Freeman shreds Urban Meyer for quarterback rotation

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Florida is winning. That's all anyone cares about. Boosters, alumni, season ticket holders, students -- you get my point.
Personally, I'd rather have a championship than an individual award.

 

Agreed that Meyer's job isn't to produce Heismans. Do we need to go over the litany of Heisman Trophy winners who either failed to lead their college teams to even a conference championship (Paul Hornug, Gary Beban, Andre Ware, Barry Sanders, Rashaan Salam) or failed to accomplish anything in the NFL (Beban, Salam, Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke).

While I hate to praise Urban Meyer for anything (he's the control freak coach that I hate), he is doing something good for his team. When Florida gets in the red zone or in key short-yardage situations, and he brings in Tebow, the other defense is scared shitless. In the first few games, Meyer always hammered at them by running Tebow (and usually scored or got the first down). But against LSU, Tebow faked a run, pulled back and threw two TD passes. Think the defensive coordinators on the rest of Florida's schedule are going to be sleeping easy?

 

hondo,

I would just like to point out that having a Heisman winner is good for the program, though. Good for prestige (especially at places that lack it), fan interest, donations, recruiting, etc.

 

Being in a Heisman race is an energy drain and a colossal distraction. I'm not sure the payoff is worth it, ultimately, for the program with the eventual winner.

 

except, of course, Tebow himself.

 

The way Tebow played against LSU, it's just the wrong week to question the occasional use of him at quarterback. The two quarterbacks make each other better. If Tebow helps Leak run the table, he gives him a chance at the Heisman. Leak's first loss is the one that ends any realistic chance at him winning the Heisman. If Florida continues to win with Leak taking 85 percent of the snaps at quarterback, he'll remain a justified Heisman finalist.

And, for Freeman's benefit, Meyer is helping Tebow's chances of getting a future Heisman by introducing him on a national level with as much buzz as any true freshman in college football. If Tebow plays 10 snaps against Auburn and has two turnovers in a three-point loss, then this is a column that makes sense. Until then, it's a stretch, and an awkward one at that.

 

I criticized Meyer on this board last year for mis-using Leak, making him run too much when he obviously wasn't comfortable and/or proficient at doing so. And if I had a national college football column, I would have written the same thing.

But it seems to me this rotation has been a nice solution for Leak as well, because it saves him some of the heavy lifting of running. And I don't understand how Freeman can criticize the jump pass, BECAUSE IT WORKED. Isn't getting in the end zone the point of this whole exercise? ???

 

Think Vince Young cared he didn't win the Heisman when he crossed the end zone with a few ticks left against USC.

 

Went back and read this from Mike's column: Not to put too fine a point on it, but Meyer is screwing Leak out of a potential Heisman so Meyer can look like he's the smartest guy in the room.

Uh, that's idiotic.

What's Meyer supposed to do, possibly lose games so Chris Leak can come in 5th in the Heisman balloting? This is just a thought, but do you suppose Leak would rather go back to the good ol' days of Ron Zook?

 

Maybe Tebow should become the full time QB.

 

well, there goes urban meyer again, blowing poor chris leak's heisman chances.

 

This column deserves to be read again. It actually looks even stupider now.