by Tim Tebow
Still the contrasts between all the schools kept bringing me back to Alabama. I kept telling my parents how much I liked the quality of the people there, and my dad kept reminding me to look beyond the Campus Crusade girls who were with the recruits all weekend. I did my best to heed his words and advice.
A few schools helped make the decision for me. Once Georgia had a commitment from Matthew Stafford, they quit recruiting me. I understood. They were, as you would hope, very gracious and up front about it with me. On the other hand, I visited Tennessee on an unofficial visit my junior year and was excited to be there. To me, it had a number of the same qualities as Alabama, Clemson, and Florida, so I was very intrigued. However, my unofficial visit didn’t go very well for us, as Jimmy Ray Stephens (a former Florida player) was the only Tennessee coach to talk with me or my family all weekend. The other coaches were busy spending time and interacting with Jonathan Crompton, who was a high school senior at the time. It was easy to read their preference, or at least so it seemed, so I moved on.
In August of my senior year, coaches were allowed to call me after 12 midnight on a specific day. I received my first call at 12:01 from Louisville, and the calls continued from there. Recruiting was also a good time to listen and learn more football. There were some great offensive minds in the mix of colleges that recruited me. I would look forward to the calls from some of those guys, like Jimbo Fisher, then the offensive coordinator at LSU, Ralph Friedgen, the head coach of Maryland, Dabo Swinney, then the receivers coach at Clemson, and Marc Trestman, then the offensive coordinator at North Carolina State, just for the chance to learn more football.
Choosing between the many scholarship offers I was blessed to receive really boiled down to relationships. As with most areas of our life, whom we will work with and who will be our friends makes all the difference. I wanted to be in a place where I could improve my skills and win championships. The relationships I developed with certain coaches began to separate their schools from the pack. During the recruiting process, I became very close to Les Miles at Louisiana State, Mike Shula at Alabama, and Urban Meyer at Florida. These men were the main reason I chose these schools for three of my five official visits. In the end, the other two official visits I went on were to the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan. I grew up such a big college-football fan, and they are, after all, Southern Cal and Michigan.
My senior year we traveled to Baton Rouge to see LSU, ranked tenth in the nation at the time, play Florida, which was ranked eleventh. We had a lot of company, as it was the largest crowd to see an LSU game in the history of Tiger Stadium, and they’ve had some big games and big crowds through the years. What a great stadium that is, with its passion and the night games and a live Bengal tiger in a habitat—located far too close to the visitors’ locker room, something I would learn more about a few years later. Florida led that game until the very end, at which time JaMarcus Russell and Joseph Addai carried LSU to an impressive and exciting come-from-behind win. It was a great game and a great trip, but it also underscored just how difficult the recruiting process was for me.
Sometime a few hours before that LSU–Florida game in Baton Rouge I was talking with LSU’s Coach Miles, and as we were speaking in the middle of that madhouse with both teams on the field in warm-ups, I spotted Florida’s Coach Meyer looking my way from across the field. We locked eyes, and I smiled at him. His expression never changed but remained as serious as ever as he slowly shook his head and turned away.
I liked LSU, but I was having trouble moving them into my top two. In fact, as great as Coach Miles and Coach Fisher and the others there were, for a lot of reasons related to Alabama and Florida, I never could get them above third place.
My official visit to Alabama seemed just as crazy as the one to LSU—it was my fourth trip there, after three earlier unofficial visits. I was with my brother Peter and my parents, and as we came out of the tunnel onto the field before the game, we were greeted with chants of “We want Te-bow” and saw signs and banners that read:
STABLER
NAMATH
TEBOW
That was really flattering to see.
We even got to meet the legendary Hall of Fame Coach Don Shula on the sideline right after we came out of the tunnel. That was so cool, just standing there on the sidelines with Coach Shula in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I loved everything about Alabama, including the Shula family. Maybe even, especially the Shula family.
In the meantime, Coach Meyer and I had also become very close. He said he’d first heard of me when he landed in Gainesville at the University of Florida in December of 2004 as their new head coach, coming there from the University of Utah. Then, a few weeks later, he attended a coaches’ convention in Louisville, Kentucky. He claims that my coaches from Nease High School were everywhere in their green and gold shirts, helping to keep me foremost on Coach Meyer’s mind.
That following spring of 2005, my junior year in high school, he’d seen me for the first time in person during a Nease baseball game. We both remember that game, but for different reasons. It was the district championship game against St. Augustine, in which I homered in the last inning to win it (it was just football that I never could beat them in). Coach Meyer says that he remembers observing my leadership during the game and on the field, and that he’d never seen a right fielder impact his team the way I did. Whether I really did or not, I’m glad that he thought I did.
Simply put, Coach Meyer loves football and loves winning. That was a good place to start for me. In the beginning, we had a blast just sitting around and discussing the philosophy of the spread offense that Florida ran. And Coach Meyer continued to recruit me seriously, even when other coaches might have bailed. Jevan Snead was a quarterback out of Texas and was highly recruited. He committed to Florida, but Coach Meyer continued to recruit me anyway. That was fine by me—if Florida ended up being the best fit for me, I didn’t mind the competition. Apparently Jevan felt otherwise about Florida’s continuing to recruit me. We had met before at an Elite 11 quarterback camp in California. Sometime after Jevan Snead’s verbal commitment to Florida, Coach Meyer called me one day and asked if I was still truly interested in Florida. I said I was, but that I hadn’t made a decision yet. He told me that my answer was good enough for him.
I later heard, even though I didn’t hear it from Jevan, that he had called Coach Meyer and told him that he would decommit from Florida if they continued to recruit me. I guess Coach Meyer had gauged my continuing interest with that phone call, and when I told him I was still interested, I understand he told Jevan that they were still interested in me as well. At the end of the day, Jevan decided to decommit and sign with the University of Texas instead.
That kind of character and commitment was typical of Coach Meyer, but he also had a work ethic and drive that were unparalleled. It is clear to anyone who watches him recruit or is around him for any period of time that his charisma around others is attractive, sincere, and compelling. No matter what was going on, he was always engaging and enjoyable to speak with, and yet somehow he was able to balance that by being totally focused on championships. He possessed an overwhelming drive and determination to win championships—so strong that I had no doubt he would succeed.
My official visit to Florida was impressive to all my family members who attended: Mom, Dad, Robby, Peter, my sister Katie, and her husband, Gannon. Four of the six were Gator grads and Florida beat FSU that day. We ate dinner with University of Florida president, Dr. Machen, Athletic Director, Jeremy Foley, and of course, Coach Meyer and his family. Very impressive.
In addition to my relationship with Coach Meyer, I also really enjoyed my time getting to know Greg Mattison, Florida’s co-defensive coordinator at the time, who was my primary recruiter. My relationship with Coach Mullen, then Florida’s offensive coordinator, developed more after I got to Florida. Coach Mullen told Peter during one of my visits that it would be fine if I came to Florida, but he so believed i
n the offensive system he ran that he felt he could play any number of quarterbacks in the system and it would work, so to him, I was just another guy. That was one thing that Coach Mullen and I had in common: we believed in Coach Meyer’s offensive system. The difference was I thought I actually could make it even better.
On the other hand, Mike Shula never gave me the impression that I was “just a guy” to him. Rather, he was always very clear about how they viewed me and what they wanted me to do, which was to do some Michael Vick–type things on the field. He was also focused on championships at Alabama and returning them to their prior levels of success. More low-key than Coach Meyer, his faith and that of his staff was appealing. Many of the position coaches, for instance, prayed with their players. I enjoyed that—and in my experience it was unique.
It was sometimes hard during the lengthy and intense recruiting process to figure out others’ agendas; they all had them, we all do, and so much of the typical recruiting process is insincere and depends on how good a salesman the recruiter is. Those coaches, as well as some of the others I’ve mentioned, however, stood out for their honesty and integrity, and as a result, I faced a difficult decision.
I told each of the coaches who were recruiting me that I would decide by the middle of December, shortly after we finished our season, for two reasons. First, because of homeschool, I had the flexibility to start college early. Wherever I ended up, I wanted to begin in January so I could participate in spring practice. Second, I wanted to help my college recruit if I could and if it would be helpful. Through my unofficial and official visits and playing in all-star games, I had gotten to know some of the players who were looking at similar schools. If I waited until signing day, which was the first Wednesday in February, to commit, then I would lose any ability to influence who could be some of my future teammates. By deciding early, I could try to help convince others to attend with me and in the process hopefully increase our chances of winning championships in the future.
Unfortunately, the decision to attend early meant I also faced a difficult decision with respect to being able to continue playing other sports. My senior year of baseball was approaching, as well as basketball, and my dad really wanted me to keep going with baseball. Baseball had continued to be the sport at which I felt I was most naturally gifted. I was named to the All State team my junior year, and we went to the State Championship. My head baseball coach at Nease, Boo Mullins, tried to talk me into staying for that year, telling me that I was a “five tool” player and that many major league general managers were contacting him to set up private preseason workouts in January. The term “five tool” is used to identify position players (as opposed to pitchers or designated hitters) who can: (1) hit for average, (2) hit for power, (3) have excellent base-running skills and speed, (4) have good throwing ability, and (5) are good defensive players. I was flattered. My coach and my dad would tell scouts that my character made me a six-tool player. Of course, to my dad, that sixth tool was the only tool that mattered. Dad kept pushing baseball and had been making a compelling argument from when I was young: if you’re good enough to have a professional career in baseball, it’s usually longer than a football career, injuries are less frequent, and the pay is greater.
Photographic Insert
The baby of the family: My mom and my brothers and sisters with me shortly after I was born.
With my mom.
I had football on my mind from a very early age.
When I was growing up, my brothers and I were inseparable. Once we moved to the farm, we’d play just about any sport we could together.
Playing football in the yard with Uncle Dick.
Here I am with my favorite teacher, my mom.
Uncle Dick’s love and generosity provided a start for the orphanage in the Philippines that was eventually named after him.
No matter what sport I was playing, I only knew how to play one way: hard.
With our beloved family dog, Otis. Whenever we came home, he was there to greet us.
With my brothers after a church play.
When I first played football, I played at the Lakeshore Athletic Association in Jacksonville.
Life on the farm made our entire family “farmer strong.”
My sister Katie and the infamous “bridesmaids.”
When I was fifteen I went with my family on the first of many mission trips to the Philippines. It was my first time back since I was three years old.
With my dad (left) and Coach Howard (right), my high school coach at Nease.
In my sophomore year of high school I began playing quarterback for Nease High School.
My senior year of high school, rushing for a touchdown in our state championship game, which we went on to win.
With Carl Johnson, Brandon Spikes, and Percy Harvin at the U.S Army All-American Bowl following my senior year of high school.
2006, Florida versus Southern Mississippi: My first touchdown as a Florida Gator.
2006, Florida versus LSU: The first jump-pass touchdown of my career. (“Jump Pass” © 2006 Daniel Stewart)
Florida Gators, 2006 National Champions.
Working hard with my teammates.
When that smile came across Coach Meyer’s face toward the end of a game, we all knew we’d done a good job.
After being awarded the Heisman Trophy in 2007.
With Coach Meyer the night after winning the Heisman Trophy.
Hanging out with fellow SEC Heisman Trophy–winner Herschel Walker during the Heisman weekend festivities.
Throughout college I continued to take mission trips back to the Philippines. Being at Uncle Dick’s Orphanage with all of the kids is always an amazing experience.
With our dear family friend and one of my favorite people in the world, Uncle Bill.
When I’m in the Philippines, speaking in front of large groups is a terrific way to spread God’s message of hope and salvation to as many people as possible.
A promise was made . . .
. . . and now it was time to back it up.
There’s nothing like Florida versus Georgia—especially since it’s in my home town.
2008, Florida versus the team out West: This was my favorite game against them. . . .
The more it rained, the more we Gators felt like we were at . . .
. . . the Swamp.
Jump pass to seal the victory in the 2008 National Championship Game versus Oklahoma.
The only personal foul of my career— and it was worth it.
Giving thanks.
As a team, we had accomplished our goal.
Florida Gators, 2008 National Champions.
My 2009 concussion: I’ll admit he got me good, but at least I still held on to the ball.
Senior Day: Running out of the tunnel for the last time at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
2006–2009: 4 wins, 0 losses versus the team out West.
My last victory lap at the Swamp.
With my parents at my graduation from the University of Florida.
2010 Sugar Bowl: Florida 51, Cincinnati 24. We finished strong. Thank you, Gator Nation.
Draft night in Jacksonville, Florida, with my brothers and friends (from left to right: Peter, Bryan Craun, Robby, Kevin Albers, Angel Gonzalez).
My first day as a Denver Bronco. Excited to still be wearing orange and blue.
October 10, 2010, Broncos versus Jets: My first NFL touchdown.
December 19, 2010, Broncos versus Raiders: My first NFL start.
December 26, 2010, Broncos versus Texans: My first home start . . .
. . . and it was a great comeback win for our team.
2010—the Tebows and the newest addition to our family, my dog Bronco.
He was right, and I did love baseball. Turning and connecting on an inside fastball is a great feeling.
But football was my passion. More specifically, playing football as a throwing quarterback has always been my passion, and I was not going to let baseball get in the w
ay of my making a timely decision.
My relationship with my top two head coaches was good. No, great. Both men were first-class football coaches as well as men of character, integrity, and caring. At Florida, I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to beat out the senior, Chris Leak, at quarterback as a freshman and therefore didn’t know if I’d play at all during that first year. At Alabama, I might have had the chance to compete with John Parker Wilson to start that first year, but I didn’t know for sure. It didn’t really matter—I wanted to play for either one of those coaches, whether I got on the field that first season or not. And for those who think that coaches should be able to leave a particular school without repercussions but the athletes should be bound to the school, all I can offer is my own personal experience in the whole recruiting process: the identity of the coach was critical in making my decision.