At this moment in the wide world of professional sports, there might not be a more polarizing figure than Tim Tebow. In fact, the gap between Tebow and No. 2 likely isn’t even really that close.
Love him or hate him, idolize him or loathe him, there’s at least one certainty laced amid the media-driven drama: Tebow was one of the greatest college football players of the past two decades, if not in the history of the sport. And his former coach at that is and/or will be pushing for one of his current players to tap into that collegiate greatness once the curtain closes on the 2012 season.
In an outstanding piece by Doug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plain Dealer -- it’s well worth the handful of minutes it will take to read it all by clicking HERE -- the Ohio State beat writer spoke to both Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer and Meyer’s former Heisman-winning quarterback at Florida, Tebow, regarding one subject: Braxton Miller.
Miller is the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback playing in his first season under Meyer and who has been, in essence and almost quite literally, the offense for OSU. So much so, in fact, that the true sophomore has already seen his name bandied about in the Heisman discussion, something his head coach acknowledged in the positive for the first time earlier this week.
Something else acknowledged by Meyer? He wants his current and former star quarterbacks, who at this point have a cursory relationship, to go deep in the offseason.“In the off-season, I want it more,” Meyer said. “It’s so hard when they’re busy during the season. And Braxton is still figuring out how things work. But I would love for those guys to get face-to-face, even train a little bit together, work out together. Tim is so busy, but I’m going to push for that to happen real hard.”
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“Tim’s greatest strength is something Braxton needs to work on,” Meyer said. “Tim is the ultimate competitor, the ultimate grinder. There is no harder-working guy. He’s just non-stop. His whole life was nothing but be in the office, study football, go out and practice. And that’s it. And Braxton is getting better. But to be a Heisman-type player, to be a first-round draft pick, especially at that position, the amount of time you need to commit to your trade is off the charts.”
It’s clear to even the lamest of laymen that, in any offseason get-together between Tebow and Miller, Meyer’s not looking for his former star pupil to fix any mechanics that may be ailing his current one. Rather, Meyer’s hoping the intangibles Tebow possesses in abundance -- leadership, work ethic, want-to, etc. -- can rub off on Miller, who Meyer described in September of this year as possessing more talent than Tebow.
At the NFL level, Tebow hasn’t even remotely caught up to the Herculean hype heaped on him both entering and exiting the 2010 NFL draft -- and after the improbable playoff run. The attributes he possessed that propelled himself to a Heisman Trophy and were the driving force behind two BcS titles during his time with the Gators? That and his expansive knowledge of Meyer’s system can do nothing but greatly aid Miller as he continues a trajectory hurtling straight toward a limitless physical ceiling.