Following a Sept. 27, 2008, home loss to Ole Miss, Tim Tebow let rip a stirring string of words that came simply to be known as “The Promise”, words that were immortalized in bronze at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville for future generations to gaze upon in awe and wonder.
Following that loss and those words, Tebow’s Florida Gators ripped off ten straight wins and claimed the 2008 national title.
Nearly two years later, a quarterback from the same state is giving his own, albeit subdued, version of “The Promise”. And Florida State hopes it has the very same ripple effect on the remainder of their 2010 season.
Christian Ponder and his Seminoles teammates were on the receiving end of a 47-17 beating at the hands of the Oklahoma Sooners Saturday afternoon. Monday afternoon, Ponder, who put a serious dent in his Heisman Trophy chances with an 11-of-28, 113-yard, two-interception performance in the loss, vowed twice to never have another game like that one again.
“These are really the games you learn the most from if you allow yourself to,’' Ponder said according to the St. Petersburg Times. “When you have success, you’re watching film and there’s not really anything to learn from, but when you’re making mistakes, you can see why. For me, I’m going to use it as motivation.
“I’m never going to have a game like this again.
“It hurts. You want something so bad and you lose a game like this ... it hurts. I know it’s going to motivate me to work even harder and never let this happen again.”
OK, it’s not exactly a spot-on Tebow impersonation, or even Rob Ezell mimicking Nick Saban, but head coach Jimbo Fisher would have to be encouraged that one of his senior leader’s is stepping up to the plate publicly and taking ownership of the situation.
Of course, given the current state of the ACC, a Tebowian effort may not even be necessary for the ‘Noles. Just showing up on Saturdays may very well suffice.