we won't see QB's starting from day 1 like some of the high #1 QB's drafted. They will have to sit and learn to play the offense. And if my team ran a Pro Style offense I would certainly hope that would be one of the pitches made to top HS QB's. Bill I would certainly agree that many highly rated HS QB's play in college and never in the Pro's. Anybody remember the name of the Clemson or Ga. Tech QB's on their NC teams? If you are not a Texas fan I'll bet you can't remember the name of the first QB to run the wishbone and win a NC at Texas. I would also agree I mainly want wins for ND and Texas, and if we get Pro's out of it that's gravy.