With all due respect to Steve Spurrier, the most successful run at Florida in the past couple of decades happened when both Tim Tebow and Dan Mullen were on the sidelines at The Swamp. Perhaps not surprisingly, the latter is trying to recreate a little of that title-winning magic by bringing the former back on board.
SEC Country notes that Mullen was conducting a regular question and answer session with Gators fans after National Signing Day on Wednesday and the Heisman Trophy winner’s name was brought up. As you could expect, the new Florida coach was not shy in heaping praise on his former star pupil and apparently has been trying hard to bring Tebow back into the fold in some fashion.
“I talked to Timmy, and I’d love to get Timmy back in the program in whatever role he would want to come in,” Mullen reportedly said. “He’s got a lot of things going on. I talked to him the other day, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ He’s like, ‘I’m taking batting practice.’ He was somewhere in California or Arizona. He’s got baseball going on.
“Before that, he was in Southeast Asia on a mission trip. So his plate’s full, but we’d love to get him back in whatever capacity.”
Tebow’s plate is indeed full, and that even includes wearing blue and orange as a minor leaguer for the New York Mets. He remains an analyst with the SEC Network and apparently lives in Gainesville now so it’s not like the star quarterback is ever that far from his beloved Gators nowadays. Still, that’s not the same as being on staff with the team like some in the fan base would like to see.
Perhaps one day in the future Tebow will settle down a little bit and begin some sort of coaching or ambassador-like career with the Gators. For now though, Mullen will have to be content with seeing his old quarterback around town or getting interviewed by him on TV.