Tebow appreciates his signature season

By Helene Elliott

Dec. 31, 2007 12 AM PT

ORLANDO, FLA. — Call a blitz when Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow throws the ball and he won’t blink.

Wince as massive defensive linemen try to stop his fearless runs then watch him shrug off his wounds, which this season included a broken bone and shoulder bruise in his right (non-throwing) arm.

“If those guys are out there giving 100% for me I can take on a few guys for them,” he said of his teammates.

But tell Tebow that he can’t oblige every autograph-seeking fan and he will be miserable.

In the three weeks since Tebow became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy he hasn’t been able to go anywhere without being swarmed or having his photo taken and flashed around the Internet. He accepts the role-model part of the deal and the scrutiny that comes with it.

“It really makes you think about everything you do, that someone’s watching. That’s a good and bad thing,” said Tebow, whose 29 passing touchdowns and 22 running TDs made him the first player in NCAA Division I-A history to achieve that 20-20 double in the same season.

“Hopefully it’s a good thing, that they see things I do and are impressed with and I can influence people for the better. But it can also be a bad thing if you’re not careful about what you do.”

It’s tougher for him to accept the possibility that he might disappoint someone.

Tebow’s easygoing manner masks a competitiveness that blazes as fiercely when he’s wearing the blue and orange of the 9-3 Gators as when he’s sitting at a video-game game console with friends.

He spent untold hours in the weight room this season to fortify his 6-foot-3, 234-pound body to withstand the punishment of his running exploits. He accounted for 3,970 yards -- 838 running and 3,132 passing -- and the Gators needed every one after losing nine players from the defense that powered them to the national title last season.

An academic All-American, he’s also a generous soul who reaches out to Gainesville-area prisons and community centers. He shares the faith passed to him by his parents, who were Christian missionaries serving in the Philippines when the youngest of their five children was born 20 years ago.

Clearly, he enjoys touching lives and being touched. Except now, immersed in preparing to play Michigan on Tuesday in the Capital One Bowl, he has had to pull back.

He knows he must preserve his energy to face Michigan’s big, physical defense, and Gators officials helped him by posting a note on their website telling fans he had put down his pen for a while.

Still, each refusal cuts him. It’s not so long ago he was a star-struck boy thrilled that a Florida quarterback, Danny Wuerffel, took time to sign his cherished football.

“Now he wants to return that to every little kid that’s out there and it gets hard. Certain people come and try and take advantage of that,” said Dan Mullen, the Gators’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

“We try to guard around him, and some stuff kind of upsets him. Here’s a kid that never wants to turn a little kid away for an autograph but then has a thousand people put stuff in his face and then turn around and go sell it on EBay.”

To avoid running afoul of the NCAA, Tebow must file paperwork attesting that he didn’t profit from those sales. That’s another demand in days that are already non-stop. “It’s a shame,” Mullen said.

If Tebow has a flaw -- “We’re still looking for it too,” Mullen said -- it’s his inability to consistently say no.

“I’m getting better at it, though,” Tebow said last week. “It’s hard. I feel bad. I don’t want to be a mean guy or anything, so I always give in and keep signing forever. That’s why I’ve got mean people around me. They do it for me.”

He hasn’t let success make him cynical -- or worse, complacent.

“He hasn’t changed that I know of, and I would never even guess that it would happen to a guy like that,” said Drew Miller, the Gators’ starting center and one of Tebow’s closest friends.

Mullen called Tebow “as good a kid as people think. . . . He might even be a better kid.” In an era of steroid-fueled exploits on too many playing fields, a time when fans’ cynicism has soared higher than ticket prices, it’s difficult to believe.

Then again, so were most of his numbers this season in Coach Urban Meyer’s spread offense.

Mullen says Tebow can still improve his decision-making on the field, how he throws the ball -- he was 217 for 317 with six interceptions -- and his overall grasp of the game. Despite that, Tebow had “a pretty good year,” Mullen said, suppressing a smile.

Much more improvement and Tebow may be a repeat Heisman winner and again experience the whirlwind of banquets and appearances he has had to put on temporary hold.

“I’ll remember that opportunity and embrace it, have fun with it, but then forget about it,” he said. “It’s hard to, but I have to get ready to go play Michigan. They don’t care about the Heisman at all. If anything, it’s motivation for them.

“So it’s forget that and get ready to go play a game.”

One he can put his signature on.

Helene Elliott can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.