Touchdown, Tebow!
Countdown to Herschel:1
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Recognition
Mentioned in Austin Murphy's book Saturday RulesI can’t say enough about my two favorite blogs Get the Picture and Saurian Sagacity. There are not two more consistently thought-provoking and analytical college football blogs on the internet.
-Orange and Blue Hue
Rare is the SMQ shout out for the sole purpose of shouting out, but even rarer is the high substantive quality of disinterested naysaying in progress at Saurian Sagacity, where poster Mergz is steadily blowing up notions of "National Championships" new and old...
-Sunday Morning Quarterback
10 comments:
Excellent that he'll get a chance to take the record all for himself against Georgia next week.
GA fan here. I know there's a certain irony in Tebow breaking the record against UGA, but most GA fans I know couldn't care less.
Different eras, different scheduling, Herschel only played 3 years, yada, yada, yada. Don't really care.
Hats off to Tebow when he breaks it, it will be a tremendous accomplishment. But don't think you'll be pissing in UGA's cornflakes just b/c it happens against us. We have enough issues to worry about.
Did UGA fans miss the fact that Herschel was a... RUNNING BACK!!! QBs don't break rushing TD records. Yes, Tebow's will take an extra half season, but he was also the back up his freshmen year and will break it midway through the season.
What are Tebow's rushing yards per touchdown compared to Herschel's?
Tommy, don't know. Does it really matter? It seems everyone is looking for asterisks.
I think it does. Tebow's a short yardage specialist. On the surface, it's kind of like pointing out that your fullback gets a lot of first downs.
Which isn't fair to Tebow, since he's more than that. He has a lot to do with what gets the Gators in goal-line situations, which is why I ask about yards/TD.
If you want an asterisk, the biggest one is that Tebow still trails Walker by five touchdowns, because bowl stats didnt' start counting until about 10 years ago. Walker scored 5 TDs in the '81-'83 Sugar Bowls. A lesser asterisk is that, due to today's longer seasons, Tebow has already played in 48 total games, compared to Walker's 36 (including bowls).
Tebow's achievement is outstanding. But it begs some context.
Then that context should be added to every single record in college football moving forward, no?
Well, it usually is, is it not? How many times have you heard a comparison made between current players and some legend, without the usual disclaimer that back then, the earlier guys played both ways, played shorter seasons, had fewer bowl options, yada yada?
There's a difference between equivocating and being intellectually honest. Equivocating is whining about injuries, schedule strength, etc. Being intellectually honest is saying that Herschel scored five more touchdowns in a dozen fewer games, while presumably having to rush more yards to get those TDs. Who knows -- in another generation, eligibility requirements may change or we'll go to a playoff and then some kid, armed with 60+ games, will challenge Tebow's rushing TD record. At that point, I bet context will matter a little more to you.
One thing is having context in a discussion and another is trying to discredit and accomplishment. Sports evolve. In the NFL they play 16 games where they used to play 14. Soon it's going to be 18. All the record books will be re-written. That's just the way it is. If it wasn't that way then every single record would have an asterisk next to it. That idea was finally repudiated when Roger Maris' asterisk was removed. The rules (schedules, etc) are what they are. That's the current context. When Tebow's record falls, the same will be true.
And HW had ~1000 carries to Tebow's ~600. Different times, different roles. I'm not sure his yardage he "had to" rush for is a positive or a negative in the debate. I guess I'd have to see how many short yardage TD's HW had and then see what TT could do out of the I with 400 more carries. I'd also have to account for all the passing TD's Tebow "had to" endure while getting those rushing touchdowns. The end of this debate probably won't leave anyone satisfied.
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