“He should have won the Heisman Trophy,” Nutt said. “What he did was unbelievable. He was better in 2008 than he was in 2007 when he won it.”
In eight of those games, the Gators spent much of the game on cruise control because they had the game in hand so early, blowout wins orchestrated from the quarterback position. In the Alabama and Oklahoma games, Tebow literally willed the Gators to victory. Watch the fourth quarter of those two games and you see how one player can impose his will not just on his own team but on the opponent.
That’s where we saw The Promise fulfilled up close and personal.
“I watched it and I was in awe,” Nutt said. “I kept thinking back to Tim standing there and making that promise and I watched him take all the responsibility on his shoulders. You watch those fourth quarters and he’s everywhere … he’s making a play on the field and then you see him sprint 40 yards to get in the face of the guys on the kickoff team. When he had to make a play, he made it, and when he wasn’t making plays he was inspiring his teammates to make plays. He lifted the entire team. I mean I’ve never seen anything like that. Nothing close to it in all the years I’ve been coaching.
“He would NOT let his team lose. Just wouldn’t.”
Nutt was so impressed with what Florida did the rest of the season and in those two championship games that he has taken the words of The Promise and distributed them to every one of his Ole Miss Rebels to serve as an example of what can happen when there is a refuse to lose attitude. He’s got it on video and the Rebels will be watching that, too.
“I want every player on my team to think about what would happen if we all were that determined … if all of us made a collective decision that we aren’t going to lose and that we’ll do anything … whatever it takes to win,” Nutt said. “I still get inspired by what Tim Tebow did that day. He made a promise for all the world to see and then he went about his business of living up to it.”
