Bryce Young’s name will be linked with Archie Griffin all season.
Griffin remains the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice. The Ohio State running back snapped up college football’s most prestigious individual award in 1974 and ’75.
Young will have the opportunity to turn Griffin’s exclusive club into a party for two after the Alabama quarterback ran away with the voting to claim the prize in December as a sophomore.
But here’s another name to consider when projecting Young’s junior season: Tim Tebow.
Comparing the physical attributions of the two quarterbacks shows more differences than similarities.
STAY UP-T0-DATE: Subscribe to our Sports newsletter now!
Alabama’s Bryce Young, left, and Florida’s Tim Tebow
Tebow is left-handed. Young is a righty. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Tebow bruised defenses as a battering ram throughout his Florida career. The 6-foot Young is accurate, poised and inventive. He’d rather flick a clever pitch than rumble over a linebacker.
The comparison I see is not based on playing styles, but rather how Tebow’s Heisman encore unfolded.
Like Young, Tebow won the Heisman as a sophomore. He returned to New York City as a Heisman finalist the following year. But Tebow faced an almost impossible bar to meet in 2008 after he had recorded one of the greatest seasons ever for a college quarterback as a sophomore.
Plus, Tebow didn’t need to do as much as a junior. Florida was loaded with talent, including electric runners Percy Harvin, Chris Rainey and Jeffrey Demps. Its defense went from mediocre in 2007, when Tebow won the award, to stout the following season.
Tebow finished third in Heisman voting in 2008. Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford won the award. Tebow departed New York more concerned about a better prize: the crystal ball for winning the BCS national championship.
“We still get to play…
..
