Part one of this series outlines the rules and guidelines governing this exercise. That can be found here.
Part two of the series covers the 2000-2005 era. That can be found here.
This article is going to focus on the 2005-2010 era.
Candidates: Tim Tebow of Florida, Cam Newton of Auburn, Vince Young of Texas.
Initially, I had considered Tebow, Newton, Young, Sam Bradford of Oklahoma and Kellen Moore of Boise State. Bradford was eliminated due to continuously losing big games (2008 Fiesta Bowl, 2009 Red River Showdown and the BCS National Championship game against Florida). Moore was a tough choice to leave out. His numbers were excellent throughout his entire career, but nothing that jumps off the page. If Moore was in the 2000-2005 bracket he would have been in consideration; His 50-3 collegiate record while at Boise State is an FBS record, however, Andy Dalton won a lot of games at TCU. He threw for over fourteen thousand yards and one hundred forty-three touchdowns in his four-year career, however, Landry Jones threw for a bunch of yards and touchdowns while at OU. Moore violated two of the rules, so he is out.
Tebow: I could talk about the National Championship’s, the multitude of awards, his stats in terms of Florida and SEC history or being the first underclassman to win the Heisman trophy. Two reasons why Tebow is on this list: The “I Promise Speech” that is engraved on a plaque outside the football facility, and the 2009 National Championship halftime speech labeled “We got 30 minutes for the rest of our lives” that propelled the Gators to a victory over the Sooners. Tebow had the stats and the lore. This is what makes him one of the greatest collegiate quarterbacks of all time.
Young: Speaking of lore and seizing the moment Young epitomized both during the 2005 National Championship game against USC. I touched on the USC dynasty during the Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart segment earlier in this series. USC was coming off back to back National Championship games and had back to back Heisman Trophy winners in Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. The sheer offensive talent assembled on the Trojans was unimaginable. 2005 was supposed to supplement USC has the greatest three year stretch in College Football history, however, another narrative was written. The 2005 National Championship game is where it all ended for USC; Young had 467 yards in total offense beating the Trojans by himself. Young also set the modern-day blueprint for dual-threat quarterbacks that we see in today’s College Football.
Newton: If Young set the blueprint for running quarterbacks in the spread; Cam Newton was the pinnacle. In his lone season at Auburn Newton set several SEC and school records. Newton was the first quarterback to lead the SEC in touchdowns, rushing yards, rushing attempts; when Newton left Auburn he set school records for rushing yards and rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (These were later broken by Nick Marshall). Did I mention Newton only played a single full season of collegiate football? In addition to breaking multiple SEC and school records, Newton won the Heisman, the Maxwell, Davey O’Brien, Walter Camp player of the year and SEC player of the year and won the National Championship.
This era boils down to Vince Young or Cam Newton. Do you want the Quarterback who beat six ranked opponents, on his way to a National Championship or the Quarterback who ended the USC dynasty?
Vince Young is the choice. Young owned the moment:Â 476 total yards in a National Championship game and ended USC reign in the process.
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