My Heisman vote: Tebow

Thankfully I put the item in my column last week about the Heisman Trophy vote, which allowed me to receive some e-mails besides all the lovely ones I received from unhappy BYU fans.

Little did I know that last week's column would be so popular in Florida.

I thought it would be fun to get a little feedback from the readers about the upcoming Heisman Trophy selection, so last week I asked for a little advice. I put out the names of five top candidates, including Missouri's Chase Daniel, Florida's Tim Tebow, Arkansas' Darren McFadden, Hawaii's Colt Brennan and West Virginia's Pat White.

During the week I received dozens and dozens of e-mails from Florida fans, exhorting me to vote for their boy, Tebow.

I even got one from a BYU student, who laid out the reasons to vote for Tebow without once mentioning his team's victory over Utah.

One person sent a compilation of all 51 of Tebow's touchdowns on video this year. One of my favorites was from a reader who in block letters put TIM TEABOW ENOUGH SAID. Enough, I guess, except for the proper spelling of his name.

Don't all those people realize I'm just one vote out of 900?

Still, I asked for it.

After taking time to study the top candidates, I decided it came down to Tebow and Missouri's Chase Daniel.

I determined I would make the decision after Missouri's Big 12 championship game against Oklahoma. If the Tigers won and Daniel played well, I was going to go with Daniel because he would have led his team to a national championship game with some gaudy numbers along the way.

Alas, Daniel had just an average game Saturday and his Tigers were beaten handily by Oklahoma for the second time this year.

So Tebow it is.

I'm going with Colt Brennan No. 2 because of his great numbers and leading his team to an undefeated season, plus I need to give a western player some love.

As for No. 3, I think I'll choose Central Florida's Kevin Smith, who I just discovered has rushed for 2,448 yards this year. He can break Barry Sanders' all-time record with one more game coming up in the Liberty Bowl.

I may have been one of the few people who actually stayed up to see the end of Hawaii's exciting 35-28 victory over Washington early Sunday morning (about 1:30 a.m. as I remember).

I may have also been one of the few to hear the comments of Hawaii coach June Jones, who afterward told a TV interviewer that "the good Lord blessed these kids because they're doing the right things."

The comments sounded similar to those of Austin Collie's the week before, about being blessed for doing the right things.

You could say Jones' weren't the same as Collie's because they were made in general rather than about a specific play, but what he said two weeks earlier was worse.