by Joseph Goodman, The Miami Herald , The Miami Herald

He won a conference title in 2008 as a junior leader.

It's a fine legacy, but it is incomplete.

There is one more thing for University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow to accomplish. Make good on his promise and win the final college football game of 2009 as the winning team's starting quarterback. Tebow takes aim at Oklahoma and history on Thursday.

Whether he returns to Florida for his senior year or not, a win against the Sooners (12-1) in the BCS national championship will cement Tebow as one of the college game's all-time greats. Tebow already has one national championship ring, but a win on Thursday would trump all.

"Two years ago, my role was to come in and be a role player and support," Tebow said. "Now my job is to lead the team, and it's a lot different."

If Tebow does turn pro after Thursday -- he says he will decide soon after -- it's only fitting that the venue for his final collegiate game is Miami's Dolphin Stadium. It was there in 2005 that Tebow won his first major championship, a high school state championship.

LEGEND BEGINS

In his final high school game, Tebow led St. Augustine Nease to a 44-37 victory over Seffner Armwood. He accounted for six touchdowns.

It was on that day that one of the first pieces of Tebow folklore was spun. Nease had a comfortable lead late in the fourth quarter, and Tebow begged his coaches to use him as a defensive lineman. He sprinted onto the field, screaming, and dropped into a four-point stance as a nose guard.

Tebow hasn't changed much. He never stopped screaming. His intensity is now legendary. He's the college football version of Mel Gibson in Braveheart. The way his teammates tell the story, there is no off switch.

"Tebow needs medicine," joked UF sophomore center Maurkice Pouncey.

Just last week, in one of UF's final practices before departing for South Florida, Tebow went berserk after a routine option pitch to running back Emmanuel Moody -- a final attempt to inspire and energize his teammates before the plane ride South.

"He pitched the ball off to Moody, and we turn around and he done chased Moody down the field, running behind him screaming," UF senior offensive lineman Jason Watkins said. 'I was like, 'Look at this boy here. He's crazy.' "

EMOTIONAL LEADER

But crazy works for Florida. It was a similar Tebow rampage -- this one on national television -- that helped put away the Alabama Crimson Tide in the fourth quarter of the SEC Championship game.

UF trailed by three points to begin the quarter but took the lead on a 2-yard touchdown run by freshman running back Jeffery Demps. It was an impressive drive for Tebow, who entered that fourth quarter having never led a late-game comeback at UF.

Recognizing that the game's momentum had shifted toward the Gators, Tebow had every intention of keeping it that way when he sprinted down the sideline -- screaming, as usual -- just before the Gators' ensuing kickoff. Tebow slammed into members of the Gators' kickoff coverage unit, challenging them to match his emotional state.

At least one Oklahoma Sooner isn't impressed with Tebow's excitability. On Sunday, OU cornerback Dominique Franks said three quarterbacks in the Big 12 -- OU's Sam Bradford, Texas' Colt McCoy and Texas Tech's Graham Harrell -- are better than Tebow "just because of the way they conduct themselves" on the field.

"It's a lot harder to prepare for [Bradford, McCoy and Harrell] than it is Tebow," Franks said.

HARD TO STOP

But preparing for Tebow and stopping Tebow are different things entirely. There isn't a blueprint for it, no point of reference. The closest thing came Sept. 27, when Ole Miss defeated Florida 31-30 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, but even then Tebow accounted for 359 yards of total offense (319 yards passing), threw one touchdown and ran for two more.

While the Gators lost to Ole Miss -- spoiling the team's hopes of becoming UF's only undefeated football team in school history -- the outcome galvanized the team's resolve. Tebow delivered a postgame speech to reporters that, if Florida (12-1) wins on Thursday, will immortalize Tebow's legacy.

"A lot of good will come out of this," Tebow said after the loss to Ole Miss. "You will never see any player in the entire country who will play harder than I will play the rest of the season. And you will not see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody for the rest of the season. And you will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season."

Tebow offered his teammates a similar speech the following day before practice. Florida is 8-0 since then with an average margin of victory of 41 points.

"It said a lot to publicly announce in front of everyone that we weren't going to lose a game," UF senior receiver Louis Murphy said.

'With all the emotion that he had, it meant a lot to me to say that my quarterback could stand up as a man of character, and when our backs were against the wall and when everybody doubted us, he stood up and was like, 'We're going to make it.' "

Tebow and the Gators made it to Miami. Sixty minutes at Dolphin Stadium is all that separates Florida and its iconic quarterback from history.

To see more of The Miami Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Miami Herald Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Copyright 2009 The Miami Herald
	Terms & Conditions     Privacy Copyright © 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.