October 2009

Seems that a bunch of journalist are taking the Tebow injury as a chance to jump on Coach Urban Meyer for having Tim Tebow in the game with a 31-7 lead in the 3rd quarter. Brian Harbach and Russ Mitchell the SEC Bloggers  over at College Football News seem to feel Urban is the “nation’s new favorite public enemy” and was trying to make up for not blown out Tennesse by having #15 in the game.

Paul W. took exeption to their ananalysis of the coaching job Coach Meyer did and challeged them to find any coach in the country that would pull their starting QB in the same spot. Here is the exchange:

Hi Brian and Russ,
 
I feel compelled to respond to your critiques of Florida regarding Tebow’s injury. First, a few of Brian’s statements (my bolding):
 
“Get him off the field Urban, we get that you didn’t score as many points against Tennessee as you wanted because of the flu, the weather, the fans not wearing enough orange in the stands, but make it up in a game that you really need Tebow, not in freaking Lexington.”

“The only reason Tebow is in the game at that point is because he is trying to run up the score and beef up Superman’s (and the team’s) stats.” 

 “Get him off the field when you’re up by more than three touchdowns late in a game.”
 
The video shows the drive that Tebow got injured on started with 8:23 left in the 3rd quarter with the score 31-7. The hit occurred on third down from about the UK 9 or 10 yard line. It appears (to my untrained eye) that the tackle blocks down with the guard on a single DT. I have to guess that leaving the DE running free was a missed assignment. And the concussion is ultimately caused when Tebow’s head hits the knee of a lineman on the on the other side of the line running his direction. With that setup, my points are:
 
You’re advocating replacing the QB with 8 ½ minutes left in the 3rd quarter as long as you have a three TD lead? I’m guessing every coach in the country would like the opposing coach to adopt that philosophy. I’m also guessing that not one coach in the country ever will. And they probably shouldn’t. For example, the drive chart shows Matt Barkley’s last pass came with less about 12 minutes left in the 4th quarter of USC’s game with Washington State with USC up 27-0. The box score shows WSU with 229 total yards, with 71 of them coming on their last possession. In other words, this game was at least as lopsided at a later point and Pete Carroll didn’t take out his starter, returning from injury, at the point you insinuate should be the norm.

Tebow had played one complete game this season. He left the Troy game with 8 ½ minutes left in the 3rd quarter (up 49-3), and left with about 8 minutes left in the 2nd quarter against Charleston Southern (he threw 15 passes and had 8 rushing attempts.) He played the whole game against UT as it appeared both teams had agreed to run out the clock. Tebow threw 19 passes against UT and ended his consecutive game-with-a-TD-pass streak. And you’re telling us that Meyer’s point at UK was to pad stats? That’s a poor strategy to pad stats. Clearly it isn’t the case. And if the point is that Meyer is trying to pad his “own” stats, then why not do it without the All Universe QB and take all the credit? I noticed Colt McCoy threw his 35th pass, on 3rd and goal from the UTEP 4 yard line, into the end zone, with around 9 minutes left in the 3rd quarter with Texas up 47-7. Based on your Stat-Time Paradigm that should make Mack Brown about one branch down on the Vader family tree, just a little below Darth.

I may be wrong about the missed blocking assignment, but if the tackle or guard blocks the end then this is just another game, the score is 34 (or 38) to 7 with 8 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter and Tebow is upright. Based on recent—factual—history as outlined above, it’s reasonable to predict that Tebow is either out at that point or goes one more series, depending on UK’s next possession.

Even with the hit, the fact is that the injury was the contact with the OL’s knee. That’s a freak accident that can’t be anticipated. Indeed, the only defense against that is to not play football.
 
I don’t want to get too personal, but your critique sounds like envy from a different team’s booster than an actual review of the situation. If you want to argue that winning has become too important in college football, or that the BCS design promotes unpleasant behavior that might lead to injury or needless humiliation, or even that Urban Meyer is smug and you just don’t like his smirk, then I could potentially get behind you. But to blame Meyer for padding stats either for his player or himself is phony and doesn’t stand up on its own.
 
The statements regarding the handling of concussions is much more relevant. The fact that these injuries aren’t understood is indeed frightening. A mandatory “sit out” time seems like a good idea, unless you consider that the aforementioned issues that permeate college sports may result in concussions being underreported. That’s possibly more dangerous than the current situation. We’ll see how Florida handles Tebow. If they play him with dubious or no clearance from actual doctors, I’ll be the first to cry foul. But at some point the most informed people in the loop will proclaim him ready to play. At that point, I don’t see any valid rationale not to do so.
 
Sincerely,
Paul